AgriPoint A Mobile Platform for Agriculture Community

Abstract

Pakistan’s rich and vast natural resource base covers various ecological and climatic zones, enabling the country to produce all types of food commodities. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2014-15), agriculture sector makes a significant contribution of 20.9% to the country’s GDP and is a source of livelihood for 43.5% of the total employment force. Although, agriculture sector has traditionally sustained a satisfactory growth to ensure food security for our growing population, however, agriculture practices and performance has remained subdued over the years. This can be contributed to the slow rate of technological innovation, limited adoption of progressive farming techniques, quality, quantity and timeliness of input supply, trade restrictions and crop and livestock diseases. Due to the prevalence of the above factors, there has not been much improvement in the average annual growth rate of our agriculture sector. The introduction of ICT, however, can play an imperative role in this sector by familiarizing our agri-community with the modern available tools and techniques of farming and enabling them to take informed decisions based on their surroundings. Owing to the growing smartphone market, a few Pakistani agriculture mobile apps were developed in the past providing agriculture news or weather forecast, but that too in English. AgriPoint aims to overcome these shortcomings by connecting the stakeholders of our agriculture ecosystem via a rich icon based, context-aware mobile app developed in Urdu. It will serve as a consolidated source of information regarding weather forecast, mandi rates, location based buying and selling of agri-commodities, customized agri-news and expert advisory. This will bridge the communication gap amongst the agri-stakeholders by enabling them to contact one another directly and will help them ensure a transparent marketplace for themselves. This will also introduce farmers to best agriculture practices and techniques to facilitate them in increasing their annual yields. By making them more aware of their surroundings, farmers will be able to take informed decisions. Thus, AgriPoint is a comprehensive location based agri social network that connects the agri-community.