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Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers

Chapter · January 2018

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-5520-1_17

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Comparative Study of Android-Based
M-Apps for Farmers

Sukhpreet Kaur and Kanwalvir Singh Dhindsa

Abstract M-Apps grow to be renowned feature of mobile phone. Farmers also

getting solution to their farming problems with the help of the mobile applications.
This paper highlights the mobile applications for agriculture, where architecture of
mobile phone with its current trends and the most useful M-Apps related to agri-
culture market, soil description, weather information, and government schemes
have been described in detail. In this paper, Android-based M-Apps act as foremost
applications, where Arduino used as an external hardware kit for sensors.
Comparison is based on the features provided by the developed M-Apps to the
users. The benefits and drawbacks of developed M-Apps have also been discussed.
The conclusion describes the most useful M-Apps and its further improvements.

Keywords Android E-agriculture Mobile application
Arduino



M-App Agriculture GPS ICT IoT

1 Introduction

Mobile manufacturers are enhancing configuration of mobile phones, whereas

developers are trying to solve real-life problems through the development of
M-Apps. Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. Mobile application is an
efficient approach to enhance the knowledge of farmers. Cloud computing, sensor
control, GPS, image processing, data mining, speech processing and other tech-
niques have been used to provide knowledge about farming [1, 2]. M-Apps for

S. Kaur (&)
I.K.G. Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, Punjab, India
e-mail: sukh5waheniwal@[Link]; sukhpreetkaurggscmt@[Link]
K.S. Dhindsa
Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, India
e-mail: kdhindsa@[Link]

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 173

S.S. Dash et al. (eds.), International Conference on Intelligent Computing
and Applications, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 632,
[Link]
174 S. Kaur and K.S. Dhindsa

agriculture are used for utilizing and managing agriculture resources. Farmers use
M-Apps to get information about weather forecasting, soil conservation, insecti-
cides, harvesting and market price of crops [3]. A mobile application can convey
information about farming strategies in detail. Interactive voice response system
(IVRS) has been used in India for farmers. IVRS gives automatic voice response
regarding farming problems. Various IVRSs give facility to talk with agriculture
experts. The remaining paper is structured as follows: Sect. 2 introduces the
existing work related to mobile phones and M-Apps. Section 3 highlights the
mobile phone architecture and trends related to mobile phone users. Section 4
describes M-Apps and its role in agriculture. Section 5 provides the details of
existing agriculture M-Apps in tabular form. Section 6 provides M-Apps compar-
ison from user point of view. Section 7 highlights the limitations of developed
M-Apps. Section 8 concludes the work with future scope.

2 Related Work

Various M-Apps have been developed by researchers. Dhaliwal and Joshi [4]
highlighted mobile phone as a boon for rural system, where mobile phone can help
farmers to take decision about production and marketing of their crops. Mondal
et al. [5] preferred to use information technology and biotechnology for agriculture
than traditional agriculture system. A smartphone agricultural app was developed
by Karetsos et al. [6], where a user can find information about farming and a farmer
can submit his requests by following simple procedures. According to Zhu et al.,
cloud computing technology can play a very important role in enhancement of
agriculture business, but there is a need to build data centres, enhance service
quality, integrate resources and make information security [7]. Sandhu et al.
analysed Kisan mobile advisory services of Punjab [8]. Mobile ICT is a better
technology to increase the efficiency of farming. MahaFarm is an Android-based
solution developed by Bhave et al. [9] for agriculture in which a user can get
information about crop, weather, and market price. This application provides
location-specific information. Narechania [10] proposed Arduino system for agri-
culture. Arduino system is a four-wheeled wireless robot, controlled by Android
cell phone, used for farm management. Crop details, market price of crops and
weather information are showcased by Patodkar et al. [11]. Gao and Yao [12] had
implemented a set of moveable system to check climate of agricultural area, using
Android mobile applications and IoT. The literature review on M-Apps is acces-
sibility for farmers; all conclude that M-Apps for agriculture are not providing a
user-friendly environment for agriculture. A layman should be able to understand
functioning of M-Apps.
Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers 175

3 Mobile Phone Architecture and Current Trends

Mobile architecture comprises of hardware and software, where internal and

external mobile applications are being used for task performing. The basic archi-
tecture of mobile phone is shown in Fig. 1.
Figure 1 shown describes the memory, keypad, speaker, microphone, SIM and
LCD as the common hardware devices of a mobile phone, whereas the application
processor and communication processor are used for internal functionalities. To
enhance the capabilities of mobile phone, various applications are being developed.
Figure 2 shows the growth of total wireless subscribers.
Figure 2 shows the projected growth of telephone subscribers in India. The
number has increased from 1,029.34 million (430.09 + 599.25) in October 2015 to
1035.18 million (436.26 + 598.92) at the end of November 2015, with 0.57%
monthly growth rate [13]. The use of mobile technology is increasing in rural areas
rapidly.

Keyboard Speaker Microphone Memory

Application Processor
LCD

Communication
SIM

Fig. 1 Basic architecture of mobile phone device

Fig. 2 Total wireless 800

subscribers (in millions) [13] Number of Rural
600 Mobile Subscribers
(in Millions)
400
Number of Urban
200 Mobile Subscribers
(in Millions)
0
Oct-15 Nov-15
176 S. Kaur and K.S. Dhindsa

4 M-Apps Role in Agriculture

A few M-Apps are pre-installed in mobile phone devices, whereas other M-Apps
can be installed with the help of application distribution platform. Owners of mobile
operating systems have provided their own platform such as Google Play Store by
Android, Windows Phone Store by Windows, Apple App Store by Mac and
BlackBerry App World by BlackBerry. Android is a popular OS (operating sys-
tem). The source code of Android operating system is available by way of open
source, and M-Apps for Android are also available on Google play store. Mobile
phone has been playing significant role in the enhancement of agricultural pro-
duction. Various categories of agriculture M-Apps are listed as follows:
• Agriculture Information Resource Apps: These types of M-Apps include
information about farmers, fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, crop disease
resistance rating in local and global market.
• Agriculture Calculator Apps: This kind of M-Apps are used to calculate the
state of cultivated plant, by inspecting present and past days’ information of field
locale. A user can search for farm equipments also.
• Agriculture NEWS Apps: Agriculture NEWS M-Apps include NEWS related to
market, weather, several alerts, radio news, articles, and farm business blogs.
• Weather Apps: Weather M-Apps cover weather forecasting of the whole world
and provide information about price bids of crops within 100 miles of farmer
location.
• M-Government Apps: M-Government M-Apps deliver information about vari-
eties of products, schemes, disease symptoms, protected species and protected
areas. These apps also give facility to farmers to solve their farming-related
problems by using toll-free numbers, real-time chat, email, forum, and private
messaging.

5 M-Apps Available for Agriculture

Various M-Apps have been already developed globally. Available M-Apps are
described with the help of following three categories.

5.1 Online Available M-Apps for Agriculture in India

Various M-Apps are available for agriculture in India. Table 1 shows the significant
features of the most beneficial M-Apps. These M-Apps are useful for Indian
farming and are available online.
Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers 177

Table 1 Online available M-Apps for agriculture in India

S. M-App Minimum Developers Area covered, Significant features
No. name, OS supported
version required languages
1 myRML, Android RML AgTech. 18 states of Market price, weather
version 2.3.3 India, forecasting, agriculture
2.0.2 languages: 9 advisory, agriculture
different news, government
languages schemes, unit converter
2 AgriSmart, Android Punjab Punjab, Extension, crop
version 2.1 agriculture languages: reporting, pest warning
beta Dept. English
3 Digital Android AppKiddo 15 states of Indian agricultural
Mandi, 2.2 India, commodity market
version 1.0 languages: price list
English
4 Modern Android Magzter Inc. Northern India, Magazine of latest
Kheti, 3.0 education languages: agriculture news.
version 4.0 Punjabi, Hindi
and English
5 Water Android Viable India, Pollution and activity
reporter, 4.0 industries languages: report submission
version English
1.4.2
6 Kisan Android ANN India Maharashtra, Government’s schemes
Yojna, 3.2 languages:
version 3.0 local language
7 CropInfo, Android Nirantara LRPL Global, Articles about
version 2.3 languages: horticulture crops
2.1.1 Kannada and
English
8 Kisan Android Kisan form Pvt. India, E-Books magazines
Books 3.0 Ltd languages: and booklets for
English, Hindi agriculture
and 5 local
languages of
India
9 Fertilizer Android Dr. Vishwanath India, Calculator to estimate
calculator, 2.2 Koti languages: the fertilizer
version English
1.02
10 AgriApp, Android Criyagen, India, Information related to
version 4.0 AgriApp languages: crop, chat, call and
1.3.1 communications English, Hindi, videos, place orders
Kannada
178 S. Kaur and K.S. Dhindsa

As shown in Table 1, myRML and Digital Mandi are the most useful M-Apps to
know the market price.
• myRML provides market price, weather forecasting, agriculture advisory, news,
government schemes, unit converter, and calculator for plants, whereas Digital
Mandi provides market price only.
• Fertilizer Calculator estimates the fertilizer based on nitrogen, phosphorous and
potassium, whereas AgriSmart provides information about pest warning.
• CropInfo and Kisan Books are effective apps to access e-books, magazines and
booklets, whereas Kisan Yojna gives information about government schemes
only.

5.2 Online Available M-Apps for Agriculture

in Foreign Countries

Various M-Apps are available for agriculture in foreign countries. Table 2 shows
significant features of the most constructive M-Apps. These M-Apps are available
online.
As shown in Table 2, MySoil and Fertilizer Cost Calculator both are helpful to
check the value of soil.
• MySoil is an application to provide information about soil description only,
whereas Fertilizer Cost Calculator, roughly calculates the value of nitrogen in
soil.
• FarmEmergencyContacts contain all farm emergency contacts of the UK.
Growing Organic Vegetables is a paid mobile application to get tips for growing
organic vegetables.
• AgriNews Live and Farm Progress are used to get information about agriculture
news, market commentary, reports from grain and livestock farmer.

5.3 M-Apps for Agriculture by Various Developers

Various M-Apps have been developed by researchers for farming, but these
M-Apps are not available in play stores. Table 3 describes the significant features of
the latest M-Apps.
Table 3 shown provides the details of various M-Apps developed by developers.
• Smart Agri Services is Android-based M-App for farmers. This M-App is
information-based app, where a user can get knowledge about all types of
farming.
• E-Agro M-App provides information regarding crop management.
Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers 179

Table 2 Online available M-Apps for agriculture in foreign countries

S. M-App Minimum Developers Area Significant features
No name, OS covered,
version required supported
languages
1 My Soil, Android BGS and Centre of Britain and Soil description
version 1.1 2.3 Ecology and Europe,
Hydrology languages:
English
2 GAF 2014, Android ISuL Techno logia Global, Global agribusiness
version 1.2 2.3 entertainment languages: forum for discussion
English
3 Farm Android WeFarmItAppLabs UK, Contain all UK farm
Emergency 1.5 Communications languages: emergency contacts
Contacts, English
version 1.1
4 Farm Android iNet solutions Global, Agri. News, Grain
progress, 2.3.3 group, Inc. languages: and Livestock
version 4.4 Publications market, Weather
in 14 forecasting blogs,
languages magazine
5 Agricultural Android Global Sub-Saharan Papers regarding
policy 2.2 development Africa and different policy
research, network South Asia, research, policy
version 1.2 languages: briefs, documentaries
English of project, news and
events
6 Crop and Android Wiki Kids Limited Global, Knowledge about
medicinal 4.0.3 languages: preparation of soil
plants, English and seeds, fertilizers
version 1.0 crop rotation and
harvesting, plant
breeding, medicinal
plants
7 Learn Android WAGmob Global, Snack Sized
agricultural 2.1 languages: chapters, Flashcards
engineering, English for agriculture
version 1.7 engineering
8 AgriNews Android LoadOut America, Live market
Live, version 2.1 languages: commentary, staff
3.0.1 English blogs, audio and
video
9 Fertilizer Android JWS Group LLC Australia, Estimates the value
cost 2.3.3 languages: of nitrogen in soil
calculator, English
version 1.0
10 Growing Android Brook Barn, UK, Providing tips for
organic 2.2 Graffham West languages: growing organic
vegetables, Sussex English vegetables
version 1.0
180 S. Kaur and K.S. Dhindsa

Table 3 M-Apps for agriculture by various developers

S. M-App Year Developers/paper Tool and techniques Significant features
No. name cited used
1. Smart 2014 Karetsos et al. [6] Android developer Information regarding:
Agri tools, Android horticulture, forestry,
Services version 2.2 apiculture, sericulture
2. MahaFarm 2014 Bhave et al. [9] GPRS, Wi-Fi, Weather updates,
Android, XML, market prices, news
Yahoo weather updates
API, HTTP
3. Arduino 2015 Narechania [10] Android APIs, Weather forecast,
system SQLite, Google market prices,
maps V 2.0, HTTP, agriculture news, farmer
GPRS, GPS, XML, help lines, map view of
JSON fields, farm
management, plough
mechanism, wireless
pump operation,
obstacle avoidance and
indicator
4. E-Agro 2015 Patodkar et al. MySql, GCM, Crop details, crop alerts,
[11] JSON, XML, ask questions, weather
Android OS 4.2.2 info, crop rates

• MahaFarm, Ardunio System and E-Agro provide the option of market price,
whereas Ardunio system is a combination of hardware and software systems.
Software part includes weather forecasting, market prices, agriculture news,
farmer help lines, map view of fields, farm management and plough mechanism,
whereas hardware system provides obstacle avoidance and indicator and wire-
less pump operation management.

6 Comparison of Available M-Apps for Agriculture

Farmers install M-Apps to find solutions to their problems, so comparison of

available M-Apps is based on user point of view. Table 4 describes all the facilities,
which have been given to the user by the developers. All given facilities would be
used to ask queries and to access information.
Table 4 shown compares the existing M-Apps based on facilities given to the
users.
• myRML, AgriSmart, Water Reporter, Kisan Books and GAF 14 provide facility
of uploading information using text, images and feedback options.
Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers 181

Table 4 Comparison of available M-Apps for agriculture

S. Mobile app name Upload information Significant features
No. Feed-back Text Image Audio Group chat, IVRS,
form and make call, download
video information, place
orders, GPS, FAQs,
email
1 myRML Yes Yes Yes – Group chat and GPS
2 AgriSmart Yes Yes Yes – –
3 Digital Mandi – – – – –
4 Modern Kheti – – – – Download
information
5 Water Reporter Yes Yes Yes – GPS
6 Kisan Yojna – – – – –
7 CropInfo – – – – Downloading
8 Kisan Books Yes Yes Yes – Make call, place
orders
9 Fertilizer calculator – Yes – – –
10 AgriApp Yes Yes Yes Yes Group Chat, IVRS,
make call, download
information, place
orders
11 MySoil – – – – GPS
12 GAF 14 Yes Yes Yes – Group chat, GPS
13 FarmEmergencyContacts – – – – Make call
14 Farm Progress – – – – Download
information
15 Agricultural policy – – – – –
research
16 Crop and medicinal – – – – Download
plants information
17. Learn agricultural Yes – – – Download
engineering information
18 AgriNews Live – – – – –
19 Fertilizer cost calculator – Yes – – –
20 Grow your own organic Yes – – – –
vegetables
21 Smart Agri Services – – – – FAQs
22 MahaFarm – – – – GPS
23 Ardunio System – Yes – – GPS
24 E-Agro Yes Yes Yes Yes Email, make call,
IVRS
182 S. Kaur and K.S. Dhindsa

• AgriApp is the only App, which covers maximum features, whereas Agricultural
Policy Research, Digital Mandi and AgriNews Live are based on static infor-
mation. Neither a user can upload his query nor he can download information.
• In Fertilizer Calculator and Fertilizer Cost Calculator, user can upload infor-
mation using text, whereas in Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables, user can
upload information using feedback option only.
• The feature of downloading information is available through Modern Kheti,
CropInfo, AgriApp, Farm Progress, and Crop Medicinal Plants, whereas the
feature of GPS is provided by myRML, Water Reporter, MySoil, GAF 14,
MahaFarm and Ardunio System.
• The facility of IVRS is part of AgriApp only, whereas option of making call is
provided by M-Apps as in Kisan Books, AgriApp and FarmEmergencyContacts.
• myRML, AgriApp and GAF 14 include group chat option, whereas Smart Agri
Services provide facility of FAQs only.
• E-Agro is the only M-App, which provides option of uploading queries through
email.

7 Limitations in Available M-Apps

Existing M-Apps have their own attributes. Each app is useful for farmers, but there
exist some limitations.
Two-way communication is not provided by the developers. The majority of
M-Apps provide static information, where user cannot get knowledge about current
affairs. There is no option for feedback provided by Agricultural Policy Research,
Digital Mandi and AgriNews Live M-Apps. Consequently, there is a gap between
user, M-App and provider. AgriApp and E-Agro are the only M-Apps, where user
can upload audio and video regarding their agriculture difficulties. IVRS is not
followed by all the developers even there is no M-App, which support toll-free
numbers. Thus, farmers cannot give a call because of high charges. Advance
techniques of IoT have not been used till now. Arduino-based M-Apps have used a
few sensors, which can do wireless pump operations only. Language dependency is
also the major drawback because all farmers are not good in English language. So,
there is a need of multilingual support in M-Apps. As of today, none of the M-Apps
provides facility to farmers to buy agriculture products or sell their produce in the
market online. There is a need of user-friendly environment.

8 Conclusion

Various types of agriculture M-Apps such as Information Resources Apps, Weather

Apps, NEWS Apps, E-Govt. Apps have been described in detail. Mobile archi-
tecture and trends provide detailed information about rapid growth of mobile
phones over the year. Currently, the best M-Apps in India are myRML (agricultural
 Comparative Study of Android-Based M-Apps for Farmers 183

market), Kisan Yojna (government schemes), Modern Kheti (literature) and

AgriSmart (crop information). Farm Progress, Agricultural Policy Research,
Growing Organic Vegetables and MySoil are found to be the best M-Apps in
foreign countries for agricultural marketing, government schemes, literature and
soil information simultaneously. Arduino system is found to be the best M-App by
developers in which mobile phone is attached with combination of sensors.
AgriApp is the best app in user’s point of view, where user can upload his queries
with the help of text, image, audio and video. IVRS (paid service) is supported by
E-Agro and AgriApp. Language dependency, static information, minimum use of
IoT and no online marketing are the major drawbacks of M-Apps. M-Apps with IoT
have been found to be the best source for the modernization of agriculture.

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