Design and Evaluation of a Crowdsourcing Precision Agriculture Mobile Application for Lambsquarters, Mission LQ

Abstract

Precision agriculture is highly dependent on the collection of high quality ground truth data to validate the algorithms used in prescription maps. However, the process of collecting ground truth data is labor-intensive and costly. One solution to increasing the collection of ground truth data is by recruiting citizen scientists through a crowdsourcing platform. In this study, a crowdsourcing platform application was built using a human-centered design process. The primary goals were to gauge users’ perceptions of the platform, evaluate how well the system satisfies their needs, and observe whether the classification rate of lambsquarters by the users would match that of an expert. Previous work demonstrated a need for ground truth data on lambsquarters in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area. Previous social interviews revealed users who would want a citizen science platform to expand their skills and give them access to educational resources. Using a human-centered design protocol, design iterations of a mobile application were created in Kinvey Studio. The application, Mission LQ, taught people how to classify certain characteristics of lambsquarters in the DMV and allowed them to submit ground truth data. The final design of Mission LQ received a median system usability scale (SUS) score of 80.13, which indicates a good design. The classification rate of lambsquarters was 72%, which is comparable to expert classification. This demonstrates that a crowdsourcing mobile application can be used to collect high quality ground truth data for use in precision agriculture.

The role of citizen science mobile apps in facilitating a contemporary digital agora

“…Primary and secondary economy (n = 14). Is such a domain focusing mainly on different aspects of agricultural, such as food security (Hampf et al 2021), as well as understanding how to use new technologies to further sustainable agriculture (Laso Bayas et al 2020;Posadas et al 2021;Thompson et al 2019). Other subdomains of economy are fishery management (Jeffers et al 2019;Silva et al 2022) and resource management (Bernedo Del Carpio et al 2021;Maynard et al 2020;Ogbe and Lujala, 2021).…”

AgFAB - A Farmer-centered Agricultural Bower

“…Although, one of the underserved research domains of HCI is agriculture [10]; however, a few researchers have investigated the importance of the role of HCI in the development of digital agriculture systems. Parker and Sinclair in [11] have reported that the adoption of a technology-centered approach is the main reason for the failure of the delivered device/tool/software that is not according to the needs of the farmers.…”

“…Mission LQ [10] A crowdsourcing Precision Agriculture platform (Android, iOS, Desktop versions) developed to teach people how to classify certain characteristics of Lambsquarters Agro App Mali [25] Android-based mobile application for farmers to get information about farming activities (Seed, pesticide, fertilizer availability) social-media mobile applications for realizing routine farming practices.…”

Potential Benefits of Crowd-Collaborative Farming in Sustaining Small Scale Dairy Farming Business Performance

“…In a study by Nozari et al (2021), the Internet of Everything technology was used as a crowdsourcing mechanism to promote company brand awareness and ensure sustainability and sustainable development. A mobile application was designed by Posadas et al (2021) to collect data for precision agriculture through the crowd, as a way of minimizing business costs while attaining an optimal solution. David (2020) highlights affordability as a determinant of farmer participation in crowdsourcing technologies like WhatsApp.…”