Development of smart Indonesian horticultural farmers learning prototype application “b-horti”

Abstract

Horticulture is one of Indonesia’s leading agricultural sub-sectors that can be developed by the community in all situations, including narrow land. However, the horticultural sector still needs to be discovered in its incredible potential due to constraints on competency development channels. This study aims to increase the empowerment and competence of farmers by optimizing the development of technology and network information systems related to the cultivation of horticultural crops at the farmer level—research and development methods used for this study which divided into several stages. Data collection was carried out in the first stage to analyze the needs of horticultural farmers so that the application design could meet the needs of farmers. Design planning implemented in the second stage produces use case diagrams, activity diagrams, and user interface designs that describe the interface, operation flow, and application usage. The B-Horti application is designed with excellent features, including EduTan, Jejaring B-Horti, PasarHorti, etc. Evaluation of the application prototype design is carried out at the last stage to find out and review the compatibility of the application prototype with user needs and multimedia characteristics from the analysis results. The prototype was evaluated by multimedia experts, agriculture academics, and horticultural farmers around the researcher with seven question indicators. The results of the prototype design evaluation show the urgency of developing further stages of this application with consideration of the needs and valuable life of the application.