Evaluating the Expediency of Smartphone Applications for Indian Farmers and Other Stakeholders

Abstract

Smartphone application usage has increased exponentially over the past decade. The potentiality of smartphone applications as a tool for various decision-making processes is not fully explored, especially in the field of agriculture. This work systematically evaluates smartphone applications developed by research institutes and non-profit organizations and made available to Indian agriculture stakeholders, who have the world’s largest user base. The study analyzed 25 smartphone applications developed for the agriculture and allied sectors available to the Indian farming community. The usability, accessibility, frequency of updates, user ratings, and number of downloads of smartphone applications are systematically evaluated. Furthermore, this article assesses the divergence between existing smartphone applications and the needs of agricultural stakeholders. This research necessitates the importance of systematic evaluation of digital applications available to the end-users and offers guidelines to application developers, researchers, and policymakers on the potential shortcomings of prevailing smartphone applications and warrants features for future smartphone applications.

Analytical applications of smartphones for agricultural soil analysis

“…Nowadays, smartphones are increasingly considered as a portable and easy-used detection device, which could be applied for diagnostic, prognostic, quantification, or monitoring [ 7 ]. They are actively being used in many research fields including: Medicine as diagnostic tools at the point-of-care testing as well as noninvasive monitoring of disease conditions [ 8 ], Environment as devices for contamination monitoring and quality control of water [ 9 ], soil [ 10 ], or air [ 11 ], Food as a tool for products quality assessment [ 12 , 13 ], Cultural heritage for in situ diagnosis of cultural heritage surfaces and objects [ 14 ], Agriculture for fast soil quality management, crop disease diagnosis [ 15 ], agri-food safety analysis [ 16 ]. …”

“…Agriculture for fast soil quality management, crop disease diagnosis [ 15 ], agri-food safety analysis [ 16 ].…”

A Comprehensive Review of Scab Disease Detection on Rosaceae Family Fruits via UAV Imagery

“…The recent efforts of regulatory authorities and local governments serve a pioneering role in composing management regulations for UAVs [85]. Smartphone applications allow paperless work, and communication between farmers, officials, and researchers, and provide the solution to farming issues [86]. This study presents an analysis of the apps developed by Indian governmental institutes.…”

A Systems-thinking Approach to Assess the Efficacy of Local Fisheries Management towards Sustainability

“…The inclusion of proper sociological inquiry in the shery management process is crucial as it ensures that all social impacts are considered, which might have jeopardised the sustainability of a sheries system. In addition, the new technologies that may seem to t the requirements of the shery resource and offer new opportunities may be unsuitable because they require forms of organisation of the workforce such as sole proprietorship or partnerships that is incompatible with the work traditions and social norms (Jocelyn, Geetha, and Soman 2016; Sivakumar et al 2022;Townsley 1998). Sociological analysis is crucial to the shery system as it promotes the management of the shery resource compared to utilising institutional mechanisms which may seem relevant to the resource management but actually more concerned with other aspects of social and cultural life of the community (Jyotishi et al 2020; Subramanian and M 2022; Townsley 1998).…”