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Article

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

by
Soundharya Sivakumar
†,
Gowryparvathy Bijoshkumar
†,
Athulya Rajasekharan
†,
Vaishnavi Panicker
†,
Sivaraj Paramasivam
,
V. S. Manivasagam
* and
Sudheesh Manalil
Amrita School of Agricultural Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, J. P. Nagar, Arasampalayam, Coimbatore 642109, India
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
AgriEngineering 2022, 4(3), 656-673; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering4030042
Submission received: 2 June 2022 / Revised: 19 July 2022 / Accepted: 20 July 2022 / Published: 22 July 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agrometeorology Tools and Applications for Precision Farming)
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Versions Notes

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.

1. Introduction

In this information-intensive digital era, smartphone applications offer sophisticated task-specific services to users. Global smartphone users are expected to reach a total of 4300 million, and the number of Indian smartphone users will rise to 875 million by 2023, contributing 20.35% to the total smartphone users worldwide. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of Indian users (22.66%) is higher than that of global users (14.12%) [1]. India has the world’s second-largest smartphone market [2]. In the near future, accessibility to smartphone technologies is projected to be much higher than clean water and a healthy environment [3].
In comparison to other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools, smartphones are affordable, easy to adopt, and offer high-configuration technological support [4]. ICT-based agriculture-related digital services focus on farmers’ accessibility to crop management services (e.g., nutrient management, [5,6]), crop protection measures [7], financial services, weather updates [8], and market prices [9]. Since the majority of farmers have access to smartphones, the applications can guide them to improve their decision-making in farm operations [10]. For instance, smartphone applications assist farmers to connect and stay updated with market prices, market trends, traders, suppliers, as well as extension officials [11]. Further, grower-specific and location-specific information services improve productivity and avoid losses due to improper planning [12]. Thus, dynamic information such as weather details, market prices, advisory services, and two-way communication of information encourages many farmers to use smartphone applications.
Gradually, agriculture stakeholders are using smartphone applications as one of their decision-making tools for farm activities [13]. Smartphone applications offer better affordability and user capabilities as compared to other ICT tools [14]. However, certain impediments limit the adoption of smartphone applications in agriculture and allied sectors [15]. The major bottlenecks include a lack of formal education or awareness of farmers to utilize the technology, a lack of network connectivity in remote areas, a knowledge gap as some farmers still use indigenous methods in their fields, and the unavailability of applications in the regional languages [16].
Previous studies attempted to assess the role of smartphone applications in improving farmers’ livelihoods, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries [9,17,18]. These studies mainly evaluated farmers’ intentions to adopt smartphone applications in farm-related operations [4,11,16,19,20] and observed that farmers’ age, education, and the size of the farm holding are the key determinants of smartphone application adoption. On the other hand, research studies on smartphone applications in India are very scarce, and some of the available studies mainly focus on application accessibility and their impact on knowledge dissemination [21,22].
For the benefit of farmers and other stakeholders, the Indian government has launched various smartphone applications free of cost to disseminate agriculture-related information [23]. For instance, the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) developed the IFFCO KISAN application, which is effectively used by over one million farmers across the country. The main features of these applications are the delivery of agricultural-related information to farmers and other stakeholders, such as best agriculture practices, advisories, weather forecasts, and market prices, as well as the ability to exchange information among stakeholders [24]. It is quite evident that smartphone applications offer many services to farmers, such as a package of practices, pest and disease control measures, governmental schemes, and connecting farmers with subject matter experts and consumers [16]. Considering the size of the Indian user community and the diversity of the agrarian population, developing more agriculture-related smartphone applications seems to be advantageous. The government must invest more funds and manpower to develop quality applications on par with the industry to attract more stakeholders to use the application services [25]. Prior to that, it is critical to assess the divergence of stakeholder expectations with the existing applications.
With a limited number of extension personnel, disseminating timely information to the farming community in a developing country such as India is both costly and occasionally unsuccessful [26]. In general, audio and dial-out conferences, local cable TV, All India Radio, print media, voice and text SMS, WhatsApp, field-based programs, and training are all ways for stakeholders to obtain agricultural information. In the digital era, smartphone applications are the potential communication tools for disseminating agricultural information in a timely and cost-effective manner [27]. Smartphone application initiatives are intended to deliver the necessary information to farmers to enhance their farm productivity and socioeconomic conditions. However, the real-time or on-field usage of a smartphone application for agricultural operations by the user community is very low, which necessitates a critical examination of existing smartphone applications. There are not any systematic or comprehensive studies on smartphone application usage and its benefits to end-users.
The major focus of this study is to evaluate the smartphone applications developed by research institutes and non-profit organizations in a systematic manner. Furthermore, this paper examines the salient features, limitations, and stakeholders’ perspectives on prevailing applications. This work will offer a guideline for the government to work on the features of the upcoming smartphone application to meet the expectations of agriculture stakeholders. Finally, cutting-edge agriculture technologies that need to be embedded in future smartphone applications are discussed. In the near future, this work will have immense practical guidelines in the fields of agricultural knowledge dissemination and extension activities. Overall, the study findings will be useful to policymakers, government and non-government development organizations, software professionals, and other stakeholders working to advance agricultural development through smartphone applications.

2. Method of Evaluating Smartphone Applications

In this study, smartphone applications that are developed by Indian government institutes and non-profit organizations and are available free of cost to Indian agriculture stakeholders are examined. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) (Link: https://icar.org.in/mobile-applications, accessed on 8 July 2021), the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the State Agriculture Universities (SAUs), State Department of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare are some of the notable government institutes working on developing agriculture-related smartphone applications. This paper accounts for the latest smartphone applications developed from 2015 to 2020. These applications are available for download in the Google Play store or can be downloaded from https://mkisan.gov.in/ (accessed on 8 July 2021), an official website of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. This study employed certain criteria to select the applications for evaluation. Smartphone applications developed by research institutions and non-profit organizations are chosen for evaluation. This work excluded applications that are not completely open access, i.e., the users do not have full access to all key features of the applications. Applications developed by industry or private organizations are not included. Furthermore, paid applications and web-based applications that cannot be installed on smartphones are excluded. Applications relevant to agriculture for the benefit of farmers, researchers, extension officials, and government officials are examined. Thus, the applications are grouped into the following three major categories: farmers, extension officials, and other stakeholders (researchers and government officials). Figure 1 illustrates the overall systematic framework adopted in this study. All reviewed applications are listed in Table 1. Some of the versatile applications were used by multiple stakeholders, as mentioned in Table 1.

Evaluation Criteria

All selected smartphone applications (Table 1) were evaluated on a scale of 5 ratings. The criteria considered for evaluation were the number of downloads, accessibility, user-friendliness and periodical updates, and user rating. The applications were examined in both quantitative (user rating and number of downloads) and qualitative (accessibility, user-friendliness, and periodical updates) manners. The user ratings and number of downloads were collected from the application play store and their respective application links were given in Table 1. India has a multi-lingual population and diversified cropping practices. This accessibility of smartphone applications to multi-lingual availability is being evaluated. The thresholds adopted for the number of downloads and accessibility for each smartphone application are listed in Table 2. User feedback (i.e., review comments in the play store) was also examined to account for users’ personal experience in the form of a user-friendliness assessment. Furthermore, this paper accounted for our personal experience by weighing the following criteria: (i) number of languages available in the application, (ii) ease of usage, (iii) registration without any hassle, and (iv) quick response. Finally, this work examined the periodic updates of smartphone applications.

3. Applications for Farmers

The existing farmers’ applications cover various agriculture-related sectors, including horticulture, livestock management, farm management, irrigation monitoring, soil health monitoring, and agricultural marketing. Table 1 summarizes the applications that have been assessed in this study.
  • Common features of smartphone applications available to farmers
    ❖
    Weather forecast: The Meghdoot application provides information to farmers on weather and cloud formation detected by satellite sensors that will help in planning their farming practices;
    ❖
    Crop pest and disease diagnosis: The recommendations to mitigate and prevent major pest and disease infestations and nutritional deficiencies through the uploading of the specific crop’s image. As shown in Figure 2, riceXpert and Crop Doctor applications deliver solutions to the farmers’ problems through expert knowledge reviewed by entomologists and pathologists along with preloaded photographs and recommendations.
Agriengineering 04 00042 g002 550
Figure 2. Well-known farmer smartphone applications (A) riceXpert and (B) Crop Doctor. The Crop Doctor application is available in both Hindi and English. It assists Indian farmers in crop protection by providing information on pests, diseases, and nutritional deficiencies. (Figures are taken from their respective application play store page. The access link is given in Table 3).
Figure 2. Well-known farmer smartphone applications (A) riceXpert and (B) Crop Doctor. The Crop Doctor application is available in both Hindi and English. It assists Indian farmers in crop protection by providing information on pests, diseases, and nutritional deficiencies. (Figures are taken from their respective application play store page. The access link is given in Table 3).
Agriengineering 04 00042 g002
Table
Table 3. Evaluation of Applications used by the farming community.
Table 3. Evaluation of Applications used by the farming community.
Name of the ApplicationNumber of DownloadsAccessibilityUser-FriendlinessPeriodical UpdatesUser Ratings *
Crop Doctor******************
Crop Insurance****************
FARMS***************
Meghdoot******************
Farm Calculators********************
Solapur Anar****************
Pashu Poshan**************
riceXpert*****************
Arka Bagwani***********
Havaamaana Krishi**************
IFFCO Kisan Agriculture******************
* Data sourced from the Google Play store.
❖
Success stories and the latest innovations: Crop Doctor and Arka Bagwani applications display modern agricultural technology applications along with farmers’ success stories;
❖
Interaction facility with fellow farmers and agricultural professionals: riceXpert and Crop Doctor applications contain a section for users to share their queries and receive help from experts through text messages or call features. Slot booking options are available for face-to-face meetings, and field-level demonstrations are available as well;
❖
Online hiring, buying, and selling platform: For instance, the FARMS application provides a platform for the hiring of labor, machinery, purchase of inputs, and selling of produce and planting material. However, the FARMS application warrants further clarity and improvement in buying products and rental procedures, as well as payment transactions without any hassle.
  • Common restraints of farmer-accessible smartphone applications
    ❖
    Regional language: The majority of existing applications are only available in English and Hindi. The presence of agricultural knowledge and information in all the regional languages is essential for a country such as India. For example, riceXpert is a highly featured application that contains valuable information on pest and disease identification, nutrient and weed management, and expert advice. However, riceXpert has a lower number of downloads, probably due to the non-availability of applications in various Indian regional languages (Table 1). India is a multi-lingual country that has 23 official languages. Since the majority of farmers are not formally educated or only well-versed in their native language, it may be appropriate to widen the language base by including regional languages to enhance the utility of smartphone applications;
    ❖
    Inclusion of minor crops: Crop Doctor is designed to guide farmers through the package of practices to be followed during crop cultivation. However, the lists of crops given in the application are focused on commonly cultivated crops such as rice, wheat, maize, etc. The future application may include minor crops such as millet and pulses.;
    ❖
    Poor graphical user interface: The prevailing applications are mostly composed of text, with less pictorial representation. For example, Pashu Poshan is not well received by the farming community may be attributed to a lack of illustrative explanation. Pictorial representations play a key role in understanding pest and disease identification and nutrient deficiency diagnosis information. Further, the dissemination of information can be segmented into multiple sections, which could provide stakeholders with seamless use of the application;
    ❖
    Lacks regular updates: For applications such as Solapur Anar, a major focus is given to a package of practices, identification of pest and disease infestations, and other additional information related to pomegranate production. This type of application is well suited for referring to the standard recommendations and practices to follow in our daily farm operations, which mostly do not demand further updates. However, a few applications require regular and continuous updates to monitor the changes on a daily basis, such as market prices in riceXpert and daily weather information in Havaamaana Krishi;
    ❖
    Slow functionality: While accessing a few applications, the time taken to visualize the content is quite delayed, and there is some occasional failure to connect to the server as well. We observed slow functionality while using Pashu Poshan and Crop Insurance applications. Periodic monitoring is essential to keep the application fully functional.

4. Applications for Extension Officers

Agriculture extension plays a vital role in transferring technology from researchers to the farming community. Adoption of the latest technological information is crucial for the timely dissemination of information through ICT tools for an effective decision-making process. With the increase in the number of smartphone users around the globe, smartphone applications can revolutionize extension activities by delivering up-to-date technical knowledge to farmers. Table 4 lists the applications used by the extension officials.
Common features of smartphone applications available to extension officials
  • ❖ Expert Advice: Farmers can make their queries either through voice or text messages, and the experts or extension officials will give their suggestions. For example, the KVK Mobile App helps farmers to know about the package of practices for crops, fisheries, horticulture, and livestock and has the option of farm-related queries from experts;
  • ❖ Farm management and development: Extension officials can help farmers with farm-level issues and provide timely guidance. The Agriculture: Farm Extension Manager application keeps a record of extension professionals’ contacts working in the nearby locations that serve as a key database for the farming community;
  • ❖ Technology transfer: Farmers use the Krishi Kisan application to find out about demonstrations in their neighborhoods. Extension-focused applications give users advance notice of KVK programs and field demonstrations hosted by various government agencies;
  • ❖ Market information: The applications provide access to agro-commodity prices from various government portals, allowing farmers and other stakeholders, such as extension officials, to have a wealth of market information. For instance, IFFCO Kisan Agriculture provides farmers with instant access to the market price for their produce, market status, and prevailing trade prices along with quantities;
  • ❖ Education: Applications connect the farmers with subject experts and other progressive farmers across the country to learn new farming techniques. Krishi Vigyan, KVK Mobile App, Krishi Kisan, and Mobile Farm Solutions (Q&A) are a few applications that assist in disseminating agriculture-related information to the farmers and connecting them with KVKs and educational institutions.
Common restraints on smartphone applications accessible to extension officials
  • ❖ Popularity: The applications with good features and ratings are not very popular among the farming community. Despite positive feedback and significant application features (Figure 3A), the Agriculture: Farm Extension Manager application has roughly 50,000 downloads due to its lack of popularity (Figure 3B). Thus, popularizing smartphone applications through advertisements will assist them in reaching the targeted stakeholders’ community;
  • ❖ Accessibility: The application developers should consider network connectivity in rural areas. Most of the above-listed applications demand high-speed network connectivity for better accessibility. However, this is a major constraint in rural areas, which leads to limited usage. Krishi Kisan demands high network connectivity for its installation and updates;
  • ❖ Language barrier: Most applications are developed in regional languages, limiting their wide adoption and popularity. For instance, Krishi Vigyan is only available in the Telugu language, and Pusa mKrishi is available only in English and Hindi, which is reflected in fewer downloads (Table 4).
Mobile Farm Solutions (Q&A) is another example of a potential smartphone application lacking in popularity and accessibility (Table 4). These applications have the potential to facilitate extension officials’ ability to address the farmers’ queries efficiently. The major constraints of extension applications are their accessibility to end-users. Poor network connectivity in rural areas is another limiting factor. Further, a minimum number of applications were developed for extension officials, and the prevailing applications did not attain sufficient popularity either. Extension-focused smartphone applications will serve as efficient dissemination tools and a great alternate system to resolve the shortage of human resources.

5. Applications for Other Stakeholders

5.1. Government Officials (Excluding Extension Officials)

As of now, the majority of government officials are dependent on their respective department websites for various kinds of schemes and project activities. The majority of government department websites only provide a broad overview of current projects. As a result, officials anticipate user-friendly smartphone applications rather than outdated websites for obtaining dynamic updates on agricultural project information. As listed in Table 5, very few applications were useful for government agriculture officials. As part of the study, we also collected suggestions and feedback from government officials.
Smartphone applications have to be developed for each department and for major projects as well. Furthermore, a master application can connect all the departmental applications. With the help of these applications, paperless work could be achieved in the future. One application containing all the governmental scheme details is better than individual websites or applications. The existing applications should be more specific about the government schemes in each block and district level. Further, the application should be able to connect the officials at various hierarchy levels within an organization to effectively disseminate the project/scheme updates.
A government official’s smartphone application is expected to include the following functionalities:
  • ❖ The application should facilitate the implementation of projects at various levels. For instance, the vaccination schedule for livestock can be easily monitored through the smartphone application. The vaccination schedule can be spatially marked on a block/district/state map so the officials can plan the vaccination schedule;
  • ❖ Post regular updates of new rules and regulations to the respective department’s website;
  • ❖ A detailed explanation in the form of videos from an expert for a new scheme or new project. This will significantly reduce the training time;
  • ❖ The application should give a complete package of knowledge of the respective fields. For example, the number of livestock and other relevant statistical data, along with financial and contingency plans, should be updated.
The list of ongoing projects at various administrative levels (block/district/state) along with success stories of completed projects can be maintained as a reference application for the officials. A regular update on the current department officials’ profiles and their contact details can be included. Furthermore, posting special events of the department, such as conferences or farmers’ interaction meetings, can also be notified to the officials. The inclusion of a help desk to contact inter-department officials can improve the overall communication process. An additional component of adding geospatial information may help the government officials to mark farmers’ field locations during the field visit.

5.2. Researchers

We observed that there are no exclusive open-access applications for the agricultural research community in India. In Table 6, we listed two sample applications that were developed for farmers and extension officials that can be useful to researchers.
For instance, the PANNAI App was developed for the farming community. Conversely, researchers can utilize the same application for spatial pest and disease mapping. Similarly, a yield survey can be planned for research trials using a crop survey application.

5.3. A Smartphone Application for the Research Community is Expected to have the Following Features

A simple graphical user interface may assist the researchers in carrying out their survey and other data-capturing activities in a short span of time. In the case of complex field trials, specific applications are necessary to gather a wide range of data along with the querying and dynamic update features. Smartphone applications addressing specific research applications such as weed or disease identification using Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and high-resolution sensor embedded systems can provide continuous crop monitoring activities, which is helpful for taking precautionary measures. The application should also provide the latest relevant updates to the researchers.

6. Discussion

It is quite evident that smartphone applications enabled paperless work among extension officials, agriculture officers, and researchers during their field surveys and other project-related activities such as on-farm input management, plant protection measures, and financial monitoring during crop production. Thus, the positive response toward smartphone applications is increasing among farmers and other stakeholders. However, as shown in Figure 4A, the user community’s preference for smartphone applications in the agriculture sector is quite low compared to other sectors such as entertainment, finance, and health. To overcome this challenge, Figure 4B depicts the salient features that can enhance the quality of smartphone applications as suggested by the agriculture stakeholders.
Forthcoming farmers’ applications should give importance to multi-lingual content. For instance, out of the twenty-five applications, only nine applications (36%) are available in multiple languages. Similarly, future applications should have a simple graphical user interface that is conveniently operable for all types of agriculture stakeholders, from farmers to researchers. It should be noted that most of the existing applications have certain technical errors. Government agencies should monitor their applications and release periodic updates to address the reported bugs. On the other hand, delivering technical information at the right time will increase the adoption rate of applications for farm activities among stakeholders.
Education of stakeholders, familiarity with the use of ICT-related devices, and knowledge of promising smartphone applications are vital for promoting smartphone application adoption at the grassroots level. The lack of popularity is also another major constraint on governmental applications. The government should encourage more promotional activities to compete with private smartphone applications. Hence, ICT education through training programs and ICT tool awareness campaigns are vital in developing ICT-based dissemination models [28,29].
On a positive note, smartphone applications enable wider participation in the field of citizen science, where the end-users may not have any previous knowledge of the relevant subjects but are willing to contribute to the respective fields [30]. Conversely, inadequate access to digital technology owing to the digital divide warrants further attention [31]. The inequality between the different socioeconomic layers in India demands proper education on ICT tools at the grass-root level that will bridge the digital divide [32].
The efficiency of existing and upcoming applications can be increased by embedding information derived from harmonized products of multiple satellite sensors [33]. This high-quality sensor information delivers continuous crop monitoring updates to the farmers with the aid of NDVI derived from harmonized satellite images [34]. Further, the inclusion of scientific outcomes in real-time farm operations, namely, irrigation scheduling [35] and herbicide application rate [36], will enhance the application utility. Thus, Agriculture 4.0—the next generation of agriculture practices focusing on precision agriculture technologies through employing high-quality sensors. Precision agriculture demands processing of a huge volume of data generated from smart sensors. As we are moving towards precision agriculture and the smart farming era, the smartphone application warrants further up-gradation. In the future, mobile devices will be essentially equipped with a high-configured processor to perform the deep learning algorithms to process the real-time farm inputs collected from the high-resolution (both space and time) sensors [37]. Thus, developing smartphone applications with the integration of advanced AI/ML (machine learning) algorithms can deliver precise information for farm operations [38,39].
Another potential domain is analyzing smartphone application performance and scalability. For instance, it will be interesting to evaluate and compare the different mobile applications that are embedded with field sensors to collect a huge volume of precision agriculture data [40]. Most of the existing software using high-quality sensors and advanced algorithms to practice Agriculture 4.0 smart farming operations are paid applications. To extend the benefits of novel precision technologies to all users, the upcoming advanced smartphone applications should be available free of cost to the farming community.
On the whole, this article explores the existing smartphone applications developed for Indian agriculture stakeholders by the government and non-profit organizations. In particular, this study assessed the key challenges of adopting smartphone applications by various stakeholders. This work systematically examined smartphone applications in terms of accessibility, user-friendliness, regular updates, user ratings, and the number of downloads. As a result, this study portrays smartphone application merits and shortcomings from agriculture stakeholders’ perspectives. Thus, this study offers a guideline to application developers, government institutes, and researchers on the potential shortcomings of prevailing smartphone applications and warrants features for future smartphone applications.

7. Conclusions

This study examines the existing smartphone applications developed by governmental institutes for Indian agriculture stakeholders. The applications were evaluated based on their user rating and periodical updates, accessibility, user-friendliness, and the number of downloads. Smartphone applications either provide one-time updated details (e.g., the crop-specific package of practices) or dynamic data (e.g., market price, weather updates) related to farm activities owing to the functional nature of the applications. In the future, we demand more dynamic applications (weather updates) to provide continuous monitoring of a farm. As we have diversified stakeholders, the application should be developed with a simple and easily workable interface that will enhance the volume of the user community. Further, this study highlights the expectations of the Indian stakeholders while developing future applications. The following set of commonalities is expected in the upcoming smartphone application:
  • ❖ An application can include audio and video instructions to assist unschooled farmers;
  • ❖ Improving existing features: Applications can be made more efficient by incorporating real-time monitoring data from sensors, GIS (Geographical Information Systems), and remote sensing systems;
  • ❖ Periodic updates: The application’s developers should always update the information about new agricultural technologies and innovations;
  • ❖ Language preferences: To ensure that applications are not limited to a specific group of users, they should support a variety of languages. Applications should be made available in all of India’s regional languages;
  • ❖ Bug fixes: Consistent follow-up on addressing the common issues such as login errors and server inaccessibility.
Overall, this study offers a guideline to application developers, government institutes, and researchers on the potential shortcomings of prevailing smartphone applications and warrants features of future smartphone applications.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, V.S.M.; methodology, V.S.M. and S.M.; formal analysis, S.S., G.B., A.R., V.P. and V.S.M.; investigation, V.S.M. and S.M.; resources, V.S.M. and S.M.; data curation, V.S.M. and S.M.; writing—original draft preparation, S.S., G.B., A.R., V.P., S.M. and V.S.M.; writing—review and editing, S.S., G.B., A.R., V.P., S.P., S.M. and V.S.M.; visualization, S.S., G.B., A.R., V.P., S.P., S.M. and V.S.M.; supervision, V.S.M. and S.M.; project administration, V.S.M.; funding acquisition, S.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Agriengineering 04 00042 g001 550
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of evaluating a smartphone application.
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of evaluating a smartphone application.
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Figure 3. (A) Radar chart comparison of extension-related smartphone applications performance (B) Salient features of Agriculture: Farm Extension Manager.
Figure 3. (A) Radar chart comparison of extension-related smartphone applications performance (B) Salient features of Agriculture: Farm Extension Manager.
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Figure 4. (A) Smartphone application usage in India during 2021, (B) Stakeholder expectations on smartphone applications for various agriculture-related information. (Figure 4A Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1004619/india-daily-mobile-app-usage-by-category/ (accessed on 12 January 2022)).
Figure 4. (A) Smartphone application usage in India during 2021, (B) Stakeholder expectations on smartphone applications for various agriculture-related information. (Figure 4A Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1004619/india-daily-mobile-app-usage-by-category/ (accessed on 12 January 2022)).
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Table
Table 1. List of smartphone applications reviewed in this study.
Table 1. List of smartphone applications reviewed in this study.
S. No.Name of ApplicationDeveloped by (Organization)Application Released YearAvailable LanguagesApplication Downloading Link
(All Applications Accessed on 8 July 2021)		Target Stakeholder
1.Agriculture: Farm Extension ManagerKrishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kerala Agriculture University, Malappuram, Kerala2015English, Malayalamhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.femmob&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers,
Extension officials and Government officials.
2.IFFCO Kisan- Agriculture AppIndian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative (IFFCO) Kisan, New Delhi2015English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Gujaratihttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.IFFCOKisan&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
3.Farm CalculatorsDr. Vishwanath Koti, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka2015Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.easy.fertilizer.calculator&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers
4.Pashu PoshanNational Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Anand, Gujarat2015Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=coop.nddb.pashu_poshanFarmers
5.Krishi VigyanKrishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Amadalavalasa, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh2016Teluguhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.krishi.krushivision&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
6.Crop DoctorIndira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, National Informatics Center (NIC), Raipur, Chattisgarh2016English
Hindi		https://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=igkv.igkvcropdoctor&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers
7.riceXpertNational Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Orissa2016English, Hindi, Odiya, Assamesehttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.icar.riceXpert&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers
8.Havaamaana- KrishiAll India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology, Vijayapura
Centre, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka		2016English, Kannadahttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.uasd.havaamana&hl=en_INFarmers
9.KVK Mobile AppIndian Council of Agricultural Research—Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (ICAR-IASRI), New Delhi.2017English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Bengalihttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.icar.iasri.kvkapp&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
10.Mobile Farm Solutions (Q&A)National Informatics Center (NIC) e-Gov Mobile Applications, New Delhi.2017Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.ionicframework.farmsolutions933452&hl=en&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
11.Solapur AnarNational Research Centre on Pomegranate, Solapur, Maharashtra2017English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Teluguhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.icarnrcp.solapuranar&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers
12.Mannu (Mobile Application on Mannu)Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Kazhakkoottam,
Kerala.		2017English, Malayalamhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=in.ac.iiitmk.mannuFarmers, Researchers, and Government officials
13.UzhavanAgriculture department, Tamil Nadu2018Tamil and
English.		https://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=agri.tnagri&hl=enFarmers and Government officials
14.Crop insuranceDepartment of Agriculture, Co-operation and Farmers’ Welfare
(DAC & FW)
New Delhi.		2018Hindi, Marathi, Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=in.farmguide.farmerapp.central&hl=enFarmers and Government officials
15.Pusa mKrishiIndian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Research Station, Indore, Madhya Pradesh2019English, Hindihttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.tcs.mkrishi.cca&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
16.Krishi KisanMeitY,
Government of India, New Delhi		2019Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.cropdemonstrate&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers and Extension officials
17.SPARK OnMobileNational Informatics Centre (NIC) e-Gov Mobile Applications, New Delhi.2019Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=in.gov.kerala.spark.onmobile&hl=enGovernment officials
18.Haritha DrishtiIndian Institute Of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Kazhakkoottam,
Kerala		2019Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=in.ac.iiitmk.hk&hl=enGovernment officials
19.PANNAI App (Pest-disease advance notification and need-based agriculture Information)MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, Tamil Nadu2019Tamil and Englishhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=org.mssrf.farmerapp&hlFarmers and Researchers
20.Crop Survey- Insurance Verification AppDirector of e-Governance, Government of Karnataka, Karnataka.2019Kannadahttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.csk.insurancecropverification.cropsurvey&hl=en_IN&gl=USGovernment officials and Researchers
21.FARMS (Farm Machinery Solutions)National Informatics Centre (NIC) e-Gov Mobile Applications,
New Delhi		2019Hindi, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu & Urduhttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=app.chcagrimachinery.com.chcagrimachinery&hl=en_IN&gl=USFarmers
22.MeghdootIndia Meteorological Department (IMD)—Agricultural Meteorology Division (AAS),
Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India		2019English, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Hindi, Malayalam, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Mizoram, Bangla, Punjabihttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aas.meghdootFarmers
23.Arka BagwaniIndian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, Karnataka2019English, Kannada, Hindihttps://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.iihr.arkabagwani&hl=enFarmers
24.AIMS (Agriculture Information Management System)National Informatics Centre (NIC) e-Gov Mobile Applications, New Delhi.2020Malayalam and English.https://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=in.nic.aims&hl=enFarmers and Government officials
25.PM Kisan GoINational Informatics Centre (NIC) e-Gov Mobile Applications, New Delhi.2020English, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Khasi, Garo.https://play.google.com/store/applications/details?id=com.nic.project.pmkisan&hl=enFarmers and Government officials
Table
Table 2. Assigning ratings based on the number of downloads and language availability.
Table 2. Assigning ratings based on the number of downloads and language availability.
RatingNumber of DownloadsAccessibility
*<10,000English
**10,000–100,000English and one regional language
***100,000–500,000English and two regional languages
****500,000–1,000,000English and three regional languages
*****>1,000,000English and more than three regional languages
Table
Table 4. Evaluation of Applications used by extension officials.
Table 4. Evaluation of Applications used by extension officials.
Name of the ApplicationNumber of DownloadsAccessibilityUser-FriendlinessPeriodical UpdatesUser Ratings *
Krishi Vigyan************
Agriculture: Farm Extension Manager**********************
Pusa mKrishi************
IFFCO Kisan Agriculture******************
Krishi Kisan************
KVK Mobile App****************
Mobile Farm Solutions(Q&A)*******
* Data sourced from the Google Play store.
Table
Table 5. Evaluation of applications useful for Government officials (excluding extension officials).
Table 5. Evaluation of applications useful for Government officials (excluding extension officials).
Name of the ApplicationNumber of DownloadsAccessibilityUser-FriendlinessPeriodical UpdatesUser Ratings *
Spark***************
AIMS (Agriculture Information Management System)***************
Haritha Drishti***************
* Data sourced from the Google Play store.
Table
Table 6. Evaluation of applications useful for researchers.
Table 6. Evaluation of applications useful for researchers.
Name of the ApplicationNumber of DownloadsAccessibilityUser FriendlinessPeriodical UpdatesUser Ratings *
PANNAI App***************
Crop Survey-Insurance verification App**************
* Data sourced from the Google Play store.
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Sivakumar, S.; Bijoshkumar, G.; Rajasekharan, A.; Panicker, V.; Paramasivam, S.; Manivasagam, V.S.; Manalil, S. Evaluating the Expediency of Smartphone Applications for Indian Farmers and Other Stakeholders. AgriEngineering 2022, 4, 656-673. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering4030042

AMA Style

Sivakumar S, Bijoshkumar G, Rajasekharan A, Panicker V, Paramasivam S, Manivasagam VS, Manalil S. Evaluating the Expediency of Smartphone Applications for Indian Farmers and Other Stakeholders. AgriEngineering. 2022; 4(3):656-673. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering4030042

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sivakumar, Soundharya, Gowryparvathy Bijoshkumar, Athulya Rajasekharan, Vaishnavi Panicker, Sivaraj Paramasivam, V. S. Manivasagam, and Sudheesh Manalil. 2022. "Evaluating the Expediency of Smartphone Applications for Indian Farmers and Other Stakeholders" AgriEngineering 4, no. 3: 656-673. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering4030042

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