Mobile technology finds application in farming

With text messaging and mobile computing gaining wider acceptance and popularity in the Philippines, the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA) plans to use mobile technology to provide information to extension workers and farmers.

The OpAPA or Pinoy Farmers’ Internet recently deployed a short messaging system (SMS) contact center through which extension workers and farmers can send their queries and comments.

A Web-based application developed in collaboration with the DOST

Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) allows call center operators to facilitate queries and send broadcast tips on farming technology through text messages.

Incoming and outgoing messages are logged in a database for further analysis and collation, to be included in a growing knowledgebase being established by OpAPA content developers. The system uses the ASTI-developed GSM module in conjunction with the web application.

Another SMS-based service is a seed inventory system where farmers, dealers and growers can transact on-line. Farmers can check the seed stocks, while dealers and growers can upgrade their seed stock inventory in real time. The project is funded by the Pan Asia Networking International Development Research Center.

Plans are also under way to deploy mobile-based Internet connections in pilot and expansion sites of the Open Academy.

"We are also drawing up plans for a mobile Internet bus that will roam the countryside as a ‘roadshow’ of the Pinoy Farmers’ Internet e-extension services," Open Academy program director Roger F. Barroga said.

Another future project using mobile technology is the use of multimedia services (MMS), in field diagnosis. Farmers and extension workers can take pictures of their affected crops using cellphone cameras, and send the images to the Farmers’ Call Center which will send the query to experts for diagnosis and possible solutions.

"All these are being made possible by current and readily available technologies. What we are doing is simply bringing these technologies within the reach of extension workers and farmers," Barroga said.

"This way, mobile and information technologies become effective and relevant enablers in agricultural development," he added.