Agricultural Information Systems Design and development of ifarma: a farm management application for mobile devices

Agricultural Information Systems

Design and development of ifarma:a farm management application for mobile devices

Why farm management?• Farm operations are becoming

more and more business oriented

• Farms become bigger

• High investments

• Different type of resources

• High competition in the market

• Pressure for protecting the environment

• Cultivation protocols and certified products

September '13 ifarma - Agrostis Ltd 2

?

Farm management int. approach


Planning&

Scheduling

HumanResources

Management

Cultivation&

Inventory

AgricultureInputs

ManagementFinancial

Management

HarvestingPost Harvest

Marketing

Environment

Profit

ICT & Agriculture


ifarma design & development• Literature and study of

international market

• Design of DB

• Integrating algorithms

• Choosing development platform

• Code development

• GUI development

• Pilot phase


ifarma development pilot phase


• 8 farmers from different areas

• Different cultivations

• Different farm size (17 ha – 120ha)

• Orchard & arable crops

• Pilot phase duration of 6 months

• ifarma & Tablet 7”

ifarma technical specifications• The ifarma is a Native application

for mobile devices• The main advantages are:

– Full portability– Data are stored on internet with cloud

technology– Ability to record Positioning (GPS)– Display properties in the device map– Use of camera– Automatic data synchronization– No internet connection is required*


Main construction of ifarma

Determine the farm business

Planning all farm

activities

Financial analysis


Determine the farm business

1. Land parcels

2. Farm constructions

3. Machines

4. Staff

5. Data bases


1 2

3 4

5


Determine the land parcels

• Farms land parcels and cultivations

• Detail data according to national identification system

• Land parcels on map• Measuring of parcel

perimeter and area• Photos


Determine farm machines and staff

• Farm machines– Type & serial number– Cost – Service ,etc– Photos

• Staff– Family– Employ– Subcontractor

Data bases – auto updated


• Pesticides– Substance– Crop disease– Available in storage– Expiration day– Manufacturer– Days after application for

harvesting

• Fertilizers– Type– Available in storage– Transactions

Planning & Management


1 2

3 4

5

1. Inputs

2. Standard tasks

3. Standard group of tasks

4. Farm business plan

5. Follow & implement the scheduled plan

Standard cultivation tasks• Standard tasks

• Standard tasks for different crops

• Inputs per task (labour, machines, pesticides, etc)

• Standard cost and average efficiency per input and per task

• Automated creation of task schedule














Farm business plan• New crop

• Creation of farm plan per crop for each parcel

• Auto creation of daily to do list

• Following a cultivation protocol for certification (Agrocert , GlobalGAP)

• Economic analysis

• Cost analysis per input factor and per crop

• Figures


Following to do list• Task list per crop, parcel,

input factor

• Record of all tasks

• Cost per input factor and sum cost

• Record of pesticides and fertilizers use

• Total implementation of all tasks (fast record)


Diary• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Alerts and notifications (payments, machine service, etc)

• Fast creation of new task on the calendar

• Task record on field


Economics


1 2

3 4

5

1. Economic budget

2. Warehouse inventories

3. Sales revenue

4. Expenses

5. Balance

Financial monitoring• Full financial monitoring

• Transactions (rents, purchases, expenses, income, depreciation, etc.)

• Centralized and detailed picture of transactions by type

• Archive (suppliers - customers – banks, etc)

• Reports per transactor

• Possibility of preparing and monitoring budgets


Preferences - settings


1 2

3 4

5

1. Personal data

2. Farms

3. Cultivation periods

4. Data bases

i. Backup

ii. Recover backup

iii. Synchronize DB

iv. Initialization of DB

5. Disconnection

Main advantages of using ifarmaOverview of whole farm business

• Recording assets and liabilities of the company

• Logging operations and inputs

Finance control and cost control

• Income

• Expenditure

• Markets - Stocks

• Services and fees

• Cash flows

Increase the productivity and

efficiency

• Good Agricultural Practices

• standards Programs

• programming

• Calendars - Reminders

Improve my decisions

• Economic analysis and cost analysis per crop and input

• Better communication with the consultant - agronomist

• Historic data for all activities and financial results

Put added value in the

products

• Logging operations and inspection check rates

• participation in management and certification.

• Keeping Time allowed reintroduction before harvest

• Traceability level lot for yield

• New markets



Future applications based on ifarma1. Development of web version of ifarma

2. Development of a certification software for farm groups and consultants power by ifarma

3. Development an application for livestock farmers

4. Translation of ifarma to other languages

Everybody is welcome to download and use ifarma

http://ifarma.agrostis.gr/





Documents

Agricultural Information Systems Design and development of ifarma: a farm management application for mobile devices