Agricassist App: A User-Interactive Android Application for Crop Production and Tillage Decision Support in Awgu

A user interactive android based mobile application (AgricassistApp) was developed to provide a decision support tool and necessary networking for agricultural investors and farmers engaged in crop production. The App features sections for: welcome and sign-up, identification and classification of the user, different types of crops grown in the area and user’s decision for one of them, details of agronomic and technical information required for tillage and cultivation of the selected crop. AgricassistApp possesses other features for effective networking such as the agro and government news features, the chat feature (audio and video), the timeline feature and the agro service feature. Risk chart regarding decision to cultivate any selected crop at a given time is also provided. Dart programming language with Flutter software development kit (SDK) in Android studio were used to develop the structure of the software and to host related sourced data in a database. Such important data and agronomic practices related to some crops of high economic importance commonly cultivated in Awgu covering from planting up to post harvest activities were sourced through survey, physical measurement and literature. The crops investigated included: yam, cocoyam, cassava, sweet potato, oil palm, fluted pumpkin (Ugu), African Rosewood (Oha), bitter leaf, okra, garden egg, black beans (Akidi), wild mango (Ogbono), African star (Udara) and maize. Rainfall amount, temperature and soil moisture are obtained in real time from application programming interfaces (APIs). These, together with other types of data are displayed for decision support to each user regarding any particular crop selected. Soil pH, soil fertility (NPK) and soil tractability were measured while available water bodies (for irrigation) and nearby markets were determined through survey. Best agronomic practices were obtained from literature and oral interview of farmers. This work presents how all of these were developed, structured in the mobile application and made available for the public on Google play store.