Bangladesh has been an agrarian state since time immemorial. Whether it's the suitable six seasons or the fertile land bounded by the mighty rivers, the production of crops in this region has always been on the higher side. However, over time, the existing processes of cultivation and agrarian techniques became redundant. With the huge development in the sector, one of the key challenges was to disseminate this knowledge and technology to rural farmers. The Department of Agricultural Extension has taken up that solemn task and has taken several app-based initiatives to better penetrate the rural areas. Here are the top mobile apps that the DAE has developed for the farmers.
Best Mobile Apps for Farming and Agricultural Extension Services in Bangladesh
Crop Production
This app was developed by the joint venture of BTRC and Asia Pacific Telecommunication under the HRD project. APT also acted as the financier of the project to digitize and bring technological ease to rural farmers. The crop production app was one of the first of its kind in the country. The diversity of seasons as well as soil texture means different regions of Bangladesh are good for different types of crops.
However, there is no empirical data to suggest which crop is best suited for which region. With that in mind, the crop production app is designed to be a storehouse of data of all the agricultural production in a single year. From the application, farmers can access the crop data to find out which crop is best suited for their regions and plan their crops accordingly. This not only brings a better crop production but also ensures a better profit margin for the farmers as well.
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DAE Office Directory
Most of the farmers in the rural areas of Bangladesh are illiterate and they are dependent on the age-old tradition of crop cultivation. To initiate technological development and put them into effect, the Department of Agricultural Extension appoints Agricultural Extension officers in different regions of Bangladesh. these officers act as a mentor to the farmers to teach and educate them in various new process and innovation that helps in a better yield of the crop.
The DAE office directory app was developed to make communication with the officers easier and more personalized. A user can directly locate the name and contact o the relevant officer in their region. Moreover, they can make direct calls from the app itself which makes the process even more hassle-free. The app is free to download from the play store of android devices. Concurrently, you can also download the app from the DAE website.
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DigiCow
Digicow is part of the farming tech solutions limited base in Kenya. The company was founded in 2014 to make farming digitalized as well as more efficient. In Bangladesh, DigiCow operates in collaboration with Grameenphone’s initiative – the smart farm.
The platform operates to provide all the crucial health and reproduction data of an individual cow on a farm. For this, a farmer needs to install a smart tag on each of their cows and receive all the health-related data of individual cows directly into their app. Every year, there is production loss due to sudden illness and a lack of protective measures for the cow's health. The DigiCow platform effectively eliminates those threats and allows for a continuous monitor of health. This helps to ensure that the cow is healthy and also get information about their reproduction period.
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Weather Forecasting App
This is also another app developed by the joint venture of BTRC and APT under the HRD project. This is one of the five applications that were developed to facilitate rural farmers through the DAE. The DAE works closely with the farmers and tries to educate on the basics of the application and how to use them. granted that most of the farmers of Bangladesh do not have access to smartphones and the internet, some of the services of this app can be availed through text messaging service as well.
Weather plays a vital factor in crop production and it is important to know about the macro as well as micro-changes to plan crop plantation as well as harvesting. The weather forecasting app displays the relevant information of a region on a micro-scale so that it is possible to deduce the changes and plan crop plantation and harvesting accordingly.
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Fosholi App
Fosholi is by far the most comprehensive application when it comes to everything related to agriculture. The application was developed by a joint venture between Danish Company G4AW and the ACI Agrobusiness.
As an abundantly agriculture-based country, there is a lot of agricultural production of different crops. With different crops, comes different issues as well as better harvest prospects with the use of proper fertilizer as well as taking appropriate measures. All of this information can be hard to get by for a rural farmer and sometimes access to DAE officials is also not available. The Fosholi comes in aid for this exact reason. It is an all-in-one app that will give you the desired information based on your location, season, and crop.
You can get all kinds of information about the growth, plantation, nurturing as well as harvesting of your crops. There is also information regarding the use of fertilizer as well as reports of the previous harvest in the area to better understand the expected harvest scale. The app has been quite popular among the DEA officers as well as they can use it as a one-stop solution for all types of queries of the farmers. The application is available on both Android and iOS platforms as well as their website.
Bottom Line
The DEA including the private sector recognized the need for an overhaul in the existing process of agricultural development and as a result, took initiatives to develop various applications which specialize in a certain area to better help the farmers. These Bangladeshi Agricultural apps are having a tremendous impact on the overall alleviation of the harvesting as well as reducing crop damage.