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Phase: Ideas Missions: Access to Information

The Farmer's "Alman-APP" - weather apps for farmers

Develop a smartphone app similar to iPhone's weather app that projects how the season will be for each crop they are interested in growing.

Photo of Maryalice
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EXPLAIN YOUR IDEA

My idea would use the smartphone technology that many are already used to (i.e. the iPhone weather app) and to broaden its capabilities so that farmers could not only access weather projections, but also an analysis based on forecasts that could provide information about how a particular crop season is expected to fare any given week, month, or year. Additionally, it could offer recommendations and advice for how to care for crops if the weather projects an unseasonably dry, wet, or cold season, which would demand an adjusted type of care in order to grow the crops successfully. The app would not only assist farmers with weather projections, but also act almost as an encyclopedia of sorts for the best outcomes when growing crops in difficult conditions. The app would be tailored to certain regions of the country and also provide projections for crops that are more native to those regions. Farmers therefore could have equal access to information that will determine how crops are going to do any given season, similar to a farmer's almanac, but with more up-to-date information as weather data is reported to the farmer's smartphone on an hourly projection, rather than annual one.

WHO BENEFITS?

Farmers across the United States could take advantage of the Farmer's Alman-APP.

WHERE WILL YOUR IDEA BE IMPLEMENTED?

I envision it as an Apple app only because Apple has monopolized the smartphone market, but could also be created for other smartphones and tablets.

ARE YOU IMPLEMENTING IN AN ELIGIBLE COUNTRY?

  • Yes

EXPERTISE IN SECTOR

  • I do not have experience working in a sector related to my idea

EXPERIENCE IN IMPLEMENTATION COUNTRY(IES)

  • Yes, for more than one year.

I consult my weather app on a daily basis to determine the outfit and other necessities I will need to get around the city during an average work day. Why shouldn't farmers be able to do the same to determine the care their crops need to be successful during a growing season? A smartphone app could be developed categorizing the crops most farmers grow, and use an algorithm based on weather projections to determine how that particular crop will do that growing season. It could be based on geography just like a standard weather app is, and target specific regions that tend to grow specific crops (e.g. potatoes in Idaho, apples in New England, etc.)

This inspired (1)

Farmers will save agriculture if they survive
Farmers will save agriculture if they survive

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Photo of Aleksandra Bessalitskykh
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If you want to build your own app the first question is “how much does it cost to make an app?” An app development price is a very important issue because there are so many options to choose from and you need to understand which of them is reasonable for you and why. There is a lot of information on this topic and here https://mlsdev.com/blog/53-how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-a-mobile-app you will be provided with a detailed explanation of everything that makes up the cost of creating an app and a few up-to-date app price options for you.

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