A Mobile based Agriculture Information System was developed by the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) in collaboration with three foreign institutions.
This Mobile Application provides a unique opportunity to farmers on an individual basis, to cultivate and market the required crops in a cost-effective way in any desired geographical location. Installed on a smart phone, it can provide real-time information for selecting crop varieties suitable for a given location, estimate the cost of production based on information on fertilizer and pesticide requirements and their present market price, view prices being offered to a particular crop in and around the site of cultivation, and even get advice from relevant authorities in case of a pest or a disease outbreak. Lack of relevant information on a real-time basis has created many difficulties to farmers (e.g. over production and lack of a market for the product) as they have not been able to make the right decisions at the right time relating to their farming activities.
The web-based crop forecasting system that has been developed by the Department of Agriculture with technical expertise from the UCSC was deployed by His Excellency the President in 2017. This system, based on its degree of operation, will provide timely and reliable information on extent of cultivation, expected production, marketable surplus etc. of various food crops grown in the country. The information accessible at Agrarian Service Centres, or any other point at District and National level, could be used for risk mitigation as well as in decision making for planning and implementing crop production programmes. The Ministry of Agriculture intends to use this programmes in the future for monitoring food production island-wide and implement the fertilizer subsidy and crop insurance schemes.