COVID-19 poses a threat not only to our health and safety, but to our food security as well. As much as our health workers had been hit hard by the pandemic so as our food producers, most especially the small-scale Filipino farmers. In a span of two months, 100 million pesos worth of agricultural loss has already been recorded.
Quarantine restrictions brought by measures conducted to prevent the spread of the disease resulted in limited movements which highly affected product transport. Extensive selling in physical markets, which has always been the method of sales of local farmers, is also diminished due to quarantine protocols. On top of this is the unfavorable timing of the pandemic that coincided with the harvest season of crops meant as offsets for last year’s losses from rice crops which further pushed farmers into deeper poverty.
Thinking ahead, this application shall heighten the farmer’s ability to recover from the setbacks posed by the pandemic by maximizing productivity and profit. It guarantees a market, expanded and instantly accessible, for the producer while providing steps, reminders, and know-how to achieve the highest possible and quality yield at any given date with any given crop.
A group of young, talented and passionate individuals conceptualized a project aimed at solving one of the country’s most unacknowledged problems, sustaining the poor local producer.
Our food producers play the noble role of bringing food to our table but still remain unvalued. Multinational companies at their capacity could easily drive the microeconomics out of business. And while there are measures being done to lessen the current agricultural impacts of the pandemic, we should prepare even more for problems that will arise in the new normal.
With this in mind, our team developed a web application called Halamin (a word play on the Filipino words “halaman” which means plant, and “alamin” which means “to know”) that addresses the problem in market reach and agricultural sustainability. The two main features include a farming advisory tool and a communication platform.
For the farming advisory tool, the team considered the fact that Filipino farmers have a broad range of crops and respective varieties to choose from. The app was designed to contain data that provides critical information for the specific crop: water requirements and optimum temperature. Our team identified key factors that are essential to consider in the planning of a farming calendar. These key factors are precipitation (mm) and land temperature (Kelvin) over their province. Historical and Forecast data on these two factors strengthen the farmer’s ability to decide on his cropping calendar. The initial data is taken from JAXA’s Satellite based MonItoring Network system for FAO AMIS Market Monitor (JASMINE) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The team did a basic single regression forecasting model (OLS model) to forecast the expected monthly value for each of the variables for a span of a year. The data has been presented in a way that is understandable to farmers with little to no formal educational background. The ideal conditions of the intended crop can then be compared with forecast data, providing a tool that depicts how suitable the planned calendar is for that specific crop given the weather and temperature forecast.
Meanwhile, the idea with the communication feature is to create a virtual marketplace where farmers can sell their products which consumers can browse and choose from. Details for the sales listing include product, price, amount of product, and name of seller. To make it more interactive, consumers can post product requests and interact with the seller using a private messaging feature. This feature will also allow farmers to connect with volunteers, and vice versa, for assistance in moving their goods to the nearest markets. This idea came about during the premature stage of our project development when local media constantly reported the increasing struggle of farmers with oversupply due to limitations on farming activities and product transport.
For the purpose of app demonstration our team has only focused on giving the minimum viable product, particularly the website, and a glimpse of its features. We created our team’s website/app using the Laravel framework, and was deployed to Heroku through GitHub. We’ve assigned a developer to design and code the product’s multiple features that allows a friendly user interface. Individuals were expected to login or register their account - either as a farmer or consumer. Those to register themselves as farmers will have access to the farming guide. Ideally, the farming guide should give the user an opportunity to choose a crop, and a location. The application then identifies the best conditions appropriate for growing the chosen crop by comparing past and current forecast data. For the purpose of demonstrating the usability of the application, our team has decided to create a simulation for La Union, Philippines, with corn as the sample chosen crop.
i-Agri Project had a lot of challenges going into the COVID-19 NASA SpaceApps Hackathon. First challenge was the team’s lack of experience towards NASA data. It was the first hackathon of every member of the team. The team was composed of University students and students who just finished their undergraduate degree with degrees varying from Communication Research, Economics, Agronomy, Management Information Systems, Civil and Chemical Engineering. These budding researchers have yet to apply NASA data to their own specialization. This lack of experience in data has led to hours roaming around NASA websites searching for data, with no final data in hand. Another challenge was the lack of forecasting weather data. Meteomatics data, a recommended forecasting data, failed to send the team a validation email to confirm our accounts, hence the team failed to access any clear NASA forecast on weather and soil temperature. What the team did was to search for JAXA data that has thorough data of the variables in order to use it to independently run a forecasting model. This search and translation of data to forecast cost us a lot of time.
The distance and the lack of physical presence were not so much of a problem if not for internet-related problems. As much as our team enjoyed collaborating with each other, it would have been nice if we were able to connect more with other participants as well. Nevertheless, the hackathon was still an amazing, provocative, and inspiring experience.
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mAnhVyri_6RZgap5Z882j19N0dizqfKE/view?usp=sharing
Link to the website: http://pure-taiga-49678.herokuapp.com/
Other Description:
Our solution acts as both a communication medium and a live-information platform for Filipino farmers.
As a communication medium, the app serves as a virtual marketplace that allows farmers to post their crops for sale and consumers to post their request. The interface offers an opportunity for consumers to browse and then communicate directly to the farmer who dictates his/her price for the produce sold. The transaction is then done privately. The app guarantees a market for the producer.
As a live-information platform, farmers can input the variety of the crop and the date at which they wish to begin their production. The farmer is then provided with baseline data for the crop’s water requirement and optimum growing temperature, along with the season-long forecast of the weather and temperature of the farmer’s specific area. The farmer can then compare the two sets of data to determine the best management practices needed for the specific crop.
The specific data for the crops are obtained from crop production handbooks made public by state agriculture departments and academic studies. The soil temperature and precipitation data are obtained from JAXA’s Satellite based MonItoring Network system for FAO AMIS Market Monitor (JASMINE) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The team did a basic single regression forecasting model (OLS model) to forecast the variables into one more year.
Related Literature:
The original data used for this product have been supplied by JAXA’s Satellite based Monitoring Network system for FAO AMIS Market Monitor (JASMINE) by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Data was used and processed in Gretl for an OLS forecasting.
For a more purposeful and relatable approach, our team also conducted interviews with local farmers based in the province of La Union, Philippines.