Mobile App for Maize: State of the Art, Potential Areas, and Future Directions in Bangladesh

Abstract

The mobile phone is no longer just a communication device, but also an essential part of people’s entertainment and daily life. Now android system in the electronics market is becoming more and more popular, especially in the smartphone market. The most popular smartphone application is games followed by listening to music, watching videos, communicating with social media, exploring photos, taking selfies, etc. Mobile apps also become more popular than desktop computer-based software. The mobile phone is used for different purposes activities from simple communication to video conferencing, from playing games to the utilization of apps for day to day life. Since Mobile networks reach every corner of Bangladesh, it is now a potential time to use the mobile phone for providing need-based information to the farming communities for their benefit. Since Bangladesh is an agriculture-based country and most of the farming communities subsist in the northern part of Bangladesh. It was found that Nilphamari (Northern district of Bangladesh) suitable area for providing benefits to the farming communities by developing a mobile app. The researchers chose the disease identification and their’ management for the Maize crop as Maize is the 3rd most common in that area. This paper mainly discussed two sections; 1. The application interface in the Bengali language with multimodal function; text, voice with the local language, and images; 2. Feedback from the users about the app. It was found that most of the end-users were able to properly identify the diseases and manage them well.