Global trends in apps for agriculture

• Autor(a) principal: Barbosa, Julierme Zimmer
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Prior, Stephen A., Pedreira, Guilherme Quaresma, Motta, Antonio Carlos Vargas, Poggere, Giovana Clarice, Goularte, Gabriel Democh
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Multi-Science Journal
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ifgoiano.edu.br/multiscience/article/view/1095
• topic: farm management; image analysis; crop production; portable agricultural technology; smartphones

Although applications (apps) for mobile devices show increasing popularity in the agricultural sector, studies regarding their availability are still incipient. In the present study, a survey was conducted to assess global trends of app availability for agriculture. This survey was conducted in 2015 and 2018 in two app stores with free access (Google Play and Windows Phone); searches for the following keywords were included in the survey: agriculture, agri, and farming. In 2015 and 2018, these searches found 244 and 599 apps from 33 and 61 countries, respectively. Countries with the largest number of apps (i.e., USA, Brazil, and India) accounted for ~64% of all surveyed apps. However, diversity and availability of paid apps was greater in USA and Brazil compared to India. Although many apps were related to magazines and market information, numerous other apps were available on farm management, pests and diseases, precision agriculture, and technical assistance. Related apps that used photographic input and citizen science data were also found. Our study indicates that the global development of apps for agriculture is growing rapidly, with most serving informative purposes at no cost to users.