DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM ENABLED DIGITAL MOBILE PLATFORM TO ASSIST FARMERS TOWARDS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION SUSTAINABILITY IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Various issues in crop production and related industries pose significant impediments to economic growth and food security in Sri Lanka. The key issue identified in the agriculture sector is the lack of access to relevant and timely information in a format that is actionable and context-specific. However, information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to address these gaps and revolutionise agriculture, as it has done in many other countries. The study employed the Design Science Research (DSR) approach to develop innovative artefacts that provide vital information to farmers during crop production. This paper demonstrates various iterative steps in the artefact construction and evaluation processes and shows how context-specific, relevant and actionable information represented through the user interfaces of two mobile applications: “Govi-Nena Farmer” and “Govi Nena Home Gardening”. The study further elaborates how the key challenges were addressed and how the conceptual solution was proven to work in a real-world scenario with the evidence of knowledge satisfaction analysis using the 5-point Likert scale method with 32 app users. The works initially modelled crop and variety selection based on agro-ecological regions (AERs), seasons, and pre-planting and cultivation activities of the farming life cycle. Packages of practice (PoP) workbooks were then developed, tailored to the farmer’s context using these models. The analysis of PoP knowledge revealed that every user was satisfied (p<0.05) with the information provided in the app, especially data accuracy (Z=4.221), fertilizer application guidelines (Z=4.170) and information quality (Z=3.785), all of which reached a very high level of satisfaction. Hence, the PoP enabled decision support system has been embedded into the ontological crop knowledge base of the mobile-based systems to assist farmers in making timely quality decisions to achieve target goals.