Agroclimate App, a Mobile Decision Support Tool for Agriculture.

The recent expansion of mobile phones in agricultural areas is causing a revolution in the way information is provided to farmers around the world. There has been considerable interest in the potential role mobile phones, have begun to play in the marketing of agricultural outputs and also in providing information with the potential to help increase production and reduce risks.

Mobile phones are an effective way to reach farmers at the time decisions are made in the field. With this idea in mind, researches at University of Florida, U.S.A. and University of Passo Fundo, Brazil are cooperating to develop solutions delivered via mobile phones.

As result of this cooperation effort, the AgroClimate mobile app was created and has the goal of helping farmers in southeastern USA with their planting strategies by delivering valuable weather and crop development information. Beyond the basic functionality of allowing users to check recent observed weather data in their area, the app has as a main feature, the ability for producers to register their properties and fields in the app so specific information is generated regarding the registered field commodity, soil type and planting date. With the field registration, the app gathers daily observed weather data from the field’s planting date making possible the tracking of growing degree days and chill hours accumulation that along with other commodity’s specific parameters allow the identification of the crop phenological phase. This information indicates crop development rates that can guide producers to best practices and production risk management for that specific field and period.

The AgroClimate app is current being evaluated by stackholders and will be available for general download in mobile devices with iOS and Android operating systems trough their official stores App Store® and Google Play® in the first quarter of 2014.