This mobile app developed by a start-up social entrepreneurship venture at Hagaribommanahalli, a tier-three town in Ballari district, provides detailed information about 15 major crops cultivated in Karnataka, including arecanut, sugarcane, banana, tomato and paddy.
What is unique about this app is that it has been developed by two persons, who quit their high-paying posts in corporate sector and engaged themselves in farm sector.
Anand Babu, founder of Jayalakshmi Agro Tech, which developed the app, hails from a family of farmers in Hagaribommanahalli. After getting a degree from IIM-Bangalore, he served for 10 years in the corporate sector.
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His cousin L. Shivaprakash, an engineering graduate from Hagaribommanahalli, who also had similar ideas, joined him in the venture. Jayalakshmi Agro Tech has developed 15 apps on agriculture and two on goat and sheep rearing. The apps are available with Google Playstore and the users could download them for free. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development pays Rs. 20 to the firm for each download and the amount is used for research and development activities, besides meeting administrative expenses.
Mr. Babu says that the message related to agriculture was delivered with an audio-visual support system in Kannada so that even a farmer having minimum education could understand it. The apps are loaded with information on diverse varieties of crops suited for various agro-climate zones, methods of sowing and transplantation, pest management, dosage of fertilizers to be administered, irrigation and harvesting techniques.
The app also has a reminder system on the schedule related to irrigation, administering of fertilizer, pesticide spray and vaccination to livestock.
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The contents of the app were developed after wide consultations with scientists serving in various agricultural universities in Karnataka. The content is upgraded at regular intervals to keep the farmers updated with latest innovations, he said.