Chapter 1

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Background of the Study

Agriculture is a milestone in the history of human civilization. It is one of the

oldest and prime activities of a farmer. Agricultural farmers are more important for many

reasons. They are the critical components in rebuilding local food economies (Brown,

Ebora, & Decena, n.d.).

Farming is well-known as a sustainable source of human income. Nursing activity

dispensed primarily to provide food, fibers, fuel, and alternative commodities through the

controlled use of chiefly terrestrial plants and animals. So from an overall perspective,

agriculture outlines associates in every crop management and also animal management

(Hayati, 2017).

Through the technologies, agriculture and farming were used the same; it was

noted that they have different concepts. The study follows that agriculture measured

sustainability as a whole, while it is considered distinct for agriculture. Further, it is

stated to be the basic economic unit (Hayati, 2017).

Farmers lately hold a ball of demand by serving others. But the latter the problem

it brings, it also gives instant challenges to them. Farmers are willing to take the risk for

them to keep themselves in track in this world that keeps on evolving and producing

high-quality crops that can be traded internationally (Shekara, Chandra, et al., 2016).

Modern farming does not need a great amount of effort compared with traditional

farming. But in this modern era, there are still farmers who are practicing their traditional
 Project Overview | 2

way that also needs hard labor compared to those farmers who use modern technologies

and machines that can take care of everything (Karkhile & Ghuge, 2015).

Peculiarly, the Philippines, together with Indonesia and Malaysia, indicated

upgrades in its Root Cause Analysis (RCA). In 2012, the Philippines posted gains in:

"fish, crisp organic products, vegetable concentrates, vegetable oils (coconut oil), fish

arrangements, sugar and candy parlors, grain arrangements, natural product preparations,

and tobacco products. The nation ranked number three in bananas and number two in

pineapples. Nonetheless, what RCAs did exclude is the measure of fares, which is one of

the issues of Philippine agribusiness (Quarterly, 2015).

Moreover, agriculture importance looms larger when it comes to employment.

The Philippines has a total land area of 30 million hectares; 47% of which is agricultural,

land, and the country labor force totaled about 41.34 million people in that agricultural

sector employed 11.29 million people, which is equivalent to 29% of the national

employment (PSA, 2017).

eFARMMS, a mobile-web electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources

Management Monitoring System, will help the City Agriculture, Urdaneta City to

manage their data gathering electronically and also a mobile-based application that could

help the farmer to monitor their crops plantation.

The study wants to help the City Agriculture of Urdaneta City to upgrade its

manual process of managing data to Electronic form. Also, this research study aims the

farmer’s community of Urdaneta City to monitor the plantation of crops to prevent the

over plantation that causes them to lose their profit.

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

 Project Overview | 3

These propose study also aims to help the farmers to market the crops and goods

directly to the trader to limit their time and efforts from finding traders and also to

increase their income.

Statement of the Objectives

The main objective of the study is to design and develop an Electronic Farmers

Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System. Specifically, the project study

aimed to:

1. Determine the existing process of City Agriculture in Urdaneta City along with

the areas on:

a. Managing of farmers’ information,

b. Managing the distribution of free seeds and fertilizers;

c. Monitoring of farmers’ seasonal crop planting; and

d. Reporting.

2. Determine the issues and difficulties encountered by City Agriculture in Urdaneta

City along with the areas on:

a. Managing of farmers’ information

b. Managing the distribution of free seeds and fertilizers ;

c. Monitoring of farmers’ seasonal crop planting; and

d. Reporting.

3. Enumerate the functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed system

4. Evaluate the proposed system by the end-users

Importance of the Study

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System
 Project Overview | 4

The Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

intends to provide an innovative and effective tool for agricultural monitoring:

To City Agriculture, Urdaneta City. The study will help the City of Agriculture

for accurate monitoring and managing the farmers’ needs and distribution of crops.

To the Staff of City Agriculture. This study can help them in a way that they are

comfortable using their smartphone that they can carry around with them. It can be an

easy way for them to report each data they gathered from their programs or any event

faster. This study can help them lessen their workloads.

To the Urdaneta City Farmers. The result of this study will teach them the

importance of cultivating different crops in every season instead of cultivating only one

per season, to prevent them from losing so much of their investment. Also, it can help

them to have more knowledge of cultivating different crops. Furthermore, this study will

also help them to transact their crops easily to the traders.

To the Agricultural Technologist. This study will also help the Agricultural

technologist assigned per association to communicate with the farmers and also to the

admin of the City Agriculture. Agricultural technologist is the term you call the head of

the farmers per association.

To the Traders. This study can help every trader in the city to communicate with

the farmers easily. It can also save their time in finding suitable farmers who can offer

what they exactly need, especially those traders that are picky. It is like a win-win

process for both traders and farmers.

To the Researchers. This study will help the researchers to gain knowledge on

how hard farming is here in the Philippines. It also enlightens the researchers what is

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

 Project Overview | 5

happening in the field of farming, and on how the farmers are hardworking for them to

sustain their needs and also the society’s needs. They will know that managing and

monitoring farmers are a hard job for the City Agriculture staff.

To the Future Researchers. This study will teach them to understand what this

research is all about. Not knowing that managing and monitoring is a helpful topic if they

are really into it. This can also be their basis on how this research will flow. They can

gain information about things that are related to managing, monitoring, crop plantation,

farmers, and also in agriculture.

Scope and Delimitations of the Study

The proposed system aims to design and develop an Electronic Farmers

Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System that will provide digitalized

farmers management and monitoring system for the admin of City Agriculture, for the

Urdaneta City farmers and Agricultural technologist. The study focuses mainly on

managing information, records, and monitors crops plantation.

As for the admin of the City Agriculture, the person responsible for verifying

every farmer and traders registration, creating accounts for agricultural technologists, and

assigned each of them the different associations. The City Agriculturist, who is in charge

of the admin and Agricultural Technologist, the Sub-admin, is the people who can access

the web-based application.

The web-based feature is for managing basic information of the Urdaneta City

Farmers like Name, Age, Location, Contact Number, and also includes the total area of

farmers in their field.

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

 Project Overview | 6

It will also help the personnel to manage the distribution of free goods and

agricultural material; the main goal of the application is to make sure that every

transaction will be efficient and convenient. This application also makes access to the

local farmers by the use of messaging feature where they can easily communicate within

the app. This also includes a posting feature that the admin posts the latest event and

announcements.

The two users have the same access to the application, but the admin had the main

role. In creating the association, it will take in charge of the admin and the registration of

the agricultural technologist. Creating an account for farmers is included with the

Agricultural technologist that has been approved by the admin, the admin is the only one

that can deactivate accounts.

All the processes are in the web part of the system, somehow other information of

the Urdaneta City farmer, is not included by the suggestion of the client to secure the

private information of every farmer. They cannot let information leak. That is why the

researchers provided a system that provides security for the City Agricultural office.

Admin and Agricultural Technologist also monitor the seasonal crop planting of

the Urdaneta City farmers based on the data that came from the mobile part of the

system.

This feature shows the average percentage of the seasonal crop planting of the

farmers that can help to monitor if the planting of crops is at risk of over-cropping.

However, the system is limited in monitoring the total average of the farmers’ harvested

crops.

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

 Project Overview | 7

There is a feature that the farmers need to register their chosen crop they want to

cultivate within the season. This feature has a static crop recommendation that will be

cultivated within that season. Each selection of it, the system will suggest a certain date

of harvesting. Through this feature, it will help the farmers to decide what kind of crops

they plant within the season. This feature monitors seasonal crop plantation with the help

of the graphical pie and lets the farmer avoid any over the plantation of the crop. The

system information guide of seasonal weather forecast is not capable.

The mobile application also monitors the distribution of seed given by the City

Agriculture. It views the data of released goods and supplies that have been given by the

City Agriculture to the farmers.

The researchers also added a message feature of the application that allows the

City Agriculturist, Agricultural technologist, farmers, and also the traders to

communicate with one another. The application can make a call, send SMS, or via

electric message.

However, for those individuals who wanted to have the mobile application system

can only access the application as a trader. The mobile application system is not available

to download online upon the request of the client but still available in the City

Agricultural office for them to know those individuals who personally want access to the

application to help the farmers in case of fraud.

The traders can register online and can be validated by the admin of City

Agriculturist. In the mobile base application, the traders can only access limited

functions. The system will not allow the traders to post but can only view crops that are

available in the e-market and message the farmers personally.

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System

 Project Overview | 8

As for the mobile feature of the system, the farmers will have to log in to the

username and password that the City Agriculture provided but, they can update it

anytime. Once they have logged in, they will be shown with the user interface containing

every corresponding function. This app will notify the farmers about the City

Agriculture’s announcements and open activities for them. This study also shows some

recommendations or options for the farmers to choose what kind of crops are still

available to cultivate. Also, this app can help the farmers communicate with certain

traders using messaging them directly to the app.

In the study, the researchers used the term management to determine the work of

the Department of Agriculture. They manage the farmers all around Urdaneta City.

eFARMMS: Electronic Farmers Agricultural Resources Management Monitoring System