COVER PAGE

Undergraduate Final Year Project Concept Paper

Name: Mphatso Gadama

BSc. (Hons) in Computing (Information Systems)

Project Title: Weather Forecast Web Based Application System for

Agro Farmers
Table of Contents
1

.BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................3
2.AIM..................................................................................................................................................3
3.OBJECTIVES OF THE SYSTEM (functional requirements).........................................................3
4.SUGGESTED METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................4
5.TECHNOLOGY..............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................4
1. BACKGROUND
In Malawi, agriculture accounts for more than one quarter of Malawi’s gross domestic product
and is one of the biggest industries. In this sector there is provision of direct and indirect
employment, food security and nutrition, export earnings and many more which helps it to
become an engine of sustainability for economic growth, the country’s irrigation relies primarily
on rain fed agriculture and on other similar weather conditions but as time has gone by farmers
have had an urge to move away from reliance on rain fed agriculture to gain opportunities for
irrigation farming and use of fertilizers most of the leading crops grown by farmers are maize,
tobacco, tomatoes, tea sugar and others. The government also acknowledges that agricultural
diversification is what can make the economy to grow and provide increased food security.
There are various investment opportunities for farmers either small hold or large hold where the
agricultural items that they produce can be exported and processed through different trading
agreements that will encompass different government body organizations such as SADC and
COMESA. Farmers are also given opportunites to become members of agricultural development
facilities were they are properly trained in commercial and development activities and can be
certified small hold or large hold farmers.

2. PROBLEMS
While viewing and analyzing how farmers operate on their farm and get things done, it was
discovered that many farmers don’t know the weather conditions in their locations and use the
terminology on the different seasons that occur one after the other and don’t know which
weather patterns they follow, most farmers crops also fail to grow cause of sudden change of
weather, introduction of pests and diseases and that they are not clearly informed on daily
forecasts were they just use a guess theory on what condition will occur , also that they utilize
their equipment and recommendations poorly. Therefore I suppose a system that will be a web
based application which will incorporate different processes like real time processing of updated
weather patterns, alerting of potential weather risks, prioritizing crop reccomendations so that
farmers can grow specified crops in required environments with recommended weather
conditions and provide a technic of ensuring crop maintainability which will help in farmers in
future planning and problem solving decisions.
3. AIM
The aim of this system firstly is to develop web based application which will allow users to get
updates of weather forecasts in real time, specifically for sudden weather changes which would
be fatal to users operations on the farm and get updates in their specific locations or where their
farms are located, in addition it should be able to provide recommended crops to be grown for
purposes of planting & irrigating to avoid pest and diseases associated with dynamic weather
condition patterns, thirdly the system should be able to allow feedback from users to get ideas on
which areas in the system functionalities will require maintenance and improvement, users must
also have access to past information data on weather conditions, and users should be alarmed and
notified of any so that they can avoid weather risks that could hinder them from their farm
operations.

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE SYSTEM (functional requirements)

 To develop a system that will allow the user to get weather updates in real time and based
on farm location.
 Allow users to automatically have access to historical weather forecasts to follow trends.
 To develop a system that should offer user recommendations on type of crops grown
based on weather conditions.
 To develop a system that will alert and notify users on unpredicted weather changes.
 To develop a system that will give users the opportunity to customize preferences on
what conditions do their crops do well to receive alerts.
 To develop a system that is accessible, user-friendly, online functioned and has
multilingual support to farmers that have different technological proficiency levels.
 To develop a system that will educate farmers on climate change, and how to avoid
weather pattern associated pests and diseases.

5. SUGGESTED METHODOLOGY
 This system will be developed using Object-Oriented Programming methodology
approach of agile, the reasons for it being chosen are as follows:
 It allows high code reusability through inheritance.
 It enhances real-world modelling.
 It can be an easy problem solving approach.
 It aids in reduced maintenance.
(Burleson, 2003)

6. REFERENCE(s)
Burleson, Donald. 2003. Oracle Database tips. donaldburleson. [Online] 2003. [Cited: January
31, 2024] www.dba-oracle.com.