Well, you have not heard from me for a while with just cause I might add. I have been busy overseeing the development and roll-out of a key decision support app for Irish farmers.

The big challenge was to develop something that was cross generational (over 70% of farmers in Ireland are aged 55+) and cross-capability so that the digital natives along with the newcomers to the Internet can have an equally fulfilling experience.

There is a 90% penetration of mobile phone use in rural agri-communities (as compared to 48% desktop penetration) and farmers are mobile creatures that are on the go all day long so mobile was decided on the platform to deliver this solution.

The next challenge was in how to deliver this ‘app’ to the market given the lack of experience in using app stores and setting up accounts with credit cards (bear in mind farmers as a segment are at stage 1 of ICT adoption, using info from the net as decision support. My next big challenge is to move the sector onto level 2 and e-business adoption including e-commerce). We decided to go with HTML5 app as opposed to a native app in order to reach as many of the early touch-screen adopters in agriculture across a gamut of form factors (iPhone, HTC, Samsung) and platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.5/8). We came up with the idea of an auto response text to begin with, which returns the farmer a link to click which will then ask him to follow the instructions in a bookmark bubble and begin to get info on the latest farming news, weather, market prices & commentary, directory and events.

So go ahead, text IFARM to 51000 along with your name and let me know how it works on your iPhone, Android or Windows device?

I have some related articles collated below for those who are interested in the increasing agri-IT market:

John Deere demo the first driverless tractor and chaser bin that works of sensors and gyroscopes/GPS. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing!

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/driverless_tractors_farmer_drones_of_the_future_vi.php

The end for Nokia as we know it. They are to start offering new Smartphones based on Microsoft Windows 7 from end of October. This will be huge as the Nokia brand is still pretty strong amongst the Irish farming community
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/22/mango-update-windows-phone-microsoft 

Interesting look at what the GAA have done with their IT rollout.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/cloud/item/17027-interview-why-cloud-comput

List of Arable focused apps from the UK, but only available on the iPhone which excludes 60% of the Agri-Smartphone market. Also some of the Apps are not accurate as we found with the Amazone Fertiliser service. Good ideas all the same
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/18/04/2011/126400/Arable-iPhone-apps-put-to-the-test.htm