How to Build a Mobile App for the Agriculture Industry: Features, Process, and Cost

Mobile applications are the most widespread format for software in the modern world. Learn how to benefit from the format in this article!

The agriculture business is notable for the vast scale of the facilities in the sector. Workers in it have to manage large fields, which can span many square miles of territory. In this light, the usage of laptops is a suboptimal choice for working with these facilities. Consequently, it makes sense to dedicate major investments to the agriculture mobile app development. Mobile apps are easy to work with in situations when managers have to be always on the move. Thus, from the business analyst perspective, agriculture software development represents one of the best choices for the agriculture industry. 

Does Your Agriculture Business Need an App?

In our opinion, the answer is “yes” in the majority of cases. Why is this so? Your agriculture business is likely to be vast (even if it’s relatively small-scale in comparison to others) in terms of territory. In this light, the presence of a mobile app will help with managing your facilities from any location. More importantly, a mobile app is vital for one more reason. Smartphones are the most accessible form of computing devices on the market. Even the cheapest modern laptops cost 200 dollars; in many cases, their productivity is too low for the relevant tasks in the sector. 

Agriculture mobile app development solves this problem because well-functioning modern smartphones cost between 100 and 200 dollars in many cases. This means that the usage of a mobile app in your agricultural business is a perfect way to enable digitalization in low-income areas. Mobile apps are a great framework for developing countries due to this aspect of their functioning.

Existing Agricultural App Types

There are multiple types of agricultural apps that can appear on the market. They include the following types of mobile technology:

1. Apps with GPS tracking

The first type of app that is necessary in the sphere of agricultural products includes applications with GPS tracking. Modern businesses in the sphere of agriculture app development require investments in GPS tracking due to the vastness of the involved facilities. In this regard, the managers of the fields have to cover large distances. This means that apps capable of helping them orient in this space are essential. For example, GPS apps may have information on all the key types of equipment in a facility. Using this information, it’s possible to quickly find some essential assets and use them in an efficient manner. Why use a custom-built app rather than some third-party services? The reason is simple: they have a better adaptation to various sensors and other GPS tools used in your business.

2. Apps for forecasting weather

One more type of app to use in the agriculture business is software for weather forecasts. Weather has a decisive impact on crop cultivation in the modern world, even though some technological innovations are changing this situation. For this reason, it makes sense to have an app that analyzes various weather patterns. Once again, what’s the reason to use a separate app rather than some third-party product? The reason is simple. Most weather apps belong to some particular companies and involve their weather prediction services. This means that you typically won’t have a complete understanding of multiple predictions. With custom-built apps for mobile devices, it’s possible to change the trend once and for all. You can, for example, collect data from multiple sources (including your own weather stations) and even create your unique predictions based on this information through machine learning.

3. Apps for agricultural planning and mapping

Planning and mapping your activities in the agricultural industry is a complex task. It requires spatial awareness and knowledge of the core agriculture-related principles. In this light, the best option for working in this field is to offer an average project manager some tools for simplifying this management task. For example, you may have AI frameworks for checking a wide range of decisions concerning agricultural mapping. Agriculture app development is helpful in this regard because it allows adding additional security checks to the decisions of your managers. Using those security checks, you can guarantee that there will be no major mistakes made during the management process. 

4. Tools for managing farms

One more type of instrument to consider is various tools for managing farms. What’s the core reason for using this type of mobile software? Modern farms feature a large number of different assets and processes. Therefore, it makes sense to invest in tools for managing all those processes. For instance, a farm management app can include instruments for tracking the core tools. It may also have frameworks for managing the workforce and its productivity. Agricultural sector depends on the workers and various equipment. Using the frameworks in question, it’s possible to manage those aspects and maximize their long-term positive impacts.  

5. Apps for managing cattle

One more tool to consider from the standpoint of mobile agriculture are apps for managing cattle. Cattle is an asset that’s usually very difficult to track. For example, some cattle may stray away from the common paths, being difficult to find. Attacks from predators are also possible in the case of cattle. Consequently, you may need tools that will help with tracking cattle and preventing long-term problems with their survival and safety. Modern apps for managing cattle include many possible functions. There are opportunities to integrate them with GPS collars. You can also use collars tracking pulse and other vitals as a strong risk management framework. All these outside tools add a tremendous number of capabilities to modern technologies connected with the mobile sector.

6. Tools for monitoring grain elevators

Grain elevators are a technology that is essential for the modern agricultural sector. It’s widely used to store grain for the long term. In this regard, the reasons to invest in agriculture app development concerning those tools are diverse. Firstly, elevators may be susceptible to certain problems with crop health. When you build an agriculture app, it’s much easier to track those problems. Secondly, the management of the elevators is a complex process. If you decide to automate it, an app from the smart agriculture market can be of great help to you. You can build an agriculture app to manage elevators both in terms of sensors and even their internal functions.

7. Marketplace app for agriculture

Every business in the agriculture sector has to sell its wares at some point. In this respect, a strong idea is to invest in a marketplace app for agriculture. On the one hand, you can offer your products in this marketplace. On the other hand, it can become a more common platform, unifying multiple types of products on the market. Why is this vital for an average business in the sector? A self-owned marketplace for agriculture can serve as a perfect place for showcasing unique methods like precision agriculture. You can also use it to better capitalize on the crop growth periods in your business. For instance, your app can offer some discounts not available on other platforms due to the unique time frame. 

Key Features to Have in an Agriculture App

There are multiple core features that a modern agriculture app must have. Here are the top factors to invest in:

1. Offering tools for GPS tracking

The first type of instrument you may need are sensors for GPS tracking. They can help in a vast number of scenarios. Firstly, those tools are great when you need to engage in crop disease treatment. GPS tools can pinpoint a particular location, assisting project management teams with finding the spots they need to focus on in terms of treatment. Secondly, they’re also great for clearly outlining where to plant your crops or tracking various types of cattle. Applications for farmers always need GPS tools to guarantee positive outcomes because the spaces covered by those businesses are typically too large to manage for one person.

2. Giving instruments for analyzing weather

Weather patterns play a tremendous role in the analysis of future crop yields in the farming industry. In many ways, even financial services available to companies in the sector greatly depend on the weather patterns and predictions offered on the market. In this light, a major reason to build an agriculture app is to have in-house instruments for weather prediction. Why is this so vital? Above all, in-house tools can have more elaborate analytics methods than other frameworks on the market. You’ll be able to make predictions that are more complex than anything else. In this light, it’ll be possible to predict the situations in which crop yields may collapse. Moreover, your own algorithms will help you negotiate with different companies and convince them about financing your agriculture business through a more accurate approach to the prediction of weather conditions. 

3. Listing crops and other agricultural products

A good idea is to also use mobile apps as a listing platform for various agricultural products. What do we mean by that? For example, you can build an agriculture app to showcase the wares available in your business. Why is this vital? Firstly, it’s possible to attract more buyers using this approach. Secondly, there’s an opportunity to get investments into your agricultural application development product. If you’re using some unique approaches to managing agriculture, you’ll be able to sell them as a new pathway in the sector. Investors like new methods in agriculture and are likely to seriously consider this type of investment. 

4. Integrating data-driven visualization

Tools for collecting data enable modern businesses to manage tremendous amounts of information about current trends in them. In this regard, investments in software products make sense because you can transform this data into a more palatable format than in the past. What exactly is it possible to do? We recommend using data-driven visualization to simplify the presentation of data for the managers, for example. With this format, you’ll get an opportunity to explain the trends in your business in an easier format than ever before. 

Agriculture application development thus offers opportunities of two types. On the one hand, it enables modern businesses in agricultural production to better understand the data available to them through everyday scenarios. On the other hand, it enables data-based democracy. In what way? Primarily, through the focus on offering data formats that are as easy to analyze as possible. While numbers may be difficult to recognize for a large number of individuals in the agricultural market, it’s much easier for the relevant workers to see trends through the focus on advanced data visualization. 

5. Delivering high-quality push notifications

As we’ve mentioned before, the majority of the facilities in the agriculture sector are vast. This information means that there’s a large risk of missing some information. For instance, if something occurs in a distant facility, it’s possible that you’ll simply miss the data. As a result, the best way to manage information in this case is to have some form of a reminder. An average app development tech stack enables these reminders and allows one to use them en masse. For example, you can ask an agricultural application development company to add notifications for various emergencies or as reminders for the need to do this or some other action in your facility.

6. Managing schedules

Agriculture app development cost isn’t low, so you need to have a clear payoff in the form of a better reaction to various work-related issues. In this respect, we recommend using farm application development because it represents a way to obtain some of the best instruments for schedule management. Why not use a traditional schedule app in the presented case? The reason is rather simple: traditional schedule apps are, in many ways, developed with more general tasks in mind. Consequently, they don’t take the complex relations that appear in the agricultural field into consideration. 

A development team can listen to your needs and add changes that will fit your field specifically. For instance, it may prepare templates for mating seasons among animals or, for example, various complex processes connected to your plants. In this way, a good app will make agricultural operations much easier for all involved stakeholders.

7. Integration of payment gateways

If an app offers capabilities for selling certain agricultural products, then it also makes sense to install a full-scale payment gateway within it. One of the reasons why many people refuse to pay in certain apps is the difficulty of preparing a payment. If one needs to connect a card and generally invest more than 30 seconds per payment operation, the likelihood of failure is very high. In this situation, a solution arises in the form of integrated payment gateways for farm operations. Using them, you’ll be able to minimize user activities during payments. As a result, it’ll be much easier for all involved parties to purchase certain goods and profit from them at the same time. 

8. Integrating drones into core operations

The integration of drones is one more aspect of operations that is highly vital for modern agricultural apps. Why is this the case? Drones represent one of the most innovative solutions in the modern markets that can remake our approach to agriculture. The uses for this technology are endless. For instance, a customer may use some drone footage in video calls to showcase progress to investors. There are more use cases for the presented technology, too. One of them is the integration of drone footage with various types of analytical software. In this case, you can use artificial intelligence to analyze information from this footage and offer long-term insights into the functioning of your farms. In short, the technology in question offers many advanced capabilities for analyzing the state of your agricultural equipment and even the overall condition of your fields.

Key Ways to Build a Farming App

There is a clear set of steps for situations when you want to build a farming app. Here are the core steps you need to consider if you want to facilitate an advanced app development process:

1. Ideation for a project

The first step in the creation of any project is the so-called ideation stage. You need to clearly outline what sort of product your company wants to create. Development of the farm application can take many forms in the modern world. There are cases when you need to create an app with an integration of GPS, drones, and AI to help with the observation of various fields. In turn, there are situations in which agriculture-based businesses need tools for planning or for the analysis of soils through various sensors. Your goal at this stage is to clearly outline what type of app you want to develop. Different agricultural companies require different types of apps for their long-term functioning on the market. 

2. Review existing solutions on the market

The second step you need to consider is reviewing the existing solutions on the market. In this regard, your best choice is to look at the most popular apps produced for it. There are many solutions from dedicated developers that you can review. Some apps exist to help with weather forecasting. Others assist agriculture-based businesses with tasks like field mapping and sensor detection. The goal here is to analyze all those apps to see what options they offer in terms of functions and, more importantly, what they’re incapable of offering. 

Once you understand the gaps, it’ll be much easier to create an app that will fit your business perfectly or be capable of answering the diverging needs of the customers on the app market. The need to review existing solutions on the market serves a rather simple goal: it enables you to understand whether your solution is necessary in general and, more importantly, what features will make it necessary for the market. 

3. Outline the core features of your app

When you understand the gaps in the existing market, it becomes much easier to outline the core features of your app. In this respect, you should outline the vision that will help a dedicated developer create an app that fits your description without requiring major long-term input during the development process. 

Many approaches are possible in the presented situation. On the one hand, you may want to develop an app that targets some specific function that is lacking on the market. For instance, this function may involve the integration of some new sensors for soil analysis. On the other hand, it also makes sense to create apps with more general functions. Sometimes, what is lacking on the market aren’t some unique features, but rather a novel approach to combining the already existing approaches. All in all, if the preceding stage helped answer the question “why?”, the presented stage helps create an agriculture app from the standpoint of “how?”. 

4. Describe core MVP features

Once you’ve created a clear list of features for your future app, an opportunity arises to test some of those features. What can you do in this regard? Our recommendation is to try a so-called Minimum Viable Product. What’s the core idea of an MVP? MVP is a version of the product that contains enough features to deliver on its core promise but is developed with the minimum number of resources.

In many cases, MVPs don’t even involve full-scale apps: it’s possible to create a minimum viable product using non-software methods. For instance, you can try out the concept of an app collecting data from all sensors in one place within some facility with manual tools. Later, you’ll be able to turn this approach to agricultural technologies into a more complete experience based on the success of the product and its acceptance by the audience. MVPs are also possible with the help of software tools, too. In this case, you can use some prototypes or even deliver a full product to the customers.

5. Find a proper tech stack for your project

The next step in the development of high-quality platforms for agriculture is the selection of a proper tech stack for your project. What are our recommendations in this case? You should look for platforms that best suit your unique, specific needs. A mobile app typically benefits from tech stacks well-suited for mobile and hybrid development. Strong technologies that satisfy those requirements are platforms like Node.js and React Native. They use programming languages that include JavaScript as a basis, providing simple development tools and, at the same time, a high speed of app creation. React Native is especially interesting in this respect because it allows one to develop apps that will work across several platforms with one code base. 

6. Outline a plan for your project

You should then transition to the development of a proper plan for your project. This guide on how to build a mobile app for the agriculture industry already offers a more or less clear outline of the core elements this plan should contain. You must define the features that you want to see in your application. Another vital step is to decide whether you want a full project or your goal is to start with some form of a minimum viable product. Lastly, you must assemble a team and give it well-defined goals on the basis of your plans, with a clear addition of deadlines for every stage. In the next sections of this article, we’ll give you an insight into the last stages of app development for the agriculture industry.

7. Find a team of competent developers

Your next step is to find a team of competent developers, who will be able to develop your app according to the development demands that you have. In our opinion, there are several criteria one should follow while focusing on the achievement of this goal. Before we dive into them, we’ll outline the most important one: try to hire teams that work for certain companies as outsourcing specialists rather than independent developers. Why is this the case? Companies are usually much more responsible for delivering various products. It’s easier to establish a contract with them since those businesses are full-scale legal entities. 

What do we ultimately recommend while trying to choose a company that will work with your business? Firstly, a strong idea is to look for companies with multiple years of development experience on the market. The more knowledge of the market a company has, the better. Secondly, a vital step in finding a team that will fit your needs is its knowledge of the agricultural sector. In short, your potential mobile development partner must know how to create applications that target the unique requirements of companies in the agricultural sector. Lastly, we recommend focusing on the existing reviews of the company in the relevant field. The best companies usually have high ratings that are above 4.0 on platforms such as Clutch. With all those elements combined, you have the greatest chance of finding a company that will fit your unique needs.

8. Find a team of designers and create a good UI/UX

A strong user interface is among the core reasons for the success of many apps. There are many stories on the market that showcase this trend. For example, a higher usability of macOS leads to the ever-increasing transition towards this platform. In this light, you should think about the core methods of improving your UI/UX. Two elements are vital here. Firstly, you’ll need to find a great team of designers. Usually, this is possible to do through development-centric outsourcing companies. Many firms offer full-cycle development and engage both in design and development. 

Secondly, some aspects of human resource management become essential in this case, too. You need to communicate with your team to assess how it’ll react to the new product. In alternative cases, it’s a good idea to try establishing contracts with some producers on the market in order to use them in the assessment tests if you don’t have your in-house farming teams.

9. Build your app and test it

The next step in the creation of an agriculture app is rather straightforward: you have to build one and test it. During this stage, the majority of the activities will be done by the relevant development teams. Your goal here is to monitor the situation and offer your feedback to the developers. The most common approach to development is Agile. Thus, you’ll be able to review your app once every month or even two weeks. This approach will enable you to decide whether it goes in the right direction. 

As for the testing of an app, it’s also a highly vital process in the presented case. The development process is likely to leave your app with a set of bugs. The key goal of the proper testing stage is to remove all those bugs. Testing should occur in multiple modes. Firstly, it’s vital to test whether your app satisfies the overall design principles for creating various applications that exist on the market. For this goal, you can do various forms of automated testing. Secondly, a good idea is to also do some manual testing by analyzing whether your app works well in real-life environments. The more you test, the better. A well-tested app is usually a sign of a high-quality approach to development. 

10. Launch your app

After testing is done, it’s time for the launch of an app. In this regard, our recommendation is to think about the potential impact of the release on your servers (if you have them). An incorrect approach to assessing the scope of the servers can end in the disruption of your service in the early stages of its operation. Testing and MVP are usually the best ways to do this type of assessment and prevent long-term problems with the stability of your application. 

11. Support your app after the launch

The final step in the development of an agriculture mobile app is undoubtedly post-launch support. What’s our recommendation here? You should develop your app across two core goals. On the one hand, a good idea is to continue delivering the features that you considered secondary during the initial development. This will allow you to gradually expand the app and make it even more enticing for customers.

On the other hand, a strong approach to consider for the development of an app after its completion phase is the focus on user feedback. You should look into the things users say about your app. In many cases, the feedback can be highly vital for its long-term functioning. For instance, problems in UI/UX are discovered via this path in the majority of cases. Actively monitor what people say about your app on social media to achieve maximal positive results with feedback from it. 

How Keenethics Can Help With Agricultural Development

As a software development company, Keenethics can help with agricultural development in a multitude of ways. We know how to deliver a wide range of apps that relate to fields like agricultural drone development or, for instance, even aquaculture and cattle management. One of the projects we’ve helped develop for the agricultural field is My Grass Growth. We recommend reading the case to help acquaint yourself with the type of project our company can develop. It’s also possible to find many other cases in fields such as finance and manufacturing via our portfolio page. As you’ll see, Keenethics has major expertise in multiple fields.

FAQ

What do farming apps stand for?

A farming app is any form of an app that is used for assisting farms with managing their day-to-day operations. These applications can include a wide range of options. For example, it’s possible to use them for tracking agricultural drones or using sensors during the soil management process.

What’s the reason to hire agricultural app developers?

The core reason to hire agricultural app developers is rather simple: it’s better to have your app developed by a team of experts. As for the more specific reasons, let’s dive into them. Firstly, agricultural app developers are individuals with experience in development and agriculture. They can tell you if your app idea makes sense or not. Secondly, agricultural app developers are usually organized into teams and have all the relevant infrastructure for doing various projects. In this situation, there’s a great opportunity to save money on organizing your own in-house team. App development companies usually operate at economies of scale.

What technologies does smart agriculture use?

Modern smart agriculture uses a wide set of technologies. Firstly, there’s a wide range of hardware that you should consider for these businesses. Various sensors, robots, and devices are widespread. Secondly, there’s a rise in the number of software tools for managing all those aspects. You can find Big Data and AI software that will analyze information from sensors. Various tools for controlling automated devices are also potent in this case.

What’s the average development time for delivering a smart farming application?

The average development time for delivering a smart farming application usually depends on the scope of the project and its complexity. A small app without complex features can typically take between two and three months to develop. In turn, a bigger app with a multitude of features may require from five months to a year of development. All these figures are, of course, approximate. The best way to find out how long your project will take in terms of development time is to contact a team of experts.

How much does it cost to make a smart farming system?

In our opinion, everything depends on the development time established in your company. If you have an approximate understanding of this aspect, you can try calculating the overall cost based on the rates in our company. Our developers are charging between 25 and 50 dollars per hour of work.