International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)

Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

A Web-based Decision Support System with SMS-based

Technology for Agricultural Information and Weather
Forecasting

Jumoke Soyemi Adesi Adesola Bolaji

Department of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science,
The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro. Nigeria The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro. Nigeria

ABSTRACT SMS Technology can be adequately used for expert advice,

This study designed a framework to assist farmers increase agriculture assistance and veterinarian consulting for
their productivity by receiving weather information through identification and management of livestock illnesses, crops and
decision support system. The system has been developed to diseases or pest control, appropriate seed, pesticides, timely
keep track of weather information related to agriculture. With planting or harvesting techniques relating to weather
the growing population and demands to improve crop predictions, financial transactions (consulting with lenders or
productivity; there is the need to make available sustainable financial loans), agriculture training, up-to-date price
resource practice that serves better both the communities and information for agricultural commodities, as well as contact
the nation. In satisfying this need, a web-based application details for interested buyers for rural farmers.
which contains informative and insightful agricultural tutelages SMS is relatively cheap, robust and reliable technologies used
was developed to aid decision making in agro-processing, to help small-scale farmers improve their agriculture business.
stimulate the farmer’s climate information and provide useful The proper use of SMS between all agriculture stakeholders
information required to enhance crop productivity, especially could improve the agriculture business which also improves the
in the rural areas. The application uses Short Message Service living standard of farmers. They are empowered through this
(SMS) Technology to disseminate weather forecasting to means in making a timely decision if they have climate and
farmers according to their eWarning setup. Therefore, the weather status. If there is no proper communication between all
Decision Support System with all the ready agricultural and stakeholders, it creates the misunderstanding and frustration
weather information will be a huge advantage to farmers at which affect the quality of production and reduce the business,
large and is expected to impact positively on the present performance of work and cause delays. So to improve the
economy situation of the nation through increase in farmers’ financial condition and empower the farmers’ needs,
smallholder’s productivity. strong communication between farmers using the inexpensive
mobile phone technology is the key.
Keywords
Decision Support System, SMS Technology, Weather This study, therefore, investigates decision support systems
forecasting, Agricultural information, eWarning with SMS technology that small-scale farmers and agricultural
extension workers at village levels can operate, understand and
1. INTRODUCTION hence improves access to agricultural information, especially
Several decisions made by management, in the modern day climate information and innovations and to support strategic
farming demand up-to-date and local information, especially farm decisions under a changing climate.
for weather forecasting [1]. There existed varieties of
opportunities for small-scale farmers to be converted into
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
medium scale agricultural production. Amidst various 2.1 Weather Forecasting in Agriculture
approaches, availing decision support systems for enhancing Weather forecasting is defined as “prediction of the state of the
access to agricultural information and sharing of agricultural atmosphere for a given location applying the principles of
insights including climate information is vital for actualizing physics, supplemented by a variety of statistical and empirical
improved crop production to smallholders. Hence, existing techniques and by technology” [4]. Weather forecasts are
methods of information supply to small-scale farmers have important because they are designed to protect life and
been found to be non-effective in getting timely, property, save crops and predict what to expect in the
comprehensible and actionable agricultural information and atmospheric environment.
technologies. Such methods include television, extension Various authors have considered the evolution of the term and
agents and face to face communication. its usage and how this maps to improve agriculture generally.
Disseminating climate information and sharing agricultural Science Daily, in a review of the term's usage, offered the
information can be facilitated by application made available definition of Weather forecasting as collecting as much data as
through Information Technology (IT). The existing methods of possible about the current state of the atmosphere (particularly
dissemination include radio, television, face to face, and the temperature, humidity and wind) and using an
electronic mail. Furthermore, web-based system has been understanding of atmospheric processes (through meteorology)
developed and used to disseminate agricultural information. to determine how the atmosphere evolves in the future [4]. All
However, the use of web and mobile technologies has not been sources happen to agree with the fact that Weather Forecasting
adequately utilized for this purpose [2]. protects life and property, and improves farm productivity.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

The World Meteorological Organization, classified weather model base consists of the analytical capabilities of qualitative
forecasting into different groups, identifying that, when the models. The functionality of the knowledge engine is designed
range is shorter, then the predictability becomes higher and to manage the problem-solving process, the problem
more suitable for an agricultural forecast. The group recognition and the generation of a final solution. The user
classification ranges from Now-casting (between 0-2 hours), interface component is designed to facilitate users’ interaction
Very short-range forecast (up to 12 hours), Short range forecast with the System [3].
(12 to 72 hours) and Long range forecast (12-30 days- 2 years)
[9]. Basically, there are three types of problems for decision
making, namely structured, unstructured and semi-structured.
From another side, the elements of agricultural weather Structured problems can be solved by standard solution
forecasts vary from place to place and from season to season, techniques with clearly specified procedures to make a
but they should refer to all weather elements, which affect farm decision. Whereas the procedures of unstructured problems are
planning and operations. The elements are Sky coverage by unspecified in advance, and most of the decisions procedures
clouds, Precipitation, Temperature (maximum, minimum and are followed only once. In semi-structured problems,
dew point), Relative humidity, Wind Speed and direction, procedures for decision making can be specified but the
Extreme events (heat and cold waves fog, frost, hail, optimal decision making cannot be verified [10].
thunderstorms, wind squalls and gales, low pressure areas,
different intensities of depressions, cyclones, tornados among In general, DSS is project-oriented and the functionality is
others), Bright hours of sunshine, Solar radiation, Dew, Leaf always determined by system architecture. A typical DSS
wetness, Pan evaporation, Soil moisture stress conditions and architecture should have an optimization toolbox, an on-line
supplementary irrigation for rain fed crops, Advice for analytical processing toolbox, a data mining toolbox, a
irrigation timing and quantity in terms of pan evaporation, transaction processing system and a database as illustrated in
Specific information about the evolution of meteorological Fig. 1.0. Users can generate problems to the DSS and obtain
variables into the canopy layer in some specific cases, Micro- the analyzed answers from the user interface and a data mining
climate inside crops in specific cases [9]. toolbox can find the required data in large a database where
data related to the problem are located.
2.2 Decision Support System
Productivity of agriculture is dependent on a number of factors
2.3 SMS Technology as eWarning
such as changing climate, harsh environmental conditions and Short Message Service is a store and forward way of
changing commodity markets. Strategic decisions are required transmitting short messages to and from mobiles [7]. The
by farmers for seasonal response to such factors in order to message from the source mobile is kept in a central short
maintain profitability. The decisions, including the crop variety message center (SMS) which then forwards to the destination
to grow, the rate of sowing, fertilizer need and herbicide mobile. This implies that when the recipient mobile is not
spraying with other agronomy practices, will contribute in a available; the short message is stored and can be sent later. The
huge manner to the economical sustainability of individual length of each short message cannot exceed 160 characters,
farmer [3]. while these characters can be text (alphanumeric) or binary
Non-Text Short messages.
Hence, there is a need for the development of a Decision Unlike paging, SMS messages do not require the mobile phone
Support System assist farmers to make timely decisions. to be active and within range, since they can be held for many
According to [8], Decision Support System is described as the days until the phone is active and within range. SMS messages
collection of integrated software applications and hardware that are transmitted with the same cell or to anyone with roaming
form the backbone of an organization’s decision making capability. They can also be sent from a computer to an
process. Also [6], defines decision support system as a system ordinary mobile device such as the cellular phone and vice-
that assists management decision making by combining data, versa.
sophisticated analytical tools and user-friendly software into a
single powerful system that can support structured, eWarning System is a communication strategy that provides
unstructured and semi structured decision making. However, people (in this case, smallholder farmers) early warning of all
[5] concluded that the main objective of DSS is to support and hazards, natural disasters, to create effective response actions
improve decision making. to disasters before impact, thus dramatically reducing their
effects on the lives of people, properties and in the case of
DSS may be composed of four main components which are farmers, crops and farm products. SMS Technology can be a
Database, Model Base, Knowledge Base and Graphics User great tool to give people the information they required when it
Interfaces [5]. The functionality of data base is to store, retrieve comes to disaster preparedness because aside from being
and organize the raw data that will be used as information to cheap, many smallholder farmers own at least one unit of
make decisions in the knowledge engine component. The cellular phone

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

Fig:1 A typical structure of DSS

3. SYSTEM DESIGN
Systems are decomposed into smaller components where each up, users can interact with different platform on the web
component interrelates with other smaller system using defined application to get desired information. For example, when
interfaces with boundaries, specific purpose and constraints [2]. administrators update the application, registered farmers and
Figure 2 shows the decomposition of the web application to extension agents get such information through SMS. Similarly,
independent modules that interact with one another. Two main when farmers and other users register themselves on the web
components of the web application are the weather forecast platform, the administrators can view all registered farmers
provider system and SMS gateway provider system. In this set through the web interface on the admin page.

Fig 2: Proposed Web-based Agricultural Information System with SMS-based Technology Integration

Figure 3 shows unified model language (UML) diagram for system that extracts information directly from meteorological
modeling data of the application. The model was then used to service.
implement a database using MySQL database management
system (DBMS). The model design describes the interaction of Furthermore, the system is designed to supply information to its
the system with other sub-systems (environments). The system sub-systems. Hence, users get connected to the web application
encompasses the database where the agricultural information through an internet connection from a network provider using a
resides, the eWarning System where the user set up a threshold computer system or mobile phone to assess the information on
to receiving weather information and the climate information the web platform.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

The web application enables users to access agricultural Users can also get the current climate information on the web
information; sets up eWarning to get climate information and at interface according to the user’s input (city search). The web
the appropriate time to receive the climate information as a Short application is connected to open weather map; a meteorological
Message Service (SMS) from the application through SMS service that provides daily weather forecast and other daily
Gateway Provider. climate information

Figure 3: UML Diagram for Web-based Agricultural and Climate Information System

4. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
The system designed was implemented to create the functions In addition to the web platform, SMS-based technology was also
and operation of gathered requirements in detail, including used for implementation. The motivation of implementing SMS
screen layouts, process diagram and other documentations. The technology was driven by the needs of farmers in the rural area
result of this stage describes the web application which is where the access to agricultural information for informed
defined as a collection of modules and subsystems. For each decision making was not encouraging.
requirement, there is a set of one or more design elements that
are produced using the different models. All these design Figure 4 shows the web interface with information about daily
elements describe the desired software features, in detail, climate forecast for Ilaro areas, Nigeria of 2017 as updated by
including functional hierarchy diagrams, screen layouts open weather map. The daily climate forecast showed the
diagrams. temperature, climate description, Humidity, Wind Speed,
Sunrise and Sunset of the particular day.
A web platform was suggested during the implementation phase
because it provides online interaction among agricultural sectors.

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

Figure 4: Web Interface for Daily Weather Forecast

Figure 5 shows part of web interface that displays platform computer system or mobile phone. Registered users can ask
for communicating alerts to registered users. Registered for daily climate forecast of the current season, and the
users who set up eWarning receives daily weather forecast system can find out if such information was updated and
when updated by open weather map through SMS by the display forecast information to the user without human
systems administrator. The system allows farmers and other intervention.
agricultural actors to register on the web interface using a

Figure 5: Web interface for communicating alerts to registered users

The climate information requested by the user through eWarning climate information to users automatically. Hence, the system
setup is sent manually by the systems administrator and this is administrator gets the daily weather information as required by
one of the limitations of the web application; the ability to send

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 180 – No.16, February 2018

the user and manually types it into the web platform for web interface. The SMS is delivered directly to the registered
communicating alerts and user phone upon the action carried out by the system
then send it to the contact provided by the registered user. Figure administrator who sent the climate information based on the
6 shows the corresponding SMS as requested by the user on the user’s request.

Figure 6: Corresponding SMS for Climate Information sent from Agrotherapy

5. CONCLUSION Communication Technology Research, col. 3, pp. 238-248,

The design and development of this application were purely 2013.
based on RDMS, so that the large volume of queries could be [3] T. Pornchai, and A. Leisa, “Decision Support System Data
handled easily. The Decision Support System developed for Farmer Decision Making”, In Proceedings of Asian
contains informative and insightful agricultural tutelages to Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, pp.
enhance farm operations and daily weather forecast to make 472-486, 2014.
reasonable decisions on plants, crops, soil and others. The
[4] Science Daily, “Weather Forecasting”. Retrieved April 7,
contribution of agriculture to the development of any nation
2017 from:
cannot be over-emphasized. The present situation of the nation
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/weather_forecasting.ht
will require governments to look beyond oil boom and revisit the
m. ScienceDaily features breaking news about the latest
agricultural sector with all that is needed to be put in place to
discoveries in science, health, the environment, technology,
take the full advantage of this system. The future scope of this
and more -- from major news services and leading
research work can be extended to include getting local
universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.
commodity prices on their mobile phone so as to make an
informed decision and improve the system to the level where [5] E. Turban, JE. Aronson, J.E.,and Liang, T.P. (2005),
individual farmers can query the system through short codes. Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems(7th ed.).
New Jersey, USA, Pearson Prentice Hall.
6. RECOMMENDATIONS [6] R. Vansh, and M. Supriya, “Decision Support System, Its
The language of the system should be converted to local Components, Model and Types of Managerial Decision”,
languages in order to be more useful for farmers in the rural International Journal of Innovative Research & Studies,
areas. Further development of the economic model is required in 2(12):413-418, 2013.
order to address more complicated resource management
patterns effectively. It is recommended that, more information [7] KK. Veena, and VM. Thakare, “Short Message Service
relating to agriculture, particularly information coming from the using SMS Gateway”, (IJCSE) International Journal on
agricultural sector of the government should be included into the Computer Science and Engineering, vol.2, pp. 1487-1491,
system database. Also, information transferred to farmers can be 2010.
increased substantially by providing email, news groups, [8] ML. Waghmode, and PP. Jamsandekar, “Decision Support
messenger services, online chatting, and discussion groups. Systems and its Applications in different Sectors: Literature
Further work should consider voice support in local languages Review”, International Journal of Advance Research in
for illiterate or semi-literate farmers. Computer Science and Management Studies, vol. 2,
pp.110-115, 2014.
7. REFERENCES
[9] WMO, “Guide to Agricultural Meteorological Practices
[1] IJ. Allan, “Agricultural Information and Decision Support
(GAMP)”, World Meteorological Organization (WMO),
by SMS,” EFITA 2003 Conference. pp.286-292, 2003.
pp.134, 2010.
[2] JC. Ayubu, RS. Mlozil, M. Henry, DT. Siza and C.
[10] HT. Zhang, Q. Yang, CS. Lai, and LL. Lai, “New trends for
Respickius, “A Decision Support System for Enhancing
decision support systems”. Paper presented at the IEEE
Crop Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in Semi-Arid
International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetic,
Agriculture” International Journal of Information and
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IJCATM : www.ijcaonline.org 6