The AgriSmart application has been developed for the Punjab Public Management Reform Programme (PPMRP) to help streamline tasks of agriculture extension workers of the provincial government. The application has been used to create a digital database of:
- Farmer advisory services
- Plant clinics
- Crop reporting
- Pest scouting and warnings
- Farmer trainings
- Monitoring of agricultural inputs
- Soil sampling and testing
- Fertiliser monitoring and testing
- Research trials
The digitisation of agricultural data has facilitated farmers and made advisory services easily available to them. The database of reported activities is being used to plan interventions to improve yields and maximise land use. Before this application was introduced, there was no accurate record of field staff. As much as 67% of their time was spent in departmental tasks instead of fieldwork. With the help of the application, the field staff’s time taken in departmental tasks has been brought down to only 15%. From April 2015 to July 2017, the application has marked 2.2 million entries. As many as 2,724 field workers equipped with smart phones carrying the AgriSmart app have sent details of extension activities daily. The application also has a feedback option to enable farmers to share ideas with the government.