Effective Utilization of Nitrogen Fertilizer in Paddy Cultivation

Abstract

Applying correct amount of Nitrogen fertilizer is vital to gain a fertile yield as well as reduce adverse social, environmental and economic impacts. Currently available methods of Nitrogen estimation have not been popular among Sri Lankan farmers mainly due to their high cost and other several drawbacks. Furthermore, recent researches being conducted in the domain have given less attention in providing with a real time on location solution, this is of critical importance in the context of Sri Lanka, since the computer usage in agriculture based rural communities is very low. Following the design science research methodology, this project proposes a mobile device application to estimate plant Nitrogen content as a low cost on location solution to the problem at hand. Furthermore, the potential of Sri Lankan farmers to use such an artifact along with issues they are facing regarding fertilizer usage and usability consideration were also analyzed through a survey study. The findings from this study revealed the majority of the farmers from the selected sample have the required literacy level and capacity to operate a mobile device based application. Among issues uncovered, the unavailability of timely fertilizer data was seen to be prominent issue among the majority. The proposed mobile application was evaluated with one of the industry standard Nitrogen estimation technique Leaf Color Chart and proven to be accurate. Furthermore, the proposed mobile device application was evaluated by allowing a group of selected farmers to use it and reflect on the functionality as well as its user interfaces. Finally, the proposed solution shows a great promise to overcome the identified fertilizer related issues and empower the farmer to take accurate fertilizer related decisions.