INTERACTIVE WEB-BASED PLATFORM TO BOOST THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The agriculture sector plays a vital role in Sri Lanka’s economy. Interestingly, more than 30% of Sri Lankans are involved in the agricultural sector. The vegetable sector is the second most important sub-sector of island’s agriculture after rice. However, it is well known that vegetable production should be improved significantly to meet the demand and also satisfy the customer’s requirements. Some of the main obstacles facing this sector are the role-play of middlemen and farmers’ lack of knowledge about best-growing practices, pest and disease management. This study, discussed the development of MVC (Model–View–Controller) based trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and English) web based system using the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model, primarily to rectify the vegetable farming-based issues among the users, and also facilitated to get the expert consultation at real time. In addition, users can advertise their products to reach the customers. Moreover, this platform provides its functionality for the farmers, agriculture students, agro-industrial companies, salesmen and any other agriculture-related workforce. It allows to connect the whole vegetable farming community in the country and increases the farmers’ knowledge, efficiency of the supply chain and supports economic development.