Tea, coconut, and rubber are considered as major crops in Sri Lanka. All the supervision & operational activities related to these crops are carried out by the Ministry of Plantation Industries. Several institutions have established for the betterment of the field of coconut cultivation. Among them, the Coconut Cultivation Board takes a prominent place. The key objective of the Coconut Cultivation Board is to uplift the production of coconut and productivity and to establish sustainable coconut cultivation by providing necessary input and financial facilities to coconut growers island-wide through an efficient extension & advisory service. Currently, it has spread over million acres of land island-wide, which means both as a domestic crop and as a commercial crop. Coconut Cultivation Board has a limited number of Coconut Development Officers to provide new technical information and services to coconut growers. This situation is the main issue encountered by the Board.
Launching a mobile application is another revolutionary step taken by the Coconut Cultivation Board to make efficiency in extension service by using modern technical methods. In modern society, mobile phones are strongly attached to the lifestyle of people. The majority of the countries in the world have used mobile phone communication technology to create an optimistic influence on social, economic and cultural aspects. Among a large number of mobile applications utilized in the present society, applications related to agriculture have taken much popularity.
Currently, there is no official mobile application in Sri Lanka to provide descriptive information on technical services related to coconut cultivation. To fill this void, the Coconut Cultivation Board created a new mobile application called “Coconut App”. Coconut growers can install this application free-of-charge. This application has divided technical information related to coconut cultivation into two layers; all the details are provided in a precise and simple manner that can be understood by ordinary people and the relevant documents can be downloaded for the benefit of any individual either for commercial purpose or academic purpose.
This mobile application provides information on various field activities related to coconut cultivation, various diseases and pest control methods, services provided by Coconut Cultivation Board and expenses about all the field activities related to coconut cultivation to coconut growers through several packages. In addition, the coconut grower can watch some short videos for further information on diseases and pests related to coconut cultivation.
This application also facilitates the grower to register and obtain services provided by the Coconut Cultivation Board, gather information about the places by which necessary inputs can be purchased and directions to those places. Coconut growers can submit the issues encountered at the field related to coconut cultivation in words, as a voice message, picture or videotape and obtain the assistance of relevant technical officers with immediate effect. Although a certain amount of data will spend to install the application, the users can use it offline while the location of the grower can be tracked when using.