My grandparents were farmers, this, they passed down to us. Even though the scale at which we farm isn't as large as our parents did, we still held on to the heritage and farm both for commercial and subsistence purposes. Over the years, the method of farming has evolved. With our parents, our farming was mainly a traditional method of farming, we did all the farming and weeding and whatever process that was involved from ploughing to harvesting. But that has changed, nowadays we include mechanized farming using tractors and spray chemicals to kill the weeds instead of weeding using our hands.
No doubt, agriculture is one of the major backbone to production and commercialization and adds to the country's economic GDP. But there's no major support to farmers and those intending to venture into agriculture. Instead farmers suffer major disadvantages, there's no good roads to transport their products to buyers and major markets, price of chemicals is on the increase daily, taxes imposed on farmers , no seeds or chemicals to fight pests, poor soil due to lack of rotation and fertilizers are expensive.
All these disadvantages had crippled the elbow of people who had interest in farming. So instead of farming for commercial purposes, most people farm for subsistence purposes to meet their daily needs. Both mechanized and manual/traditional methods of farming have their advantages and disadvantages, while mechanized farming is more expensive, the traditional method is more stressful and can not cultivate a larger land like the use of mechanized farming. Sometimes one who owes a small amount of land may not consider using machines.
But then, if I am to help farmers develop an application that solves one major problem they encounter, I'll build an application that connects buyers and sellers. Buyers would be able to make demands while the seller delivers it to them. After delivery, the seller can make payment directly from the app. This app would bridge the stress farmers go through in search of buyers and help farmers sell their perishable products in time. While buyers can make demands of produce they want, sellers can also list the produce they have for sale. The address of the buyer would be provided at the point of agreement and once the delivery is made, the seller would be notified and payment made. While this would help buyers get fresh foods, it would also ease the farmer's stress and avoid spoils.
