Agro- Advisory Services to rural farmers using RFID integrated user interface.
Project Overview:
Our project, Kissan Connect, aims to revolutionize the way rural farmers access critical agricultural information by providing a streamlined and user-friendly advisory service. This service is designed to address the unique challenges faced by farmers, particularly those who are less familiar with digital technology. By leveraging RFID technology and a dedicated interface, we ensure that accessing information is as easy as using an ATM.
Key Features:
1. RFID-Based User Interface:
The system employs RFID cards as a means for farmers to identify themselves. Each farmer is issued an RFID card that they can swipe or tap on the reader. The system recognizes the card and displays customized agricultural information, recommendations, and services based on their registered data.
2. User-Friendly Design:
The interface is designed to mimic an ATM, a familiar setup for many rural users. This minimizes the learning curve and makes it easy for them to navigate through options without needing to understand complex technology. The user interface is displayed on a 7-inch Waveshare touch screen, integrated with a Raspberry Pi 4 for processing.
3. Tailored Agro-Advisory Services:
The system delivers personalized advisory services, including weather updates, crop health tips, soil quality information, and market prices. This ensures that each farmer receives information tailored to their specific region and farming needs, helping them make informed decisions about their agricultural activities.
4. Real-Time Weather Data:
Utilizing the Visual Crossing Weather API, the system provides real-time weather updates, hourly forecasts, and 3-day outlooks. This data is especially crucial for farmers to plan their activities like sowing, harvesting, or applying fertilizers.
5. Data-Driven Insights:
With PHP as the backend, data from the RFID interactions are processed and stored, enabling continuous improvement in service delivery. It also allows for analyzing patterns in service usage to better understand the needs of the farming community.
Technology Stack:
- Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM, Waveshare 7-inch IPS Touch Display, and MFRC522 RFID Module.
- Software: Flutter for the user interface, PHP for backend operations, Firebase for authentication and storage, and Firestore for managing data.
- Weather Integration: Visual Crossing Weather API, with location data handled using the `geolocator` and `geocoding` packages in Flutter.
Objective:
The main goal is to empower rural farmers with timely, accurate, and easy-to-understand agricultural advice, thus enhancing their productivity and sustainability. By bridging the information gap through an RFID-based interface, Kissan Connect ensures that even non-tech-savvy farmers can access the benefits of modern agriculture solutions.