Single-page application for the agricultural market
Our client had an idea for an application to simplify crop growth cycle management for gardeners of all levels, from newbie farmers to experienced commercial growers. Initially, the platform was planned for one country, but the client expected to extend it to the European market.
The client knew the problems of their market from the inside and decided to design a solution that would help solve them all in a simple and convenient way.
Among the most common challenges for farmers were:
Seasonal high workload
During the season, farmers have to cover multiple parallel activities, which leads to the lack of overview and time for marketing and sales activities
No income management
The production season is short, and the growth cycle mostly ends during the peak production time when the prices are low
High waste rate
Overproduction of unpopular crops or during holiday seasons leads to losing the harvest without any profit
As soon as the client formed an idea for a product and got the necessary resources, they discussed the development with several vendors and wanted to be sure of their competence and service quality.
We analyzed the client’s idea and initial requirements and suggested dividing the project into two phases: MVP and full version development. Such an approach would allow the client to enter the market faster and get first income and feedback for further enhancements.
This approach aligned with the client’s vision, so we started with MVP development.
The adaptive web client is developed in React and Redux stack, featuring i18n support and material design to provide a user experience similar to native mobile apps. The lightweight backend API is implemented based on AWS Amplify and relies on Amazon DynamoDB to store data and AWS AppSync to implement the GraphQL-based API layer.
Each development phase was led by a senior specialist, who managed the feature set implementation out of initial mockups and business requirements. They also took responsibility for ensuring scalable architecture and lightweight configuration to enable further app scaling and easy maintenance.
We scaled the team to ensure appropriate development speed, reach the market within deadlines, and fit into the budget. As the initial product version was ready, we paused the development for a while to allow the client to focus on marketing activities and then assigned the team to complete the full application version.
JavaScript
React
Redux
Material-UI
AWS Amazon S3
AWS Amplify
AWS Cognito
AWS AppSync
DynamoDB
Less
Material Design
Webpack
Apollo GraphQL
The application contains data about various crop types so that users can see what they can grow in their area, plan their budgeting, and manage revenue expectations. The library contains information on the crop growth cycle, recommended harvesting period, nursery dates, and other advice for successful farming.
Users can plan in advance what crops to plant, what plots to allocate for particular crops, when to harvest, how to alternate the crops, and more, to maximize crop yield and soil fertility. The application provides an interactive timeline to visualize the process, so the planning and management are convenient and time-saving, even during overloaded seasons.
Apart from planning, users can create and assign tasks for upcoming events or activities and get automatic reminders throughout the crop growth stages for more convenient management. With appropriate task management, the efficiency of farming increases, and the number of wastes and losses drops significantly.
Farmers can add their colleagues and partners to the app with different roles and permission levels to allow them to access the information from a single source and stay on the same page about the growth cycle plans. Moreover, the users can get notified about crop-related tasks they are responsible for, which leads to higher team efficiency.
