Offline Farm Diary with Field Area Mapping for Smallholders
A beginner final year project that builds an offline mobile app for smallholder farmers to map each field by walking its edge, then log sowing, sprays, fertiliser, water, labour and harvest per field. It shows cost and yield per acre at season end, with an icon-led Urdu and English interface for phones with little data.
Beginner
Achievable by one student in a semester with familiar tools.1 semester · 1 strong student, or 2 semesters · 2 students
6 to ship
3 optional extrasSuggested stack
What you should ship
- Field mapping by walking the boundary with GPS, showing area in acres, kanal and hectares, with manual correction of points
- Per-field activity log for sowing, spraying, fertiliser, irrigation, labour and harvest, each with date, quantity and cost
- Season summary per field: total cost, yield, cost per acre and margin if a sale price is entered
- Reminders for planned activities (next spray, next irrigation) that work without a connection
- Icon-led entry screens usable with minimal reading, in Urdu and English
- Area accuracy test against fields of known size, and a usability test with at least 5 farmers
If you have time left
- Optional sync and a shared view for a family member or farm manager
- Spray interval warnings based on the product label pre-harvest interval
- Voice note attached to any activity
The problem smallholders have with farm records
A farmer with a few acres split across several plots makes dozens of decisions a season: when to sow, which spray, how much urea, when to water. Costs are paid in cash, to different people, over months. At harvest the farmer knows roughly what the crop sold for but not what it cost per field, so it is hard to tell whether a plot, a seed variety or a spray schedule was worth it. Plot sizes are also often uncertain, which makes per-acre comparisons guesswork.
Extension workers and input companies ask farmers what they did last season, and the answer comes from memory.
What already exists and the gap
- Farmbrite: farm management with crop, livestock and finance records; subscription priced in US dollars for commercial farms.
- Croptracker and Gatekeeper: detailed spray, fertiliser and harvest records aimed at commercial growers and compliance.
- GPS field area measure apps: measure land area but record nothing else.
- Crop advisory apps: give advice but do not keep the farmer's own records.
The gap is a simple, offline, low-literacy diary for a smallholder that combines field area with activities and costs, and answers one question at season end: what did each field cost and earn?
What you build
- Farmer: adds fields by walking them, logs activities, sets reminders, sees season summaries, exports a PDF.
- No server needed for the core; optional sync is a stretch goal.
Flows: map a field, log an activity, get a reminder, close a season.
The technically interesting part
Area from GPS. Compute polygon area from a walked boundary. Phone GPS drifts a few metres, so handle outliers, let the farmer drop or drag points, and use a proper area calculation on geographic coordinates rather than treating latitude and longitude as flat x and y. Measure your error on fields of known area and explain it.
Offline maps. Satellite or street tiles need data. Cache tiles for the farm area when there is Wi-Fi, and let the app work on a plain grid when there are none.
Design for low literacy. Use icons, colours and numbers, with text as a secondary cue. Test with farmers early and change what they struggle with.
How to evaluate it
- Area error on at least 5 fields of known size, with the phone model and walk speed recorded.
- Task completion rate and time for mapping a field and logging three activities, with at least 5 farmers.
- App size and cold start time on a low-end phone.
- Whether farmers can answer "cost per acre for this field" from the app, compared with their own estimate.
Suggested plan
- Weeks 1 to 2: visit farmers, list activities and units they actually use.
- Weeks 3 to 5: GPS walk mapping, area calculation, accuracy test.
- Weeks 6 to 9: activity log, costs and reminders.
- Weeks 10 to 12: season summary, PDF export, Urdu and icon pass.
- Weeks 13 to 15: farmer testing and report.
Path to a product
Farmers rarely pay for apps directly. The realistic customer is an organisation that works with many farmers: a seed or fertiliser company, a contract farming buyer, a cooperative or an NGO programme, paying per farmer per season for a branded version and (with consent) aggregated records. Scale by adding crop templates and languages.
Scope warning
Do not build crop disease detection, weather forecasting or market prices; other projects cover those. Do not build accounting. Keep sync optional.
Learn what you need on Sefism
- Mobile roadmap : Flutter, storage and location in order.
- Mobile cheat sheet : quick reference while you build.
- Material Design 3 : large, clear components for outdoor use.
- Nielsen Norman Group articles : usability testing methods for your farmer sessions.
- Which final year project helps you get a job : how to present a project like this to employers.
Get help with this idea
The area accuracy test and the farmer sessions are what make this beginner project stand out. A mentor can help you cut the scope to what your team can finish, choose between the stack options above, and design an evaluation your examiners will respect. You still build it; the help is on decisions, not code.
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