Could five University of the West Indies (UWI) undergraduate students, from the Department of Computing have come up with a real solution to a major challenge facing the island’s agricultural sector?
 
Judges of the Jamaican code sprint entries at the Caribbean Open Data Conference certainly believe so.
 
Bruce Hoo Fung, Jonathan Smith, Kimberley Roper and brothers Mumba and Kangwa Sambo are Team K2MJB -- the creative minds and developers behind ‘Farma Bredren’, a mobile phone application that will improve how the Rural Agriculture Development Authority (RADA) collects information on crops from farmers across the island. The quintuplet is students in the Department of Computing at the UWI.
 
“RADA will benefit by having a mobile application which (its) extension officers can use to update their records instantly from the field,” explained Mumba Sambo of Team K2MJB. “This will be important so that there is a better record of which crops are available and from who. It will improve the quality of information on the amount of produce available,” he added.
 
‘Farma Bredren’ will also allow RADA extension officers and farmers to record instances of praedial larceny through a special feature called ‘Infarma’. The extension officers will use ‘Infarma’ to document farmers’ reports of theft firsthand, storing images and dispatching information about the theft to the police and other farmers. Praedial larceny is one of the chief issues crippling farmers in the Jamaica. Team K2MJB argued in their presentation that their app will allow reports about the theft of produce and livestock to be disseminated accurately and with greater ease. This can provide the inputs for a dynamic theft reporting system where incidences can be displayed on a map, as well as broadcast via SMS to enable police and other farmers to be alerted and respond in a timely manner.
 
Team K2MJB created the application in 24 hours during the Conference’s code sprint session, outrunning 12 other teams. Team K2MJB’s solution was aided by data and statistics contributed by RADA as part of the conference’s long-term mission to raise public awareness about open data and encourage innovation through its access and use.
 
All 13 teams participating in the Jamaican leg of the Caribbean Open Data Conference’s code sprint benefited from access to data and statistics on tourism, education and agriculture sourced from several government agencies. This open data informed the design of practical and easy-to-use mobile and web-based tools with useful solutions for consumers as well as the financial, agricultural, food and beverage and transportation sectors.
 
The use of open data or government statistics that are accessible by the public, free of cost, can only improve a nation’s economic and social development. “We are currently assessing the economic potential of open data in various sectors, but high-level estimates suggest that if managed well, open data initiatives could add significant value to the Jamaican economy,” said Dr. Maurice McNaughton, Director of Mona School of Business and Management’s Centre of Excellence and one of the principals in the Caribbean Open Institute, a regional research initiative funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
 
“The open data movement is gathering momentum across the region, as government agencies begin to appreciate the potential of open government data as a catalyst and enabler of innovations that can lead to improved public sector efficiency and service delivery,” he said.
 
The applications developed by the top three Jamaican teams are sure to enhance service delivery in the local financial, agricultural and food and beverage sectors, and could possibly be used in other markets. Delton Phillips and Tremaine Buchanan’s second-place winning ‘Farmscore’ app will help banks assess a farmer’s ability to repay loans and farmers in turn will be able to calculate their risk profile. The ‘Blaze Bartender’ developed by Jason Scott, Jonathan Scott and Kevin Leyow will take the hassle out of ordering drinks at the club and provide bars with a new way to engage their customers.
 
Team K2MJB along with the second and third place teams will now have the opportunity to focus on refining their software applications and sourcing funds to take them into production.
 
The Caribbean Open Institute will support the journey of these three teams and their winning counterparts from the four Caribbean countries in which the conference took place last week by inviting them to take part in the Caribbean App Challenge. The Challenge is a two-month virtual competition in which participating code sprint teams will have the opportunity to build out their prototypes into apps that are stable and ready for deployment, with help from international and regional mentors. Through various mechanisms including forums, video conferences and webinars, developers and mentors with specific domain expertise, business development, marketing, design and other backgrounds will work together to refine projects that address a subset of the prototypes submitted at the conference.