Next month, the St. Lucy Parish Independence Committee plans to launch a new app, which is intended to link and connect people in the agriculture community.
Word of this came from Karl Scantlebury, a member of the St. Lucy Parish Independence Committee, as he spoke with the media yesterday during their Open Day, which was held at the Barbados Light and Power Photovoltaic Farm.
“This year our project is dealing with agriculture and the project theme is “Agrocy”. We decided to use an app to actually connect persons and entrepreneurs in the community,” he said.
He noted that the app, which had been in development since March of this year, initially only targets the people in the parish of St. Lucy, but added they planned to branch out and target other parishes in Barbados and the wider Caribbean within the coming months after the launch in October.
“It’s built into four sections: farming tech, livestock, dairy produce and kids’ corner. The Farming Tech has a voiceover and the user can go in and see where the greenhouses are located across the parish of St. Lucy,” he said.
Additionally, Scantlebury revealed that the app had two modes, online and offline. He explained that if a person did not have access to the Internet, the app would store information to use remotely.
“We’re trying to build the app from a two-fold for both entrepreneurs and the average person to use in the garden. If they want to do home gardening or farming and a person has plants or sheep to sell, they can connect with that person via the app,” he said.
Scantlebury assured that the app would be user-friendly as most of the interface was pictorial. He explained that the app displayed a map of St. Lucy and had icons to indicate where a person may be selling certain farming products. He also noted that prices would be indicated on the icon as well.
To keep the app relevant, he explained that it used real time data, which they updated through using rapid app development.
“As we go into the community, persons have ideas and content that we then put on the app,” he said.