"JIASAT" Hybrid App
People's Choice Nominee
"JIASAT" Hybrid App received a People's Choice Nomination.
Help pastoralist communities around the world preserve their livelihood, by providing them access to information and resources (e.g grass land, water, safe routes) to prepare and support their migration journey.
The objective of the project is to design a working prototype for a mobile application which provides pastoralists community with information on land monitoring: water availability, grassland, and assist communities in networking.
A hybrid app that leverages on satellite technology and SMS to solve problems that pastoralists and farmers encounter with a focal point/case study on Bario, Sarawak Malaysian farming community amidst the unreliable internet connectivity in a rural area.JIASAT can be considered as a "bridging app" to connect various communities of interest or stakeholders and the farming community in Bario to improve their livelihoods. JIASAT can also be replicated and used accordingly in different pastoralist concentrated areas.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Plight of the farmers & pastoralists in Bario.
- AGEING GROUP OF FARMERS & PASTORALISTS
→ This community put their health at risk when carrying out hard labour like growing crops and looking after their livestocks.
→ Teenagers, young adults & adults migrate to cities
→ Elderly group of farmers stay behind to man the paddy fields and take care of their livestocks
→ Journey to crop or paddy fields require considerably long walk from their village or settlement
→ Often return feeling lethargic after traversing dirt road/treks and carrying out their farming activities.
→ Can be challenging for this group to identify buyers and sell their crops,produces - UNCERTAIN WEATHER
I. DRY SEASON/DROUGHT
→ crops dry up and die and disrupting their main source of food and income
→ arid land leaves no grass for buffaloes to graze on
→ water supply decreases both for personal/household consumption (cooking,washing) and for farming & livestock
II. HEAVY DOWNPOUR
→ Too much of rainfall causes flood which washes away crops and produces.
PROPOSED SOLUTION: “JIASAT”
JIASAT, a hybrid app that would incorporate satellite technology and SMS technology to be able to provide the predominantly large ageing group of farmers and pastoralists with up-to-date and relevant information necessary to increase their livelihoods.
This hybrid app would utilize information from NASA and Malaysian Meteorological Department to provide the necessary updates such as weather forecast. Apart from that, JIASAT also comes with an app-linking feature to connect the farmers and pastoralists with communities of interest outside Bario. Hence, serving as a “bridging-app” enabling multi-stakeholder engagement.
CHALLENGES
Acknowledging the fact that internet connectivity would pose a huge problem in rural areas such as Bario, “JIASAT” hence leverages on both the satellite and SMS technology alongside NASA’s database to be able to provide the farmers with real-time weather forecast results even in the absence of internet connection.
"JIASAT" FEATURES
Weather - live updates and extended forecast real time data in the presence of internet, as well as
pre- loaded data that can be viewed even without internet connection.Additional push notification feature as a call for action to remind villagers to take preventive measures before draught/heavy rain.
Maps - incorporate user-generating content to give live, up-to-date informations. Also, the unchartered
land in Bario, with the help of the local community would be able to contribute to the mapping of this rural mountainous area.
Broadcast feature - a user can send message to families, villagers and the head of village in a distress situation. A farmer/pastoralist can also market their produce to the communities of interest.
