Abstract:
"Dairy farming industry serves as the livelihood for smallholder farmers in developing
countries such as in the Asian region. The industry also plays are crucial role in enhancing
food security, promoting nutrition, and supporting economic development of a country. In
Sri Lanka, the industry has major potential and requires large contribution of relevant
stakeholders to reach its full potential. Unfortunately the dairy currently is exhibiting a
pronounced shortfall in performance, relying around 50-60% of its output through imports.
The growth of this sector at field level is the responsibility of extension services that are
provided by public sector, and certain private contributions are seen. Extension services
throughout Sri Lankan provide assistance to smallholder farmers, who are the majority of
dairy cattle farms in Sri Lanka. The training and education, medical and veterinary
assistance, technical assistance, prevalence and disease control are major aspects that are
provided to ensure the welfare of animals are at required standard and farms overall are
developing to optimize their production. Managing and monitoring these aspects of
individual dairy farms closely are essential and providing frequent and timely assistance
ensure its success.
FarmerVet hence is the solution which assist extension officers to simplify their process of
extension services. It allows extension officers; Vets and Livestock Development
Instructors, to better manage individual farms of their range by providing individual
supervision and support their decision making. The requirements stage was conducted
using techniques such as interviews and questionnaires to design and the development of a
solution which proposed integrated farmer-extension communication, tracking of farms
based on animal health, milk production and breeding segments to analyze their
performance and understand the current status, and analysis of overall farms in the
area/range.
The system has been evaluated by domain experts and non-experts which received positive
perspectives. Further, the thesis has been concluded on recommendations and potential
future works for the solution."