25/06/2020
A one-stop app for all the home gardening tips you need
The Department of Computer Science (Faculty of Science, University of Ruhuna) in collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture (University of Ruhuna), Faculty of Technology (University of Ruhuna), University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) and Western Sydney University Australia has developed a mobile-based application for home gardening. The software named ‘Govi-Nena – Home Gardening mobile application’ was launched by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ruhuna, Senior Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena and Mr. S. Periyasami, Director of the National Agriculture Information and Communication Center, Department of Agriculture on the 1st of June 2020 at the University of Ruhuna in Matara.
The ‘Ruhuna Govi-Nena’ team began this project in the year 2018 with the financial assistance of the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) Project's Research, Innovation, and Commercialization Grant (RIC-Grant). The main objective of this project is to develop and commercialize a mobile-based information system to enhance the growth and long term sustainability of the Sri Lankan agriculture sector.
Due to the sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic the team came up with this home gardening application as a support for the newly inspired hobby of home gardening amongst the masses as well as to support the ‘Saubagya’ program of the government. The Govi-Nena App for commercial farmers is also expected to be launched soon.
The current version of the Ruhuna Govi-Nena App covers a large array of information anyone involved in home gardening needs to know. This application assists the home gardeners step by step from how to cultivate crops correctly until they get their harvest. It is also customized to suit the area of the user and each user can get tips to maintain his/her crops in different parts of the country at the same time through this application. Furthermore, it provides helpful information for organic farming in a structured manner, gives an activity calendar that supports home gardeners to organize their farming activities and many more similar features. This application is available in all three languages spoken in Sri Lanka (English, Sinhala, and Tamil) and has valuable information about 12 crops.
The team behind this application are as follows:
Project Coordinator - Dr. W.A Indika (Department of Computer Science)
Foreign Adviser - Prof. Athula Ginige (Western Sydney University)
Deputy Coordinator – Dr. M.K.D.K. Piyarathne (Faculty of Agriculture)
Adviser - Dr. L.N.C De Silva (UCSC)
Team Members:
Dr. M.K.S Madushika – (Department of Computer Science)
Prof. G.C. Samaraweera, Prof. W.D.G Lakmini & Mr. Sajith Harshana – (Faculty of Agriculture)
Mr. Nuwan Laksiri – (Faculty of Technology)
Dr. M.D.J.S Goonatillake – (UCSC)
Research Assistants - Mr. M.S. Akeel Mohamed, Mr. T.B. Mallikarachchi, Mrs. A.T. Shanadi & Mr. D.A.Y.K Gunawardana (All from the Department of Computer Science)
Software Developers - Mr. Markus Santa (Western Sydney University) & Mr. Waruna Gamage (Department of Computer Science)
More Details - http://www.govinena.lk/
You may download this App via Google Play Store and use it to manage your home garden - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.govinena.app&hl=en
Stay tuned with the Voyage of Ruhuna for future updates of Ruhuna Govi-Nena.
Written by Aadhil Siddhique
