Mobile app Rice Doctor now available in Filipino

The Rice Doctor Filipino App features localized content for Filipino extension intermediaries and farmers

Rice Doctor, an offline mobile app for identification and management of rice crop problems in the Philippines, has just launched a version in Filipino and is now available for free at the Google Play Store for Android devices.

Poornima Shankar, knowledge management and outreach specialist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), describes Rice Doctor as an interactive questionnaire that helps extension workers, farmers, researchers, and students in the diagnosis of pests, disease, and other problems affecting rice. The current version of the app can help diagnose any of more than 80 of the most common of these conditions affecting rice. 

The app is also available online at http://ricedoctor.irri.org.

Although Filipinos remain among the most English-proficient in Asia, for many farmers as well as the agricultural extension workers assisting them, a mobile app such as Rice Doctor being available in Filipino presents an easier-to-understand and, thus, a more straightforward knowledge resource. Rice Doctor in Filipino is the first 'localized and translated version of the diagnostic app. Similar efforts are ongoing in India and Bangladesh.

To facilitate the ‘localization’ of Rice Doctor for the Philippines, workshops and consultations with farmers, extension workers, and specialists from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) were organized by the Impact Acceleration Unit of IRRI.

The development of Rice Doctor in Filipino was supported fully under the project ImprovingTechnology Promotion and Delivery through Capability Enhancement of Next-GenRice Extension Professionals and Other Intermediaries (IPaD), a collaboration among IRRI, DA-PhilRice, and DA-Agricultural Training Institute.

Last year, Project IPaD and the Impact Acceleration Unit also did a study in different parts of the country to assess and improve the usability of Rice Doctor.

IRRI with its partners have also developed other mobile-based tools for farming, one of which is RKB Lite, the offline version of the Rice Knowledge Bank, a web-based resource on the best practices in rice farming. It is also available as an app at the Google Play Store.

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