Summary

The AgriBazaar project is a joint effort between the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS) and the Agriculture Department of Malaysia to boost the Malaysian agriculture industry by enabling the various stakeholders (e.g. farmers, fishermen, agri-based food manufacturers, retailers, distributors, exporters and importers) to conduct their daily agriculture production trading online. AgriBazaar consists of a web portal as the front-end interface to the users and a Supply Chain Management (SCM) system as the back-end application. It allows the stakeholders to put up their products for sale as well as access market information and check on the latest prices. Through this project the government hopes to enhance the productivity of the local agriculture community and the competitiveness of the Malaysian agriculture industry while, at the same time, introduce the use of information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet to the target rural agricultural communities.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) development tools are used to develop the portal and backend application and the portal runs on a FOSS platform. Access to the portal is via the Internet using a web browser. For the users who do not have the necessary computers or network setup to access the portal, a FOSS-based thin-client computer system and/or FOSS live-CDs are deployed at some suitable site for stakeholders to use.

The AgriBazaar deployment attempts to provide a solution to specific economic problems of the target users as well as address the more general digital divide issue facing the target community. The use of FOSS allows the development of the software and the maintenance of the system to take place without incurring high costs. Local software developers were used to develop the application and this will add on to the pool of local software expertise and knowledge. Using FOSS thin-client and/or FOSS live-CD solutions as the access mechanism make it easier for the deployment of the system to other rural areas that may lack the necessary ICT resources.

Challenges to the deployment of the system in rural areas include the availability of adequate Internet-access infrastructure, effective community adoption to new technology, sustainability of the project and the willingness of the target community to take ownership of it.

A pilot trial had been conducted in one of the districts in the country and the results and feedback have been positive and encouraging. The project has since moved beyond this pilot stage and it is now being implemented in stages at various agriculture department offices nationwide.

Background of Organization

The Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems is an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of Malaysia. It plays an important role towards the development of Malaysia by acting as a technology promoter, partner or provider for innovation in and through ICT; mainly in the technology thrust areas of Pervasive Computing, Cyberspace Security and Microelectronics. One of MIMOS’ main development strategies is to extend smart partnership with universities, industries, research institutes and the Government. Currently MIMOS employs about 400 employees.

Objectives of Project

The AgriBazaar project is a joint effort between MIMOS and the Agriculture Department of Malaysia to boost the Malaysian agriculture industry by enabling farmers, breeders, fishermen, producers, agri-based food manufacturers, retailers, distributors, exporters and importers to conduct their daily agriculture production trading online. This project is intended to provide an opportunity for local agriculture producers to extend the market reach of their agricultural produce. Through the use of ICT and the Internet, the project aims to:

• Bridge the digital divide between the rural and urban communities since most of the rural community is engaged in the agriculture industry.
• Enhance the productivity of the local agriculture community through better planning and management of their activities and businesses, thereby leading to better quality products and increased food exports.
• Enhance the competitiveness of the Malaysian agriculture industry.

The target groups of this project include the small and medium farmers, breeders, fishermen and manufacturers of agriculture-based products and services located in the rural areas. Also targeted are the small- and medium-sized enterprises involved in agriculture-based industries such as producing snacks, delicacies, bakery and herbal products.

MIMOS has three key partners for AgriBazaar: the Department of Agriculture from the Ministry of Agriculture which provides the domain expertise, the financial institution required for the payment for business to business transactions and the retailers and producers who are the users of the AgriBazaar system.

FOSS Application

Description

AgriBazaar consists of a web portal as the front-end interface to the users and a Supply Chain Management (SCM) system as the back-end application. It allows the target stakeholders to sell online their daily production as well as access market information and the latest prices of their produce. The users of the system make use of thin-client computers (essentially PCs without hard drives) located at some suitable location to access the portal. The web-based applications available from the portal as well as the thin-client system for the users were all developed using FOSS.

The FOSS software used for the development of AgriBazaar are:

• GNU/Linux operating system
• Apache web server
• Apache-Tomcat servlet container
• STRUTS Java application development framework
• CVS version control system
• MySQL and PostGreSQL database systems
• GNU/Linux thin-client system and GNU/Linux live-CD for deployment to users

Choice of FOSS

FOSS development and deployment platforms were chosen for the project because a cost-effective solution with a high degree of security and low maintenance was needed for the application. The use of FOSS will also encourage local capacity building in ICT technology and software development. Proprietary software solutions were not used as MIMOS intended AgriBazaar to be a showcase of how FOSS can be utilized for large-scale applications and at the same time introduce the rural farmers to the usage of computers thereby helping to bridge the digital divide. For sustainability it is important that in the end the project can be economically owned by the target community and there should be little risk of vendor dependence and lock-in. FOSS offers a cost-effective way to achieve these objectives.

Development and Implementation

The web portal acts as the gateway that connects all the players to the back-end SCM application via the web browser. The SCM system is developed internally by MIMOS to manage the production of products up to the point of selling and marketing the product. This system is based on the problems peculiar to the local agriculture industry. The industry deals with products that have short life cycles and the SCM contains seven modules to address these issues:

• eBuySell – posting new offers, sending requests for quotations, negotiation on quotation and making ordering online
• eLogistic – scheduling and managing transport booking and list of transport provider in the country
• eStock – product, warehouse, and inventory management
• eMake – production and raw material management
• eSupport – management of company's FAQ and assisting customer support.
• ePlan – forecasting and estimation model
• ePayment – payment via online business-to-business transaction

A key design consideration is that the solution developed should conform and comply with applicable standards and mechanisms for collaboration and distribution of ICT solutions/applications. The solution should not be tied to any proprietary vendor or technology and be accessible via any mode or channel of delivery. Open standards are adhered to as strictly as possible in the development of the solution.

Deployment

The district of Batu Pahat in the state of Johor was chosen for the pilot run of the project. The district agriculture office there is the place where the local farmers and cottage industry agriculture community go to seek advice and guidance related to agriculture activities. It is thus an appropriate site to engage the target users in the usage of the AgriBazaar portal. A GNU/Linux thin-client system was set up beside this district agriculture office in the same building. A thin-client system enables easier and more efficient system administration and management contributing to a lower total cost of ownership. The system setup there consisted of one server and ten diskless clients connected to it via a local area network (LAN); this LAN was connected to the Internet via a router and an asynchronous digital subscriber line link. The centre was also equipped with GNU/Linux live-CDs (localized MIMOS/GNU live-CD based on Knoppix live-CD) to enable the diskless clients to run as stand-alone stations to access AgriBazaar should the server encounter any problems that could not be resolved quickly enough.

The web-based application can be easily accessible by the users from any computer connected to the Internet. The use of thin-client technology facilitates the access from a centre managed by a local authority or government agency without the need to install or upgrade to new and expensive computer systems. The existing infrastructure can be leveraged to access and use AgriBazaar and this is very useful, especially for rural communities where such a model will make it easier for them to adopt the usage of AgriBazaar.

For the SCM system, a total of four modules have been deployed for the community to use - ePlan, eBuySell, eStock, and eLogistic. The remaining three modules - eSupport, eMake, and ePayment, are still under development and will be released in the first quarter of 2006.

Impact

The project is focused on bridging the digital divide and enhancing productivity and competitiveness in the agriculture sector of Malaysia. Some of the expected outcomes from this project are increased ICT literacy and income, and improved livelihood for the people in the agriculture and rural sectors. It is also hoped that a pool of local talent with the ability to develop local software applications for social benefits will emerge.

AgriBazaar provides an alternative to the traditional way of doing business. Through it, both the producers and the buyers have direct and better access to the market and each other and the middleman is eliminated. This will result in a more open and competitive market with the seller being able to sell directly to the buyer and the latter obtaining a better value for the items purchased.
 
AgriBazaar can be accessible anywhere and any time. It is more flexible for the producers or the buyers to do business without time constraint thereby increasing their productivity, since buying and selling can be made whenever they are free with less disturbance to their daily jobs or activities. By being a web-based application, AgriBazaar is globally accessible and buyers from other countries have used AgriBazaar as a platform to do business with local producers. In addition to the latest prices of the agricultural products, AgriBazaar also provides up-to-date information on market analysis and estimation data on fruit production. Through this information, producers or buyers are able to stay better informed and be more competitive.

In the deployment of AgriBazaar, a very important impact is the bridging of the digital divide. Most of the farmers or people who are involved in the agriculture industry have low ICT literacy. Through this project, these people are given training regularly so that they know how to access and make use of the AgriBazaar portal; thereby making them ICT-literate.

The use of FOSS and the thin-client approach make it easier to deploy the system even to places where there is low ownership of computers. This will enable the project to reach a wider section of the target communities.

Lessons Learned

Several important lessons were learned in the pilot run of the project.

As the fear among some of the suppliers and providers that their products may not be up to quality resulted in considerable apprehension in using the system, some means of measuring or ensuring quality of their products is needed.

The community adoption to new technology is slow. Changes take time and the rural divide issue is not the only issue at hand. Even the personnel within the organizations involved needed to be inculcated with ICT culture. Users are reluctant to try out and use new things and/or features if their benefits are not seen or obtained immediately.

The usage and availability of appropriate Internet access technologies have to be considered beforehand. As the Internet is required to use AgriBazaar, technologies available in remote areas for Internet access (e.g. broadband versus dial-up) are key factors towards the effective use of the application.

The project must be scalable and sustainable in the future for it to have a longer-term impact. The use of FOSS helps towards this especially in the deployment and maintenance part of the project.

Current Status of Project

The project has moved beyond its pilot stage testing and it is now being implemented in stages at various agriculture department offices nationwide. As part of the implementation plan, MIMOS is distributing PCs, in stages, to these agriculture offices to those who need the access as an incentive to encourage more people to use AgriBazaar. The distribution of the first stage has started where thirteen PCs have been distributed to selected offices recommended by Department of Agriculture.

The second stage of the software development is almost completed and new releases will be seen in early 2006.

AgriBazaar is in the stage of transferring the first level support to the Department of Agriculture for operational matters. Currently, the statistics for AgriBazaar are as follows:

• Number of registered members – 11,500
• Number of offers for purchases of goods - 770
• Value amount of offers - more than MYR 15 million (USD 4 million)

Although, the portal targeted local users involved in agriculture activities, there are also users from other countries registered on the AgriBazaar portal and making offers through the portal. These account for 3 percent of the registered members and they come from countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, United Kingdom and all the ASEAN countries.

Benefits and Challenges

The general benefits gained from using FOSS are experienced in this project. These include the relatively low-cost, reliability and security of the software. More importantly, by using FOSS, the developers were able to grasp and learn advanced concepts of software development and were able to deliver prototypes quickly. FOSS provided the tools needed to do the job and the good references given by the resources available from the FOSS community made it possible to develop a complex system like the applications for AgriBazaar.

FOSS allows the development of the software and the maintenance of the system to take place without incurring high costs. AgriBazaar is a national project funded by the Malaysian government and so there is a need to have a cost-effective platform. The use of FOSS also goes towards the creation of a local pool of software developers and architects and this will in turn create more local content or applications that address the local needs of the nation and industry.

Among the challenges experienced in using FOSS are that a learning period is required before the developers can become productive and efficient as many of them have not been exposed to the FOSS development environment.

The biggest challenge to the project itself is the issue of sustainability. The application needs to be sustainable in order for it to create the impact and benefits envisaged.

Clear ownership of AgriBazaar is also required so that its potential can be further explored and expanded. A dedicated team comprising technical, support groups and domain experts must be focused in providing not only the best solution and technology but also addressing the industry needs. Currently, this is a challenge as AgriBazaar is still at the demonstration stage and is fully funded by the government. The people in the community must also be willing to take ownership of the project and its programmes and activities and be convinced that they are for the betterment of their own livelihood.

Other Information

Much useful feedback has been received asking for the enhancement of the portal from the portal members themselves. The statistics and comments give a good indication that the application is being used actively by the members. The media and press have also given good reviews and comments saying that AgriBazaar benefits the agriculture community.

Conclusion

The AgriBazaar project has shown how FOSS can be leveraged as an enabling tool to build ICT solutions that can benefit targeted sectors of a community, in this case, the agriculture and rural communities in Malaysia. FOSS has been utilized successfully to develop and run the system. The project has contributed towards directly improving the economic status of the rural agriculture producers by providing a platform for them to have better access to buyers and eliminating the middleman. Through the usage of the system, the users have become ICT-literate thereby addressing the digital divide between the rural and urban population. The use of thin-client technology to provide access to the AgriBazaar portal is very useful for rural communities where computer resources are lacking and such a model will make it easier for rural areas to adopt the usage of AgriBazaar.

While the initial feedback to the pilot phase of the project has been positive and encouraging, key issues of sustainability and ownership remain as the project attempts to move from the pilot phase into nationwide roll out.

Contact Information

Project: AgriBazaar
Organization: MIMOS Berhad
Contact Person: Norlidza Mohd Yassin
Street / Postal Address: Technology Park Malaysia, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: mwliza@mimos.my
Phone: +603 8996 5000
Fax: +603 8657 9449

Websites

The AgriBazaar portal
http://www.agribazaar.com.my

MIMOS Berhad website
http://www.mimos.my