Consultant to Develop Mobile Application and Java Web Tool

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture(ICBA) is an international, non-profit agricultural research center established in 1999 through the visionary leadership of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), and the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ICBA is a unique applied agricultural research center in the world that is focused on marginal areas where an estimated 1.7 billion people live. It identifies, tests and introduces resource-efficient, climate-smart crops and technologies that are best suited to different regions affected by salinity, water scarcity and drought. Through its work, ICBA helps to improve food security and livelihoods for some of the poorest rural communities around the world. ICBA is an equal opportunity employer and appoints qualified staff regardless of race, creed, color, age, gender, religion or national origin. We demonstrate our commitment to each member of our team through a competitive benefits package designed to assist our employees to cover their needs and the needs of their immediate family members.

Job Summary

Develop Mobile Application and Java Web Tool for Irrigation scheduling and crop water requirements estimation for estimating evapotranspiration at the farm level and develop a forecast of required crop water requirement for a week ahead, estimate salt-leachate as required for different salinity levels, develop a smart mobile interface that is easy for the farmers and extension -workers to use. Use appropriate coding methods for developing the applications- SWIFUI, JAVA, etc.

ICBA is working on developing different tool (Integrated Water Management Tool (IWMT)) and mobile application to be shared freely with farmers, extension workers, and other users. The purpose of the tool and mobile application is helping the farmers, extension workers, and irrigation engineers working in marginal areas to have accurate estimate of the actual crop water requirements in the farmers’ fields using weather data, soil information under different agro-climatic zones. The tool will provide the farmers with the best irrigation scheduling by providing the right amount of irrigation water, at the right time, according to the growing stages of the crop and the salinity level of the irrigation water and the soil. The output of the tool is a daily estimation of water and crop parameters: crop water requirement, and actual evapotranspiration. The weather data that will be used includes daily and hourly weather parameters needed for calculating the ET such as temperature, rainfall, wind, pressure, and solar radiation. The tool will allow the farmers to:

• Manage water use for better irrigation and nutrients.
• Manage fertigation and inputs.
• Actual evapotranspiration to estimate the daily crop water requirement.

Job Responsibilities

The required weather, soil, crop, fertigation data has been collected and used in draft excel tool and draft mobile application. The consultant is requested to support the ICBA team and accomplish the mobile application and prepare a JAVA script to make the Excel tool compatible with the web requirements. More specifically, he/she should:

• Use the results of WRF model for dynamical downscaling to a resolution of 3 km and hourly time frequency.

• Develop Energy balance model for UAE using the downscaled data and produced weather data.

• Calculate the Actual Evapotranspiration using the Energy balance model.

• Calculate the actual crop water requirements for selected crops.

• Develop irrigation management and forecasting modules using machine learning and AI.

• Develop a user-friendly interface IWMT tool with Java coding, and mobile applications (iOS and Android).

• Mobile application on Apple and Android that calculate the required irrigation and fertigation and scheduling with friendly interface.

• User-friendly interface IWMT tool with Java coding

Qualifications and Experience

• Prior experience in developing Mobile Applications and Java Web Tool
• Expertise in developing user-friendly interface IWMT tool with Java coding, and mobile applications (iOS and Android)

The consultant must submit their CV along with the details of a similar project done in the past and the expected rate of this consultancy.

Post Date

17 May 2023

Status

Closed

Vacancy Type

Consultancy

Closing Date

open until filled

Location

Remote

Report To

Program Leader - SNRM

Job Number

NA

Duration of the assignment

July 24, 2023