Internal control systems allow agricultural cooperatives
to monitor the growing practices of their members, ensuring
adherence to various standards for quality, and for meeting
external certification requirements. In this paper, we present
the motivation, design and evaluation of an automated mobile
data collection, evaluation and reporting tool for internal control
at a coffee cooperative. Our design goals were to improve the
efficiency of this process, and to increase the accountability of
various stakeholders. Based on a three-month pilot deployment,
we have demonstrated a 30% reduction in inspection time and
71% reduction in evaluation time, compared to the earlier paperbased
approach, which relied on several manual data collection
and information processing steps. We also present the results
of a qualitative evaluation of the system, including real field
experiences and the perceived benefits and drawbacks of the
automated system from the perspective of inspectors, farmers
and other stakeholders.
Internal control systems allow agricultural cooperatives
to monitor the growing practices of their members, ensuring
adherence to various standards for quality, and for meeting
external certification requirements. In this paper, we present
the motivation, design and evaluation of an automated mobile
data collection, evaluation and reporting tool for internal control
at a coffee cooperative. Our design goals were to improve the
efficiency of this process, and to increase the accountability of
various stakeholders. Based on a three-month pilot deployment,
we have demonstrated a 30% reduction in inspection time and
71% reduction in evaluation time, compared to the earlier paperbased
approach, which relied on several manual data collection
and information processing steps. We also present the results
of a qualitative evaluation of the system, including real field
experiences and the perceived benefits and drawbacks of the
automated system from the perspective of inspectors, farmers
and other stakeholders.
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