Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes
2023, Vol. 13, No. 3 e-ISSN: 1390-8146
Published by: Universidad Técnica Luis Vargas Torres
How to cite this article (APA):
Orozco, J., Chavez, G., Pilaloa, W., Naspud, M., Guaman, M. (2023)
Technological solution for the productive management of banana crops, Revista Científica
Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes, 13(3) 1-13
Technological solution for the productive management of banana crops
Solución tecnológica para la gestión productiva del cultivo de banano
Jéssica Digna Orozco Holguín
Magister en Administración de Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas, Ingeniero Comercial y Empresarial,
Universidad Agraria del Ecuador, Programa Regional de Enseñanza Dr. Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz campus El
Triunfo, El Triunfo Ecuador. jorozco@uagraria.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7864-6707
Gloria Patricia Chavez Granizo
Magister en Gerencia de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, Universidad Agraria del
Ecuador, Programa Regional de Enseñanza Dr. Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz campus El Triunfo, El Triunfo
Ecuador. gloriach@uagraria.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-7250
Wilmer Omar Pilaloa David
Magister en Agroecología Agricultura Sostenible, Universidad Agraria del Ecuador, Programa Regional
de Enseñanza Dr. Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz campus El Triunfo, El Triunfo Ecuador.
wpilaloa@uagraria.edu.ec, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9328-2622
Mayra Gabriela Naspud Espinoza
Magister Universitario en Seguridad Informática, Universidad Agraria del Ecuador, Programa Regional de
Enseñanza Dr. Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz campus El Triunfo, El Triunfo Ecuador. mnaspud@uagraria.edu.ec,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1763-3694
María Emilia Guaman Guaman
Ingeniero en Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad Agraria del Ecuador, Programa Regional de
Enseñanza Dr. Jacobo Bucaram Ortiz campus El Triunfo, El Triunfo Ecuador. mguaman@uagraria.edu.ec,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4757-9086
For the study of the technological solution for the productive
management of the banana crop was based on the need of farmers
seeking to improve the productive management of the banana crop
post-harvest, since using a manual method to record the productive
management of the crop are not of great help, due to ignorance of
the evolution of technological solutions for the processes of the crop,
posed as a general objective to develop a web system through the
Abstract
Received 2023-05-12
Revised 2023-07-22
Published 2023-09-07
Corresponding Author
Jéssica Digna Orozco Holguín
Jorozco@uagraria.edu.ec
Pages: 1-13
https://creativecommons.org/licenses
/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Distributed under
Copyright: © The Author(s)
Technological solution for the productive management of banana crops.
Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2023/ , Vol. 13, No. 3
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use of free software tools for monitoring the productive management
of the banana crop, the methods used were: descriptive, non-
experimental and applicative research, interview and surveys were
also used, the same that helped the information gathering that
allowed to obtain all the necessary information to establish the
requirements in the development of the technological solution, also
used the XP methodology the same that allowed to carry an orderly
programming that avoided errors in the system, it resulted in a system
that has modules such as: Security module, production control
module, shipment control module, inventory module, farm control
module, advertising and reports. As a conclusion and
recommendation, it can be said that the implementation of the web
system contributes to improve the management of resources in
organizations and increase their productivity, in this case in the
banana crop.
Keywords:
Free software tools, implementation, XP methodology,
web system.
Resumen
Para el estudio de la solución tecnológica para la gestión productiva
del cultivo de banano se partió de la necesidad de los agricultores
que buscan mejorar la gestión productiva de la postcosecha del
cultivo de banano, ya que el usar un método manual para registrar las
gestiones productivas del cultivo no son de gran ayuda, debido al
desconocimiento de la evolución de las soluciones tecnológicas de
los procesos del cultivo, planteándose como objetivo general
desarrollar una sistema web mediante el uso de herramientas de
software libre para el seguimiento de la gestión productiva del cultivo
de banano, los métodos empleados fueron: descriptivo, no
experimental e investigación aplicativa, también se utilizó entrevista y
encuestas, las mismas que ayudaron al levantamiento de información
que permitió obtener toda la información necesaria para establecer
los requerimientos en la elaboración de la solución tecnológica,
también se utilizó la metodología XP la misma que permitió llevar
Technological solution for the productive management of banana crops.
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una programación ordenada que evitó errores en el sistema, se tuvo
como resultado un sistema que cuenta con módulos como: módulo
de seguridad, módulo control de producción, módulo control de
embarque, módulo de inventario, módulo de control de hacienda,
publicidad y reportes, como conclusión y recomendación se puede
decir que al implementar el sistema web aporta al mejoramiento del
manejo de los recursos en las organizaciones y aumentar su
productividad, en éste caso en el cultivo de banano.
Palabras clave:
Herramientas de software libre, implementación,
metodología XP, sistema web.
Introduction
The research is based on the need that in most of the farms the
banana crop production management is carried out manually,
carrying out an analysis that allows the determination of the
technological needs focused on the productive management for the
follow-up of the productive management.
Ecuador has a high demand for banana cultivation in international
markets, because its production is of high quality, thanks to the
climate and soil characteristics, which is why it is positioned among
the world's leading banana exporters. This is where the importance of
the implementation of a web system that follows up the management
of banana crop production lies. The research seeks to develop a web
system through the use of free software tools to monitor the
production management of banana crops on farms.
The farms lack the use of technology to help monitor banana crop
production, because they do not have accurate information for
decision making. The monitoring of banana crop production activities
are as follows: field work, phytosanitary work, fruit processing and
finally fruit transportation, all of which are carried out by means of
manual notes that are of no practical use.
The research aims to know the applications of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs), because they offer multiple
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benefits in the different daily tasks becoming less complex and faster
for the management of owners, managers and workers.
Methodology
The type of research that was used was descriptive; through this type
of research the technological needs of the farms were detailed, thanks
to this it was possible to create the web system that solves the
technological need.
The research design is non-experimental, because all the information
on banana production management in the farms was used for the
development of the web system, achieving the adjustment of needs
and requirements and proceeding to establish which modules would
be integrated for the development of the system.
Extreme programming is a new software development discipline that
has been causing a great stir in the world of programmers, gaining
the support of the software creation industry (Sepúlveda, 2020).
Extreme Programming or XP aims to produce higher quality software
that provides better efficiency to the development team, whose
objective is to promote the application of good engineering practices
suitable for building software (Rosado, 2019).
In this research the use of XP programming was used, because it is
adjusted to the correct creation of software with the least possible
errors, in addition, it allows to know the needs of the banana crop
production management for the correct phases of the development
of the system.
The planning phase is a phase of utmost importance because it was
possible to know what the technological needs were through an
interview with a farm owner, using the Word tool in which questions
were formulated to learn about the management of banana crop
production. A customer-oriented survey was also carried out using
Google Forms, which allowed us to observe different points of view
for the development of the web system.
In this phase a user friendly system was designed, where all the
interface and structure of the system was developed in UML diagrams,
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also the design of the database and all the processes with which it has
according to the tables that were made in the software, the XP
methodology helped a lot in this phase provided simplicity, solutions
and recodifications that had the web system.
In this phase the coding of the web system was carried out, through
the programming of each of the modules that were integrated, in
addition, free programming tools such as PHP were used. PHP is an
object-oriented programming language and is easy to use, with
respect to the data was used MySQL, where modules were obtained
that allow interacting according to the function of each of them play.
In this phase several tests are carried out which allowed to know if the
developed software has errors and can be corrected thus avoiding
that they become unwanted defects, in addition, white box tests were
performed since they allow to make unit tests avoiding errors in the
execution of the system, whether these instructions, commands,
routes that lead to each module, also proceed to perform the black
box test this test helped to validate that each field contains the system
starting from the beginning of section and the integration test that
helped to know if the modules have been integrated or joined
correctly. The implementation of the web system was done once with
the system tests, then the configuration of the domain and hosting to
upload the system to the web.
The data collection is fundamentally based on the systematic
approach, that is to say, all the resources that were helpful for the
development of the technological solution, thanks to which it was
possible to correctly establish the conclusions and recommendations.
The Human Resources that participated in the research were three
people in charge of the elaboration and development, bibliographic
resources used as foundation and support, as well as the software and
hardware resources that were indispensable for the development and
finally the cost table was used to know the investment made.
The Hardware Resources were an LG desktop computer with Intel(R)
Core (TM) i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz; 8GB Ram memory,
913GB hard disk storage, EPSON ET-4550 printer and 8GB flash
drive.
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The software resources were Windows Operating System: Windows
10; office tools such as Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, Project;
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) programming language and a database
management system: MySQL.
The cost of the project for the development of the technological
solution (web system) for the productive management of the banana
crop was $ 570.00 (five hundred and seventy U.S. dollars).
The analytical method was used because it is applied in large
investigations of different levels of complexity, in addition, it helps to
break down the information in a thorough, detailed and
understandable way, in this case this method was used directly
because it allowed observing each and every one of the productive
processes of the banana crop post-harvest.
Research techniques were also used, which were: observation sheet,
survey and interview.
The observation sheet was elaborated with questions about the
management of banana crop production, gathering information that
allowed us to know the technological needs.
The interview was directed to a ranch owner, in this interview
questions were established establishing the necessary requirements
for the development of the web system, this interview format was
developed in the Word tool because it is an easy and simple tool to
use.
An interview was conducted with an agricultural technician. The
interview format was prepared in Word and consisted of five
questions that were posed to learn, explain and analyze in more detail
the use and benefit of technology in the agricultural area.
The survey was conducted to the customers of the Hacienda "La
Suerte" because they are the ones who buy the product, thanks to
the application of this survey it was possible to know the requirements
that were taken into account for the development of the web system.
The customer survey was conducted using the Google technology
tool and the customer population was considered, according to
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information provided by the owner of the farm, who indicates that she
has 35 customers.
The basic information for the development of the technological
solution was obtained from interviews and surveys. The owner of the
farm was interviewed to outline the requirements of the web
application. Likewise, the farm has a population of 35 clients and the
finite statistical sample formula was not applied because the
population is finite and the entire population was considered for this
study, which is why it is not necessary to elaborate a sample.
Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the results obtained in the
survey through tables and graphs. The information was processed and
displayed through pie charts and tables showing the percentages of
responses obtained in the alternatives presented.
Results
The analysis of all the productive management of the banana crop as
regards the post-harvest carried out on a farm was proposed. For the
analysis of the current situation of the farm, research techniques were
applied to determine the requirements for the development of the
system, which are detailed below:
The observation technique made it possible to know the
technological equipment existing in the farm, which were two desktop
computers, office supplies such as notebooks, pens, among others,
two printers, cameras for the security of the farm, all this is in the office
of the farm, it was also possible to observe the technological need
that the farm had because all their records for the management of
banana cultivation are kept manually and therefore there is no proper
control of the productive management of banana cultivation.
The interview with the owner of a farm was able to obtain the post-
harvest processes of banana cultivation, from harvesting the fruit and
caring for it for twelve weeks until it reaches its final process, banana
cultivation is hard work every day, the fruit requires many nutrients for
the plant, the necessary care of pests and others, all this very
necessary for banana cultivation. The process of banana cultivation in
the post-harvest is a very important process because thanks to this it
is possible to grow quality bunches. The monitoring of the
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management as products, materials and tools used on the farm is
carried out by means of manual records. The visualization of the
information records of the processes carried out on the farm is done
by means of manual notes. With the implementation of the
technological solution, reports such as inventory control or production
control will be visualized in a timely manner and, in turn, will
contribute to improve the monitoring of production management on
the farms.
In the interview the agricultural technician was asked about the use of
technology to manage the productive activities of the banana crop,
he mentions that the use of technology is of great benefit, also that
thanks to the implementation of the web system the records will no
longer be made manually, in addition, the agricultural technician is
willing to train and learn about technology for the benefit of their daily
work on the farm, and helps to have a better management in the order
of the processes in terms of the post-harvest of the banana crop.
The survey was directed to the farm's clients who purchase products
such as banana boxes, banana trimmings and rachis. In addition, it
was very important to know the days of production of the farm to
make the purchase of the product. The farm's customers frequently
use technology to find information about bananas, which is why it is
very important for the farm to implement the use of technology to
provide better service to its customers. The farm's customers agree
that a web system should be used to offer the products. The web
system should be manageable, simple and user-friendly. At the end
of the survey, the clients were very satisfied to know that the farm will
implement a web system; these results were tabulated and presented
in pie charts for better understanding.
Requirements for the development of the web system.
The requirements provide a path between the customer and the
developer to achieve a good system.
User requirements.
• Simple
• Friendly
• Insurance
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• Reliable
• Manageable
Web system requirements: What the system must do to improve the
productive management of the banana crop.
Detailed description of the services and what the web system should
do:
Security: The web system has two functionalities as a principle, the
internal user who enters with a password and user, external user will
only be able to visualize the informative part of the web page.
Production control: This module will have the functionality to control
production tasks, materials, bunches harvested, sleeved, rejected and
among others.
Shipment control: This module will do the following will have guide
registration, route control, export quota, transportation and drivers.
Inventory: This module will maintain the stock of inputs, input and
output of inputs.
Farm control: This module will keep all the farm data and will also
keep control of banana sales, shrinkage and rachis.
Advertising: The advertising page will allow the external user to know
information about the farm, such as: about us, the care of the farm's
bananas, the services it provides and the inputs it uses to provide
healthy fruit.
Reports: This module will issue reports in PDF and by date.
We learned in detail about the technological needs of the farms,
including inventory control management and the activities that are
carried out for the management of banana crop post-harvest
production. Thanks to the answers obtained, we were able to improve
the farm's management by improving the organization and
management of its post-harvest activities.
The elaboration of diagrams made it possible to see the functionality
and design of each module that the web system would have, in this
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way it was possible to appreciate the logical behavior that the system
would have in the farms.
By means of the use case diagrams, the functions, the specification of
the interaction and the respective procedures that the system has for
the benefit of the user were made in detail so that he/she has
knowledge of the operation of all the modules developed for the
system.
The class diagrams helped to see all the relationships that the
different entities have with the attributes and methods that are all
those actions that the web system performs, the fields and keys are
related to the tables and the database that will be used to feed all the
modules that the hacienda's web system has.
The database diagram was developed in XAMPP designer option, it
allowed to observe in a logical way the behavior that the web system
was going to have, it also allowed to observe the respective structure
with the tables, fields, keys and all the processes that the system has.
Finally, the elaboration of the data dictionary was carried out, where
the fields and the type of data that were used for the construction of
the system are detailed and specified.
The web system was programmed in Open Source tools such as PHP,
this helped the development of the lines of code, also facilitated the
programming of text with the editor sublime, also for data storage
was used MySQL and XAMPP server. The test cases were performed
in order to avoid failures or errors that may occur in the web system,
thus helping the easy implementation of the web system, 13 test
cases were performed to the different modules that make up the
system.
The web system was implemented at the farm, and the administrator
was explained how to use the system and access it from any browser
with internet access.
The technical manual was made with the purpose of providing the
technical reader with each and every one of the guidelines of the
configuration and logic with which the web system was developed,
the technical manual is very important because the programming that
was done is unique to the author, which is why it is important that it is
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documented thus facilitating the understanding of other
programmers and technicians.
The user's manual is the document of constant communication that
exists between all the people that are going to make use of the web
system, it is very important because it will show each one of the
functionalities of the system, also thanks to the user's manual it will be
possible to give solution on some common problem that is presented
to the user.
To analyze the productive management of the banana crop, we
proceeded to know the main problems existing in the production of
the banana crop of the farm, for the development of the web system,
the methods of descriptive research and applied research allowed to
know in detail the existing technological need in the farm since they
are key methods, elementary and of great benefit for the construction
of the requirements (Serabia, 2020). Within the interview and survey
this same can be directed and applied in many ways since it consists
of the detailed description of the most relevant procedures of an
organization, these same provide clear and coherent information and
is easy to understand (Malhotra, 2019).
We proceeded to conduct surveys and interviews to learn in detail the
post-harvest processes of the banana crop on the farm, thanks to
which we were able to establish the requirements for the
development of the web system.
Open Source tools such as MySQL, PHP, XAMPP were used to design
the structure of the farm's web system. Loor (2019) indicates that
through the use of free tools can be managed agile projects and solve
those technological problems that arise, either through software in
the cloud or from external media, free tools are based on the user can
modify, create or delete the code at their convenience as for example
the PHP language this allows the creation of web pages, the database
allows the storage of large amounts of data avoiding redundancy
which allows easy data management, by making use of the correct
computer tools for the design of the web system helps to understand
and understand in a simple way the work. Ruiz (2019) mentions that
by means of the tools that the UML language has, it is possible to
propose database diagrams and also the use cases that allow to know
the logical behavior of the system. The PHP language was used for
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the design and development of the web system, MySQL was also
used as the database manager since it allows the storage of large
amounts of data without any interference.
We proceeded to the development of the web system using all the
free tools mentioned above, which allowed the satisfactory
development of the system, once the system was completed we
proceeded to perform the tests that allowed us to know if the system
had any problems, followed by the implementation of the system on
the web.
Conclusions
The use and implementation of information technology is very
noticeable, because in the future it will be possible to observe the
significant contribution to the Agroindustrial sector of the country for
the benefit of small and large producers. Since through the
implementation of web systems it will be possible to automate the
different processes that are carried out in the different farms, which
leads to have the productive management in a faster and more
efficient way, avoiding manual notes, saving time and generating
greater productivity.
An analysis of the productive management of the banana crop,
through the multiple techniques and research methods, was of great
help because thanks to this, the problem and the requirements for the
development of the web system for the benefit of the farm were
known.
The use of the structure design through Open Source tools and UML
languages is very good because it helps to build the necessary
modules to solve the problem, since they are the representation of
the system detailed by one or more series of actions.
The development and implementation of the web system oriented to
the follow-up of the banana crop production management is a great
contribution to an orderly and safe management, with reliable and
real time information on the farm.
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