Development of an Agricultural Machinery Rental System for Small and Medium-Scale Farmers in Tanzania using a Mobile Application

Abstract

Nowadays, many online services are trending and greatly supporting the development of a mobile app aimed at improving agricultural machinery rentals for farmers in Tanzania. This app also helps equipment owners maximize their machinery utilization. The initiative addresses key issues in traditional machinery rentals, especially limited access and lack of transparent pricing. The app offers a centralized, easy-to-use platform that allows registered users to browse, select, and book equipment tailored to their specific farming needs. The system consists of four modules: login and registration, equipment listing, machinery selection, and booking and payment. It is built using the Flutter framework for a responsive interface, Dart as the primary programming language, and Firebase for dependable backend services. Thorough testing, including Unit, Integration, System, and Acceptance tests, was carefully conducted. This extensive validation ensured the system’s functionality, seamless communication between modules, and stability across various Android devices. The app achieved positive results, with an average score of 4.47 for user interface design and 4.36 for usefulness, ease of use, and overall usability. The standard deviation values ranged from 0.6 to 0.8, indicating that most user ratings were close to the average while allowing for some individual differences in perception. This demonstrates its effectiveness as a practical and innovative solution for agricultural machinery rental in Tanzania.