Mobile Application Marketplace System for Pig Farmers in Villaba

A Capstone Project Proposal

Presented to the

Faculty of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Computer Studies Department

Eastern Visayas State University – Ormoc City Campus

In partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

by:

Catalonia, Christian Joy L.

Catalonia, Roldan L.

Baylosis, Mary Grace D.

Engr. Joseph Jaymel S. Morpos, MSIT

Capstone Project Adviser

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 July 2022

Table of Contents

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1.0 Capstone Project Description

1.1 Overview of the Current State of Technology / Background of the Study

Agriculture is one of the initial drivers of national development which serves as one of the
supporting agents of the Philippine Economy. Most Filipino family’s livelihood who lives in rural areas
in the Philippines is agriculture, primarily Hog Raising. With the Philippine pig industry being dominated
by the traditional backyard raisers which comprises about 80% of the total hog population in the country
(Posas et al., 1995). The Philippines is also known for its high number of pork consumer being top in
South East Asia, giving a high market opportunity for Hog Raisers in the country.
According to Dr. Wilson A. Cerbito (2021), the head of Agriculture Office in the municipality of
Villaba, a town located in the Province of Leyte whose economy relies greatly on Agriculture on which
Hog Raising ranks the highest in the field of agriculture with the total percentage of 30% of the 10,200
farmers. In spite of the high numbers of backyard hog raisers in the town, several farmers are afraid to
venture in hog raising due to the following reasons: 1.) low profitability because of middlemen lowering
the price when buying pigs. 2.) long process of marketing pigs which is adding up to the burden of hog
raisers making additional costs on transport and storage leading to low profit. 3.) lack of direct connection
between farmers and the consumer. A study conducted by Dana et al., (2021) founded that with the
absence of effective marketing strategy some farmers are stopping because of low profitability.
These problems being evident in the existing traditional marketing system, means that a new
Marketing System needs to be adopted. A systematic Marketplace known as ‘Electronic Marketplace’ can
be implemented on the field of Agriculture specifically pig marketing (Strzębicki, Dariusz, 2015) entitled
The Electronic Marketplace as the Element of the Agricultural Market Infrastructure. With the adoption
of this, changes will happen on the shape structure and rules on which traditional marketplace operates.
Allowing hassle free transaction by creating remote negotiations without the need of physical presence of
buyers and sellers.

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1.2 Capstone Project Objectives
1.2.1 General Objective
To develop a Mobile Application Marketplace System for Pig Farmers in Villaba.
1.2.2 Specific Objectives
The specific goal of this project is to develop the following:

 To formulate an alternative that will replace middlemen purchasing pigs in low price.

 Remove transport and storage cost in Marketing Pigs.

 To establish direct connection between farmers & consumer.

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1.3 Scope and Limitations of the Project

This study will focus on the problem faced by 3,060 Hog Raisers in Villaba, Leyte such as how to
market pigs directly to the consumers and gaining high profits. The study will aim to seek ways to
upgrade the traditional marketing system of pigs in the town. The study will only focus on the following;
Knowing pig farmers location, give accurate number of pig population along reared by backyard raisers,
and gathering information about the traditional marketing system that hog raisers are using. However,
catering pig farmers outside the town of Villaba and knowing the income of pig farmers will not be
included in the study.

1.4 Significance of the Capstone Project

As a growing industry in the field of Agriculture it is timely needed to develop a Marketplace

System that will provide smooth and fast transaction. To effectively and efficiently market pigs with high
profit rather than going to middlemen, the Marketplace System will help reduce the costs of transport and
storage giving high profits to the farmers with regards to traditional Marketing of pigs. The researchers
want to give clear message to the people that Information Technology is the most vital part in growing
and evolving the society. In addition to that, through the planned system people will know the importance
of Information Technology in solving relevant problems through developing system that will offer relief
and convenience.

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2.0 Review of Related Literature

Coming up with something that will help in giving solutions to the growing problem of Backyard
Hog Raisers on how to market their pigs in a profitable and efficient way is crucial. According to the
study of Yarte, Dana Mae et. al., (2018) entitled ‘Marketing of Native Pigs in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, 2020’
of Municipal Agriculture Office in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, majority of pig raisers are backyard raisers whose
location is far from the town, and directly transporting their produce to the market will cost them much.
In addition, on the study of Manipol, Flores et. al., (2014) it was proven that the demand of pig on the
market is high, but due to the lack of effective marketing tools that will give connection between farmers
and the consumer some farmer ended up losing profit. For this reason, some farmers in Villaba prefer to
sell livestock through middlemen because of lack access to the market. Moreover, middlemen usually
justify their reason of lowering the price of buying live pig because of the high costs on marketing due to
long market chain resulting on farmers losing interest in Hog Raising.

Moreover, the study of Kotler, Philip et. al (2021) entitled ‘Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool’
states, there are five factors that tells why effective marketing tool is important: 1) the number of products
sold decreases, 2) the growth in company appearance also decreases, 3) the changes that consumers want,
4) the competition is getting sharper., 5) too much expenses on marketing. The current marketing system
for agricultural products, including livestock is monopolistic and exploitative said (Ostaev, Gogolev et.
al., 2019; Sharma, Burark, 2019) on their study entitled ‘Agricultural Marketing in Rajasthan: Status,
Problems and Remedies’. To avoid heavy costs on marketing and prevent much losses on the Farmers
side a marketing channel which will facilitate the flow and transfer of products from the producer to the
consumer must be created (Printezis, Iryna & Grebitus, Carola, 2018) entitled ‘Marketing Channels for
Local Food’. Same instances are happening with the Backyard Hog Raisers in Villaba for the middlemen
are the ones benefiting on buying pigs in low price.

To prevent more profit loss on the side of backyard hog raisers an implementation of smooth,
reliable, and fast Marketing System Platform is crucial. To do this, the proponents will have to design a
system that will perfectly fit with the farmers need, with that in mind, the proponents will develop a
mobile application that will build direct connection between hog raisers and consumers. In the study of
Subagyo, Ardiansyah (2020) entitled ‘Prototype of Integrated Livestock Recording Application with
Animal Identification and Certification System in Kebumen’ it is mentioned that the use of mobile
application system which is equipped with a selection of cash or non-cash payment methods (transfers)
that will base to the wishes of the buyers is crucial to make payment transactions between buyers and
sellers smooth and easier. This means that in today’s world new types of transaction exists which can be
implemented in building system.

The proponents will plan to develop a mobile phone application system that will be suitable for
the needs of the backyard hog raisers in connecting directly to the consumer. Numbers of android users
have increased which led them to grow exponentially and achieve great success (Guerrouj & Baysal,
2016) entitled ‘Investigating the android apps' success: An empirical study’. Moreover, due to its nature
of application being applied on budget friendly devices, Android is the most common used operating
system in most mobile devices and brands on which most of the Backyard Hog Raisers have access with.

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Because of the high numbers of android users among backyard raisers, the proponents will focus only in
developing application system specifically for android platform on which future project proponents can
freely apply their ideas in developing application for other Operating System platform to give application
access to all users.

In addition, the study of (Thuita, Gladys, 2020) entitled ‘Impact of Mobile Payment Applications
on Business: Financial Inclusion and Innovation – The Case of Mpesa in Kibera Slum, Kenya’, states that
the adoption of Mobile Application placed on android platform will surely boost transaction and
connection between consumers and farmers. It has always been crucial to observe things which can be
used to provide comfort and improvement in the current state of marketing livestock like pigs. In the case
of Villaba’s Backyard Hog Raisers, it is observed that farmers are deeply disappointed on the existing
marketing system of livestock due to massive profit lose. Moreover, the study of (Subagja, Iwan, 2005)
entitled ‘Research Initiative from Engineering Management and R & D Management to the Management
of Innovation: Innovate Success of Today and Tomorrow’ states that ‘the government should think of
seeking effective marketing strategy for in traditional marketing, involvement of many market
participants will only make the distribution patterns long and disorganized’. It is just and reasonable for
the Hog Raisers in Villaba to have its own marketplace, in fact, livestock marketing process on the
Philippines should be changed to be equipped with technology such as e-payment that will provide
efficient, directed and reliable transaction between farmer and consumer. For this time, people are already
aware of the efficiency and reliability of online shopping platforms, the same idea should not be neglected
and must be applied to the livestock marketing in the country, it will first be applied as an experimental
stage to give way for further observation and adjustments.

The proponents are aiming to modernize and change the traditional and manual marketing system
in selling livestock particularly pigs in Villaba. With Mobile Application System that will act as a
Marketplace enabling interaction between Hog Raisers and Consumer. The proponents believes that a
development of mobile application system with dual payment method will provide an easier, reliable, and
efficient way of buying and selling pigs for Farmers and Consumers in Villaba. The process of creating
and delivering value to consumers by serving them through application will give satisfaction to the
consumers (Waluyo,et. al.,2018). Technology is the way in making life easier and comfortable when
talking about service (Mahzabeen, 2019). The same with the plan of the proponents which would bring
reliability and efficiency to the pig farmers involved in Backyard Hog Raising journey.

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3.0 Technical Background

In today’s world technology is fast evolving thus making society to slowly adopt with it. Yet, the
marketing system of Hogs in the town of Villaba still uses traditional marketing style, this problem
requires a solution which will aid in adopting to new marketing system that uses internet and technology.
A Mobile Application Marketplace System becomes crucial to the hog raisers due to the long process of
using traditional marketing. Therefore, the proponents will develop a system that will aid Hog Raisers on
marketing pigs in fast, secure, and reliable way.

The system will provide easy market access that will assist the Hog Raisers in Villaba in
marketing their pigs directly to the consumer. The hog raisers will be given the following privilege; post
pig along with its information, manage order of consumer, interact with the consumer via chat
box/comment box, confirm the payment of consumer be it COD or E-payment, creating convenience to
the farmers while marketing. On the other hand, the proponents shall be the administrator of the system.
To know the data flow when Marketing Pigs please refer to Appendix A, page
(11) figure 1.

As stated above, this project will have a Mobile Application system that can be installed by the
Hog Raisers to be used when managing orders and marketing pigs, the consumers can also install the
same mobile application to order pigs. Please refer to Appendix A, page (11), figure 2 for the
architectural design of the system.

The proponents collaborated and conducted brainstorming in determining the problems, location,
and other things to be considered in implementing the project. The data gathering will be implemented
through formal interview with the target respondents which will be done by the proponents. Furthermore,
the data gathered from the respondents will be thoroughly check to get an idea on the final flow of this
project.

3.1 Technicality of the Capstone Project

Technical Terms

Hog Raising - rearing and breeding domestic pigs primarily for their skin and for food (bacon, pork
products).

Backyard Hog Raisers - a person or farm that raises one to twenty hogs. pigs that are mature or growing
(suckling pigs are omitted) that are around their homes

Agriculture - the study or practice of farming, which includes preparing the land for plant growth as well
as raising animals for their meat, wool, and other goods.

Middlemen - a person who buys goods from producers and sells them to retailers or consumers.

Monopolistic - pertaining to a person or organization that controls the supply or exchange of a good or
service exclusively.

Modernize – adapt to modern needs or habits, typically by adopting modern ideas or methods.

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Marketplace System – A platform where hog raisers sell their pigs.

Traditional marketing - Traditional marketing refers to any type of marketing that isn't online. On our
case, just word of mouth.

3.2 Details of the Technology to be used

The proponents will use React native in developing the android mobile application, it’s a
JavaScript framework for writing genuine, natively rendered mobile applications for iOS and Android.
Perhaps the proponents might leverage Expo to make the development and testing of React
Native apps easier. It is a collection of tools built around React Native that enables the proponents to
launch an app extremely quickly. It will give the proponents a list of tools that make it easier to create and
test our React Native application.
Using a desktop computer, the proponents will create and test the app. Additionally, a smartphone
will be necessary to install the Expo Client application. The Expo Client application is a mobile app that
enables us to access our projects while we're working on them without using XCode or Android Studio,
as well as allowing others to view them as well.

3.3 How the Project will Work

Initially, the study was proposed by the proponents in response to the existing problem regarding
the absence of direct communication between pig market farmers and consumers. Then system planning
which is the process of selecting the system's proper hardware, software, and features. After system
planning, system development will be the top priority for the proponents. During system development, the
features of the system are created using the hardware and software that were selected during system
planning.

Following development, the system will be tested. This includes unit testing, which evaluates the
individual units or modules, integration testing, which evaluates the combined units or modules, and
system testing, which evaluates the overall system after integration of all the individual units or modules.
The system can be deployed for use by pig farmers and consumers if the proponents does not see any
problem or glitches by the time of testing. Prior to system deployment, the proponents will conduct a
survey to gather user feedback and comments, which they will then be thoroughly observed to make
necessary system adjustments to the system if needed.
The panel will conduct a thorough study of the system, and as a result, the proponents will prioritize those
proposals to be implemented into the system. As a result, the panel's recommendations to the system
during system defense will be adopted. The conceptual framework makes it clear that the system's
development relies on user feedback weather to make adjustments or add new functions. The proponents
of the system will adopt an incremental development method. Please refer to Appendix B, page (12),
figure 1 for the Framework of the planned system.

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Schedule of the activities shown in Gantt Chart below.

Schedule of the Activities

er er ber
ust tem
b
ober v e mb c em
t No
Jun
e July Aug Se p Oc De

Project Planning

Data Gathering

Requirements Analysis

Designing

Development

Testing

Implementation

Start Date Duration (months)

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Appendix A. Diagrams and other documentation tools

Customers Info

Order/Purchase Details Order/Purchase Details

  0.0
Administrator
Product Details Pig Marketplace  Customers Info  
Customers
System
 
Hog Raiser
Order/Purchase Details Payment Info

Revenue

Figure 1

User
Ordering of Pigs
Database
Hog raiser’s location Hog raiser’s & Consumer’s
info. & Location
Posting of Pigs for sale Pigs’ info. & Location
and Sold pigs Record
Mobile App

Figure 2

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Appendix B. Theoretical and/or Conceptual Framework

PIG FARMER/CONSUMER MARKET

PROBLEM SOLUTION

Farmer lacks direct access to pig consumer and Pig Farmers/Consumer

consumer lacks connection to the farmer, middlemen Marketplace Mobile Application
arrive creating a monopoly effect and making artificial System
price increase on the pigs being sold to the market

PLANNING
Pig Farmers/Consumer
Marketplace Mobile Application
System

DEVELOPMENT

TESTING

UNIT TESTING INTEGRATION TESTING SYSTEM TESTING

END-USERS
COMMENTS/RECOMMENDATIONS

System’s defense panel

Pig farmers DEPLOYMENT

Pig consumers

Figure 1

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 The proponents for the Pig Farmers Marketplace Mobile Application System in Villaba, Leyte,
will use an incremental development approach to carry out the project. As it will reduce the size of the
software development process into manageable portions.

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