Short Messaging System (SMS) framework development: A case study of catfish industry in Malaysia

Increasing number of catfish farmers had caused overloaded stocks of catfish in the market. Therefore it poses great problem to catfish farmers. Aside from those issues, based on analysis conducted Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan Malaysia (LKIM) research results had found that the catfish farmers are not getting the right information such as breeders do not know how to get the supply of good catfish fry, true fish food polar, low cost fish food supply, ponds irrigation and marketing of livestock products. This is due to farmers´ illiteracy of IT applications and technology. As most current information is obtained through websites most farmers are illiterate or do not have broadband access at home. Therefore this study is undertaken to establish Short Messaging System (SMS) for the catfish environment. SMS is found to be the quickest way to reach the farmers and the simplest way for them to get information, aside from delivering services that is simple, convenient, fast and interactive to facilitate a user to communicate in a cost saving way. Prior to that SMS service can be sent across distance and time to keep on the updated information. Therefore the work proposed a SMS framework and prototype development which also includes customers´ value emphasizing the value co-creation between catfish farmers and suppliers. As a result the system developed facilitates catfish farmers to get the latest information quickly and accurately by using the mobile phone via the SMS service. In addition it also provides an opportunity LKIM to share different information by sending SMS to catfish farmers and build social networks. By utilizing SMS it will provide an alternative to catfish farmers in getting latest information and overcome the constraints of time. The result also shows that the use of SMS services provide the venue to engage more effectively between the LKIM, farmers with the other community. Therefore it helps to establish longstanding interaction among them.