Lucknow, May 12 (IANS): The Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) has launched a mobile app called 'Bagwaan Mitra' to help mango growers, farmers and other stakeholders during the lockdown.

Field visits by scientists have been limited due to the corona outbreak and one-to-one meetings between farmers and experts have stopped.

The app is simple and user friendly with a special feature to convert speech into text.

"The app will help farmers who cannot type. As soon as they speak, the institute will receive the text message through the server," said Shailendra Rajan, director, CISH.

At times, farmers are not able to describe the problems or diseases in their crops. The app will allow farmers to send pictures of the diseased plants along with the message. This will also help scientists in diagnosing and identifying the correct disease.

This mobile app will also offer information on common pests, diseases and disorders along with their control.

Weather forecast based suggestions will be one of the most important features for the users.