grapesAgri1: Collection of Shiny Apps for Data Analysis in Agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural experiments demand a wide range of statistical tools for analysis, which includes exploratory analysis, design of experiments, and statistical genetics. It is a challenge for scientists and students to find a suitable platform for data analysis and publish the research outputs in quality journals. Most of the software available for data analysis are proprietary or lack a simple user interface, for example SAS® is available in ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) for data analysis, though it is a highly advanced statistical analysis platform, and its complexity holds back students and researchers from using it. Some web applications like WASP (https://ccari.res.in/waspnew.html) and OPSTAT (http://14.139. 232.166/opstat/) used by the agricultural research community are user friendly but these applications don't provide options to generate plots and graphs. The open source programming language R and associated ecosystem of packages, provides an excellent platform for data analysis but as of yet, is not heavily utilised by researchers in agricultural disciplines. Insufficient programming and computational knowledge are the primary challenges for agricultural researchers using R for analysis, as well as a preferences for researchers in agriculture to prefer a graphical user interface.