Oyster farmer, AJ Kligs of Annapolis Oyster Co.
Maryland’s aquaculture industry has been growing steadily for more than a decade. Oyster harvests from aquaculture leases have increased from roughly 22,400 bushels in 2013 to more than 94,000 bushels in 2023, contributing millions to the local economy and supporting sustainable seafood in the Chesapeake Bay.
To help aquaculture farmers manage their operations and meet regulatory reporting requirements, the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) partnered with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Aquaculture and Industry Enhancement Division, farmers, and DreamCo Design, with support from the Ratcliffe Foundation, to create the Maryland Farm Aquaculture Reporting and Management (FARM) app.
The FARM app builds on ORP’s experience developing the FACTS™ E-Reporting system for commercial fisheries in collaboration with DNR, industry partners, and Electric Edge Systems Group Inc. Like FACTS™, the FARM app helps farmers meet reporting requirements and is being developed to support everyday farm operations by helping farmers keep organized records and access key information as the platform evolves.
Listening to Farmers and Working with DNR
ORP staff visited Annapolis Oyster Company to tour the lease in the Severn River, record harvest data on paper, and help pack an order for shipment.
ORP began talking with farmers in 2019, visiting farms to better understand their needs and challenges. Those conversations laid the groundwork for FARM. While progress slowed during the pandemic and agency changes, ORP continued refining the project to ensure the tool would meet both industry and manager needs.
By 2024, ORP relaunched engagement efforts with a survey of 21 aquaculture businesses and several farm visits to better understand daily workflows and reporting challenges. At the same time, ORP worked closely with DNR staff to align app features with how the department reviews and manages aquaculture data.
These partnerships helped shape the app’s priorities:
- Simplify monthly harvest reporting by making it digital, faster, and less error-prone.
- Enable year-round tracking of plantings and relays across multiple leases.
- Streamline data management for DNR by reducing manual entry and offering quicker access to electronically submitted reports.
Pilot Program: A Year of Collaboration
Aquaculture farmers and DNR staff testing the FARM app during the third pilot meeting.
The FARM app was refined through a three-meeting pilot with DNR staff and farmers representing both water column and submerged land leases across Maryland. ORP facilitated and led each session, gathered feedback, and shared it with the developer so both industry and management needs guided the app’s design.
This pilot is also part of DNR’s Shellfish Aquaculture Harvester Permittee Electronic Reporting Pilot Program, which allows participants to submit monthly harvest data electronically through the FARM app, while staying in compliance with state regulations.
- July 2024 – Discovery and Planning: Farmers shared reporting challenges, identified what features would make the app most useful, and helped set priorities for early development.
- January 2025 – Reviewing and Refining: Participants previewed the first app mockups, walked through account setup and reporting workflows, and suggested adjustments to make the app more intuitive and align reports with familiar paper formats. DNR also developed the language for the pilot permit agreement during this phase.
- July 2025 – Hands-On Testing: Farmers downloaded the app’s test version, registered accounts, practiced submitting reports, and uploaded receipts. Feedback from this session is now guiding the app’s final updates, and participants signed the pilot permit agreement to officially join the Pilot Program.
Core Features
Mandy from Shore Thing Shellfish enters harvest data into the FARM app during the final pilot session. The app is available on iPhones, Android devices, tablets, and computers.
The FARM app includes tools that farmers identified as priorities during surveys and testing:
- Lease management to view all lease details in one place.
- Monthly reporting to log daily harvests and submit reports directly to DNR.
- Annual lease usage supplements to track plantings, relays, and other lease-specific details.
- Interactive tools to access water quality data, harvest closures, and gear boundaries in real time.
- Attachment uploads for receipts, photos, and other records.
- Data exporting for simple record-keeping and reporting.
- Updates and alerts from ORP, DNR, and other partners, delivered in the app.
What’s Next
A bushel basket full of oysters ready to be loaded onto the truck and transported to the packing house.
The FARM app is in its final development phase, with the developer incorporating the last round of pilot feedback. The app is expected to be available for industry use in early 2026. Farmers who sign DNR’s pilot permit agreement will be the first to report officially using the app.
Looking ahead, future additions to the app may include:
- Expanded lease activity tracking to log how each lease is used, such as for nursery, grow-out, or harvest.
- Annual lease usage reporting to fully digitize the process, eliminate mailed forms, and streamline end-of-year reporting.
- Sales tracking dashboards to organize personal records and review year-to-year sales trends.
- Marketing features to enhance visibility and help connect farmers, buyers, and consumers.
ORP is grateful to the aquaculture farmers, DNR staff, and project partners whose time and feedback continue to guide the development of the FARM app.
Get Updates
Want to know when the FARM app will be available? Email [email protected] to learn how you can get involved and sign up for DNR’s Shellfish Aquaculture E-Reporting Pilot Program.