App that helps farmers manage livestock

After losing all his rabbits from which he raised money that saw him through school, Ronald Katamba was inspired to seek not only a method to curb livestock theft, but also to monitor the animals and birds on farm.

It is how he came to develop an application that does exactly that.
“This is where I came in as an Information Technology (IT) expert. In early 2013, I developed software that would help people manage their herds and detect diseases, which attack their cattle and hinder the quality of meat and quantity of milk production,” he says.

“I designed the application (known as Jaguza) to help these farmers maximise profits from livestock farming through using it to minimise the problems that affect productivity,”

Katamba adds that it was not easy but he learnt from his experience that with livestock including goats, sheep, cows, rabbits and chicken, one can thrive.
What the app does
The device can be used to detect illness in animals within a period of 48 hours so that the farmer can take precautions to avoid losses and possible spread of the disease.

“The device is inserted or attached on the leg or the animal’s ear,” Katamba explains.

The device sends data via a wireless transceiver and uploads it to a central system, where it is compiled and made available via the Internet.

Developed with algorithms that use combinations of the indicators to create alerts to the farmer to locate and inspect a particular animal for sickness and theft.

The system has ability to track, trace and monitor the health condition of individual animals in real time.

“Jaguza is also a self service app with modules that provide information on gestation and insemination, weather, market, the nearest vet doctors and much more. A farmer can choose a module that suits his or her needs,” he adds.

Experiences from users
Josephine Nankya, who has been using the app for the last 10 months, says it helped boost the value of her animals on the market.

“Before using Jaguza, buyers would offer me less money for my animals. When I embraced it, I learnt how to improve their productivity and I also get the best offers for my livestock from this platform,” she says.

Tom Kabiito, who is also a farmer in Mukono, says the app defended him from the theft of animals, which had become rampant on his farm.
“I lost a total of eight goats in 2014 on my farm, some disappeared for good and the others I would find other people’s grazing lands,” he says.
“Jaguza has greatly helped me keep track of my animals at all time and the extensive knowledge it offers on farming is also impressive.”

How it works

Jaguza Livestock App is used to monitor animals and diagnose early stages of diseases using sensor technology, among others.

It can locate the whereabouts in a given geographical area. When an animal moves out of range, a notification is sent to a solar powered receiver (SPR) from the device. The SPR sends this information to a cloud server, which in turn sends information to a computer or mobile phone.

With an offline integrated information management system, a district veterinary officer can help farmers in his or her area in case of outbreak and also manage and control farmers both online and offline.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) enable the system for mapping livestock farmer and also control of diseases in the district in real time.

With web and mobile platform for helping farmer to accessing market between the buyer and the seller.

Record keeping has been the biggest problem to the farmers especially in rural areas. Now, the farmers can have access to record their sales and this app helps them in their productivity.

One does not necessarily need to own a smartphone to access the services the app avails. It works even on the ordinary phones through SMS and USSD.

“I made the app as user friendly as possible since mobile phone penetration in rural areas is good though Internet accessibility is low,” says the app developer Ronald Katamba. “I am grateful to UCC, Ministry of ICT, NITA-U and UNCST for supporting the innovation and providing a platform for farmers to enjoy the benefits of the app.”