A technologist and software developer Ronald Katamba in 2016 introduced to farmers in Uganda the Jaguza Livestock App.
A short drive out of Kampala is Katungu Country Farm in Nabbingo Wakiso district. The farm is located in a crowded residential area. It is owned by William Bashasha. Besides crops, he keeps a couple of hybrid cows.
But the location of his farm in a semi-urban crowded area does not guarantee the security or health of his livestock.
To avoid infecting his livestock, everyone entering the farm gets their footwear disinfected.
Bashasha also hires a herdsman to keep an eye on his cattle, but this human safety net is not 100% guaranteed. Anything can happen.
To ensure he does not lose his livestock which is a source of income to theft or disease, Bashasha has embraced computer technology in Jaguza Livestock App.
A technologist and software developer Ronald Katamba in 2016 introduced to farmers in Uganda the Jaguza Livestock App. This was in the districts of Pallisa, Nakifuma, and Kayunga where he hails from.
Katamba opted to test the app starting from his home area that would be more welcoming to his ideas, create visibility and roll it out to other parts of Uganda.
The Jaguza Livestock App helps farmers to detect diseases in animals in the early stages. It also monitors the whereabouts of their livestock to avoid theft.
Other functions
Besides monitoring livestock and diagnosing disease, the app also connects the livestock farmer to a veterinary doctor online.
A farmer through the app can know where a veterinary doctor is located, what they specialize in, contact them and chat directly to get a remedy.
There is also a diseases database, market information. Farmers and their clients can buy and sell through the app, get real-time prices for their livestock and products.
The app also comes with expense tracker. It guides the farmer on how much they have spent on their livestock to enable them to sell at a profit.
Jaguza Livestock system, in a nutshell, is a one-stop platform for all livestock information. Data collection is another role it is programmed to do.
Farmers do not have to use the traditional pen and paper recording system of keeping and tracking data on their livestock.
“We are using big data, collected through our app every day and want organizations and governments to access it, to form or influence policies on livestock farming. Even veterinary doctors not registered on our system online also pay to get this data,” Katamba explains.
It is only if the doctor’s, organizations and government have a partnership with Jaguza then they can access the data free of charge.
Equally, clients using the Jaguza app, every three months’ pay US$30 about sh.122,000 to access all information online.
Uptake
Katamba, reveals countries other than Uganda currently using the app include Mozambique, Namibia, and Fiji. He says there are plans to roll it out in the Western Cape in South Africa.
In Uganda besides the app being used in the districts of Pallisa, Mukono and Kayunga districts, there are plans to introduce the app to farmers in other parts of the country.
“It is a process but we plan to roll out the app to 20 districts across the country by 2020. Our app has to remain the same but we shall keep improving its efficiency and visibility to farmers in East Africa, Africa, and the world,” Katamba says.
So far 6,211 farmers have been trained to use the Jaguza livestock system and so for 65 veterinary doctors are registered on the system to offer services.
Katamba says using artificial intelligence even if the farmer and doctor speak different languages the app is able to translate and the farmer gets assisted.
So far over 800 farmers have been assisted by the Jaguza livestock app and 2,200 cases successfully handled.
Katamba has patented the Jaguza Livestock app and took the prototype to China for mass production.
The device/chip goes for US$7 (about sh26,000) each and has a lifespan of five years.
Using the app regardless of where the farmer is, they can monitor the health, safety, and production of livestock in their farms from the palm of their hands.
How it works
The app uses a variety of information and communication technology (ICT) tools. It consists of a hardware (the device), software (computer programs) and mobile (mobile phone) both offline and online.
Ronald Katamba the app developer says the Jaguza Livestock App has three major components that include a computer or phone (whether a basic phone or smartphone) which receive information,
Then a chip (or ear tag) with a sensor which is attached to the animal and radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader which receives information from the chip and feeds it to the computer.
The sensor can get detected by the reader at a distance of 300 meters. So, for big farms, an antenna or radar is used to boost the frequency.
The chip on the ear gets to monitor the livestock’s temperatures and variations. It will tell the state of the animal’s health and reproductive stages.
This chip is connected to the reader which channels information to a computer. The app is able to alert the farmer if any of their livestock is going to become sick 48 hours ahead of time.
This enables the farmer to get veterinary assistance through the system early enough, and treat the sick animal.
For tracking, the farmer can be able to know whether their livestock has moved beyond farm demarcations, in case they are being stolen.
But instead of a chip, a monitoring device is placed around the cow’s neck to track it.
The monitoring device is solar-powered, while the chip for disease diagnosis has a battery with a three-year lifespan. Today the Jaguza Livestock App helps farmers to monitor and diagnose early stages of diseases in animals using sensor technology.
The Livestock farmer gets all this information on their computer or phone whether they are offline (not using internet) or online (using internet).
While online, the notifications are received via the app although there is a short message service (SMS) option for offline users and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).
Using USSD, a farmer types a code on their phone and specific data on livestock health, movement and management are sent to the phone.
Katamba says the Jaguza Livestock App can also locate the whereabouts of animals in a given area using Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers to avert theft.
Katamba recently demonstrated how the app works to a group of farmers at Katungu Country Farm in Nabbingo Wakiso district that belongs to Bashasha.
Bashasha had the Jaguza monitoring system and tracker fitted on his cows. He said small farmers like him face a lot of challenges including disease and livestock theft.
At the demonstration, the Mayor Kyengera Town Council Wakiso district Abdu Kiyimba said it was only those with guns who would manage livestock keeping in his area.
He said cattle theft in his area was rampant but was optimistic the Jaguza monitoring system would solve the rampant cattle theft.
Using the Jaguza Livestock system, farmers can also use a drone technology if they have a large scale farm to monitor their livestock and record their numbers.
