A Tanzanian computer software enginner, Placidius Rwechungura, has developed Android app – named “AgriPoa” that uses artificial intelligence to help poultry farmers in planning, monitoring and analysing all farm activities.
This is a great milestone in farming business. The App creates a link on farmers with farm input suppliers, veterinary officers, credit providers and markets – using a mobile smart phone.
Agripoa helps farmers to get market connections, know the product with high demand in the market, know the quality of products needed in a given market and know if one can meet the demands and standards for old and new customers.
Rwechungura, 34, speaking to our reporter in Dar es Salaam recently said he started working on his idea in 2019. Fortunately, he secured some funding to the tune of US Dollar 5,000 (11,000,000Tsh) as seed money from Tony Elumelu Foundation of Nigeria when his idea won a selection of innovations.
Apart from that seed-money, Rwechungura and his partner got some revenues from building websites and developed software for small entrepreneurs to finance and sustain our journey.
Rwechungura says Agripoa is a perfect solution for any farm expert who struggles to manage a lot of WhatsApp groups. The is user-friendly and easy to learn, he says.
With the application (software), agronomists and veterinary officers can create different farm groups online and manage their farmers without hustling much by visiting them physically.
“We currently help 20,000 farmers and are planning to extend our services to other regions in the country and to scale up to Kenya and Ethiopia in few years to come,” he added.
Speaking on the challenges on sharing and amplifying the use of the application, the computer savvy said farm data policies and open farm data-sharing principles in many countries may sometimes hinders the development of software development like AgriPoa. He urged governments to help those who are innovative to nurture their creativity for the benefit of the mass.
