Browsing by Author "Mshana, Evelyn"

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Online platform for linking farmers and agro-vet services in Tanzania. case study: poultry
(NM-AIST, 2021-11) Mshana, Evelyn
Poultry farming is a rapidly, growing livestock sector in Tanzania that supports rural and urban households on income and source of information. In addition to poultry being a source of food, it provides manure which is used for improving crop farming. Currently, there is still a high demand of poultry in Tanzania. However, there are challenges that lead to low productivity in the sector. The uneven distribution of the Agro-vet shops/ Veterinary centers that provide poultry farming inputs such as feeds, drugs, vaccines, and other poultry equipment is a challenge to poultry farmers. The inadequate and lack of extension officers who are the potential information providers to the poultry farmers is another challenge. The objective of this paper is to help improvement of poultry production by linking poultry farmers to these poultry services. A sample size of 200 respondents comprised of poultry farmers, agro-vet owners and extension officers were selected using Cochran’s Formula from three regions in Tanzania. We found that there are areas where these poultry services are not found at all and others are very far from the poultry farmer’s locality. Thus, poultry farmers walk long distance accessing products and services from agro-vet shops and at times fail to get extension services rather they use their experience in husbandry and through word of mouth to improve production. However, poultry farmers try to address their problems either by asking their friends or neighbors due to inaccessibility of the poultry services within their locality. Therefore, in order to address these challenges, this study contributes a mobile and web based application that provides poultry farmers’ insight on the locations of the agro-vet services within their locality. Furthermore, the application facilitates the provision of extension services in addition to the agro-vet services. The contacts of the extension workers and the veterinarians within the location are provided on the application. The information provides direction for decision makers and investors about the areas where there are lack of Agro-vet shops/ Vet centers and to the need for Extension services. . The study concludes that through the proposed system, it can be a panacea to improving and accessing poultry services through linking the poultry farmers to the poultry services using both mobile application and web based application.