Kenyan innovators showcase their ICT creations in Kigali

Three Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) students were among techies who presented their innovations at the regional agrihackathon competition in Kigali last week.

Clinton Busolo, Jeffrey Cherogony and Brian Kanyiri presented their MkulimaLeo mobile application.

They said their task was to come up with innovative ways of tackling farmers’ challenges in regard to accessing financing  for agribusiness; accessing and sharing information on soil fertility, fertiliser, weather, pests, diseases and access to farming inputs.

MkulimaLeo addresses challenges that small and medium scale farmers face in accessing information that influences their food production and market access, they said.

The application, which can be used on Android, Java and Windows operated mobile phones, is available for free and can easily be downloaded from the Android store Google Play.

Essentially, MkulimaLeo aggregates information from various sources into a database, making it easy for farmers to access it via their mobile phones.

The information ranges from best farming practices, pests and disease, climate and soil surveys and where farmers can access financing. The information is mainly sourced from agricultural institutions like Kari, Kenya Seed Company, ICIPE and research data from different universities in the country.

The application also provides a forum for farmers to interact and share information. It is also a management tool complete with calendar options which enable farmers to plan their food production process.

Speaking to the Business Daily, Mr Cherogony said that the use of information and communication technology in agriculture is limited.

“MkulimaLeo targets farmers, we do not charge them for using the facility. Our business model focuses on microfinance agro-credit institutions to which we provide analysed data about farmers,” he said.

Mr Busolo said that they were seeking to register about 3,000 farmers in the next three months in order to attract funding.

“For now we provide information to farmers for the whole farming cycle, but in coming months we will look at the whole value chain and re-engineer MkulimaLeo to address unique challenges like postharvest losses,” he said.

The trio said they came up with the idea of using open source software to find solutions to challenges facing the agriculture, health and IT sectors in the country.

They registered their company, Kenya Open Source Merchants (Kosmerc), in order to advance the cause. The 36-hour nonstop competition saw more than 50 young computer programmers and software developers from across East Africa gather in the M-lab innovation hub in Kigali.

The competition also saw Caroline Muteti and James Macharia of the C4D innovation hub present their digital bookkeeping application named FarmDrive.

FarmDrive seeks to increase farmers’ access to financial services to improve their production. Rather than focus on traditional credit institutions like banks, the application offers individuals seeking to venture into farming an opportunity to invest in commercial farming by partnering with small scale farmers who lack funds.

The application provides farmers with a platform on which they can input their expenditure and revenue. The platform provides analytical information on the farmers’ agribusinesses and determines their creditworthiness.

While making their presentation, the two said that they were refining current business models and developing an application to target a large number of farmers with limited Internet access. Though they did not participate in the competition, Horizon Telemetry company showcased their automated weather station.

In an interview with the Business Daily, Ernest Ekajja, one of the officials of Horizon Telemetry who made the presentation, said the weather station was founded on the need for farmers to get timely information on weather.

“Weather information is of absolute importance to anyone who depends on rain-fed agriculture. Having the right information can help to not only increase production but also cut avoidable losses that farmers incur,” he said.

Rain-fed agriculture

The station collects data on weather from individual farmers and reports it to a server via the GPRS network. The data is aggregated and analysed by a team of experts from the Kenya Meteorological Department and the University of Nairobi.

This enables farmers to be supplied with real time crop-related information. The solar-powered weather station unit measures rainfall, wind, temperature, atmospheric pressure, sunshine hours, relative humidity and soil moisture content and relays information on the parameters every 15 minutes.

Mr Ekajja said that the information can be used to predict an area’s whether in 14 and 30 days, enabling farmers to know when to plant and harvest their crops.

“Because of climate change the rainy season is not what it used to be. But even with the seasonal shift some farmers still rely on historic patterns and end up harvesting and planting too late or too early,” he said.

So far, the company has invested Sh3 million in the development of the system and once the prototype is approved for use units will be available to farmers.

“Depending on the type of sensors the weather station is fitted with, its cost can range from between Sh150,000 and Sh300,000,” said Mr Ekajja.

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