Posted on November, 29, 2018 at 10:46 am
By Jeff Andrew Lule
The App serves as a one stop centre; for all what the farmers need, right from garden mapping and planning, to market access.
A Ugandan developed an Agriculture App, has been awarded as the 2nd global winner of the fall armyworm in the ‘Tech Prize’ category by USAID Feed; at the award ceremony which took place in Cape Town South African.
The top prize was scooped by a Kenyan firm “Frim Link”. The event involved 25 finalists globally.
The App serves as a one stop centre; for all what the farmers need, right from garden mapping and planning, to market access.
It was developed by five youth under their company ‘Akorion’. Esther Karwera, Akorion's chief business development officer says, the App helps link farmers to genuine suppliers of pesticides and other inputs.
While presenting the award to the Minister of ICT, Frank Tumwebaze at his office in Kampala, Karwera explained: “We decided to come together and develop one App incorporating all services that a farmer needs. All of us had different Apps and we realised the services were scattered making it difficult for farmers to access. That’s why we decided to merge and come up with better options”.
The App connects farmers to suppliers, buyers and traders, among others services.
It also helps farmers to easily know whether they have fall armyworm in their gardens or not among other pests.
“Farmers only need to take pictures of the pests in their gardens and send to the App. They immediately get feedback on whether it is fall armyworm or not. If it is armyworm you are guided on the pesticides and genuine suppliers who can also be accessed through the same Application,” Karwera noted.
The App can be downloaded on your Smart Phone, from the Google Play Store for free.
“Those without smartphones, farmers can be helped by our agents in different villages. We trained community based agents on how to use this App and are supposed to help farmers who do not have smart phones, access the Ezy Agric services,” she added.
The App is currently used by 62,000 farmers in 42 districts countrywide. “We have also started on the diary sector where we are creating data for milk farmers to know their records and how they are supposed to be producing,” she added.
The Akorion Chief Executive Officer, William Luyinda said they created a one stop centre for farmers to protect them from being exploited and cheated within the agriculture cycle.
He said they want government to create more awareness of the App to help more farmers benefit because many do not about it.
Tumwebaze commended Akorion’s Ezy-Agric App, saying this will make farming as the innovation helps the end user to access all services needed.
“This is going to make farming easy. To help farmers plan for their land, accessing traders, extension services, input suppliers and markets. We are inviting all App developers to participate in a competitive process of getting some support through grants,” he added.
Tumwebaze said Apps that demonstrate usability and already have clientele will be supported.
Source: New Vision