Even Cattle in Africa Are using Mobile Phones These Days

They might not be updating their Facebook pages or Twittering about local restaurants with the best vegan menu, but thanks to a new software application from Kenyan mobile solutions company Virtual City, you can now find livestock in East Africa grazing by SMS.

 

Dubbed the Livestock Identification Tracking System, our partners & innovators at Virtual City developed a unique radio-frequency identification (RFID) solution based on Microsoft technology that Kenya’s cattle farmers and traders can use to better track livestock – a key to unlocking new markets for Kenyan beef exports.

 

Speaking to Virtual City CEO John Waibochi in Nairobi last winter, he says that, “For the export market you needed to have good traceability for cattle. A lot of the cattle here are held by pastoralists and no real fixed abode, and we needed to find a way of how we are going to track a product that is constantly on the move.”

 

The RFID tag is placed in the cow’s stomach where it stores information on the cow’s origin, previous owners and medical history. This information – which is transmitted via mobile phones - helps reduce administrative costs and time, prevent fraud, improve quality control and ensure fair pricing for farmers.

 

 

 

Agriculture and related activities such as cattle farming account for more than 50 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, generating employment for about 70 per cent of the population, 80 per cent of export earnings, 70 per cent of materials for agro-industrial production and a major share of government revenue, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. But implementing advanced technology solutions in rural parts of Africa does not come without its challenges. “You have to provide the technology in a way and form that doesn’t scare them, as relative to their day to day as possible so they don’t feel that they are changing the way they work,” said Waibochi.

 

-- Claudia Toth

Microsoft Global Strategic Accounts