We talked to Christine Kihunde Kiiza a co-founder of Jaguza Tech U Ltd. about a system that helps farmers with their problems, especially those who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?
Me and my family are doing well. It was of course not easy at the beginning of the pandemic, but now by God’s grace we have learnt to manage it. Everybody in the family is aware of the virus and is very conscious to observe the SOPs set by our Ministry of Health.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company.
I am Christine Kihunde Kiiza, co-founder @ Jaguza Tech U Ltd, a married, God-fearing lady, hardworking and open-minded, love learning and venturing into new things.
Professionally, I am an Accountant, I joined Afrosoft IT Solutions Ltd which at the time was working on Jaguza Livestock App as an Administrator/ Accountant. During the course of business, I got interested in innovation later became a Co-founder, and later registered it as an independent company.
Many people in Africa, especially in Uganda, own at least a cow, goat, chicken, or pig whereby many have made it their livelihood amidst various challenges such as disease outbreaks, market & veterinary service inaccessibility, and much more.
Therefore, I believe that with the adoption of the Jaguza Livestock System many farmers shall have improved lives once adopted. I was privileged to participate in the CTA Pitch AgriHack Competitions 2019 that was held in Accra Ghana and emerged the best prize in the mature stage category in the whole of Africa. Since then, I have been part of many livestock programs geared at digitalizing Agriculture.
How does your company innovate?
Jaguza Tech U Ltd innovates by employing an online and offline livestock management system that is focused on empowering livestock production to strengthen food security using Machine learning, the Internet of things, and Big Data which we simplify call Jaguza (to mean Celebration in Luganda language).
We employ Jaguza livestock mobile app (both Android and iOS) that is in seven different languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, Luganda, and Runyakitara) to help a wide range of farmers to ably read and use the application in a language of their choice.
The app has very interesting modules that help farmers access our services in real-time. It has a market module where farmers can view real-time market prices for livestock products and farm equipment. They too can open up a product store, upload and sell their products.
The Jaguza livestock app avails farming tips for all livestock, disease information and a self-diagnosis module where a farmer enters signs and symptoms observed on an animal and the app gives the likely disease plus reference to our online vets that can handle the problem.
There is no need to be caught unaware of the climate. Our app gives farmers a 17days weather update to help them plan ahead of unfavorable weather. The “My farm” module is where a farm owner can register all his animals, farm activities, expenses, and income at all stages of production.
As Jaguza, we understand that many farmers in rural areas do not have smartphones or access to the internet. Therefore, we also have USSD code and SMS platforms where farmers can access our services. Our farm record management system is also offline to help rural farmers keep their records which will later be synced to our servers when they the access internet.
Under IoT, we employ sensor technology that uses Machine Learning and Data Science to generate algorithms that we use to detect diseases in animals 48 hours before they manifest using parameters of temperature, heart rate, breathing, and stress levels.
We also use drone technology on farms with big herds of cattle to monitor cattle movement and solar GPS to track animals around the farm. This has helped many of our client farmers to curb down the problem of cattle rustling.
How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?
Previously, our mode of connecting with our potential customers was through workshops and training which we would later make follow-up visits on their farms.
Using technology, We managed to develop and modify our website where we publish useful information such as farming tips, farm products, and equipment available for sale as well as our upcoming events. Our website has a Fan base module that is able to track the number of viewerships across different countries around the globe, on a daily basis
Through our Jaguza livestock App, farmers are also able to access new farming tips, disease information, weather updates and self-diagnose their animals.
They are also able to directly connect to our subscribed online veterinary doctors and extension workers in their locality through a phone call, chatting, text message, emails, or video conferencing for accurate evidenced reporting and medical assistance.
During the Pandemic, we received an overwhelming number of calls from clients who wanted our published farm products and equipment, advice on how to handle the farms amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. This drove us to form a customer care center to handle the calls and also revert as soon as possible. This has seen us reach many farmers, but also increase our clientele through the good services rendered to them. Satisfied customers are able to recommend others to Jaguza.
Your final thoughts.
The world has gone digital and soon every sector will be digitalized. Through technology, as Jaguza we believe that Quality service delivery is enhanced and therefore competitive products on the global market.
We see this as a dream come true for many livestock farmers as our system is able to track the health of an individual animal from arrival to the removal on the farm hence create confidence in the quality of meat produced.
Your Website: https://jaguzafarm.com/