A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s in Information and Communication Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
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.