Despite having no background in Information Technology, a local farmer has come up with an innovative App that helps farmers find their stray cattle.
Ricky Chokwe is the inventor of ‘Mpatlise Matimela’, an application he started working on two years ago but only became fully functional recently, with the help of developers.
The 48-year-old tells Voice Money he came up with the concept after losing some of his own livestock, a problem his comrades in the bush have faced themselves all too often.
“This was inspired by the fact that there are so many people who lost their cattle to other cattleposts and end up in stray cattle kraals.
A lot of farmers have that problem across the country and that includes cattle theft.
I also had a problem with stray cattle at the farm as we always had other people’s cattle wandering in but not knowing who they belong to.
That’s what sparked the idea to come up with this application,” reveals the Tonota native, who previously worked in insurance before quitting in 2002 to take up a job with his father in construction, which lasted until 2017.
Currently the App, which costs P5 to join, has over 500 farmers signed up in just three weeks.
“Now we are trying to build data on the platform such that when we have a good number it will work best.
The application is viable because eventually we will have a subscription, but now since the database is not where we want it to be, they use the service for that little amount.
Once everyone knows about it, there will be a small subscription,” explained Chokwe, adding the ultimate goal is to have all farmers in Botswana signed up.
“Losing cattle is costly, I know from experience,” he says.
So, just how does this App work? It’s pretty simple, actually!
One has to be registered as a farmer on the platform, with their surname, brand, contact number and zonal area.
“We track cows with their brand but not individuals cows. It’s something you can do while at home using Mascom and Orange network with the use of SMS.
So, if I see your cow, I send your brand to 16999 which is our reporting line and everybody can use it.
It costs P0.20 if you are using Mascom and for Orange it’s free of charge.
This allows inclusivity; even if you don’t have airtime you are able to use the service.
After sending the message, the system will relay the information of cow identification to the owner of the brand, that someone is reporting having seen their cattle.
The owner will respond through a confirmation message and in return the system will give the number of the person who was reporting and in the process, the owner of the brand will be able to phone the person who was reporting and get details of where their cow is at,” explains Chokwe.
The service was officially launched during Moshupa Agricultural Show in early August and further rolled out to more farmers during the Botswana National Agricultural Show.
“Word is going around quickly. People are interested and they have been wondering where we were all this time.
The system is available to anyone – you don’t have to be registered to be able to report.
It is suitable for butchery owners and police during this time of rampant cattle theft.
But the most important one is for stray cattle, which stay for a long time in council kraals and end up being sold without owners knowing.
So what we have done is that we go around the country across this kraals reporting all those cattle kept there,” notes the hard-working Chokwe, adding most farmers they have met during road shows are excited about the application.
“The feedback from them is very encouraging!” he adds excitedly.
“The challenge I’m facing is the finance to market the services throughout the whole country; it’s costly to travel and lodging!” he moans.
However, it will take more than that to stop Chokwe from following his dream!
