2. Project Idea
• Agri-Alert is a mobile application and website which aims
to help solve the first Millennium Development Goal – to
end poverty and hunger, by helping farmers to improve
their livestock health.
• Farmers will be able to send an SMS alert to the website if
they notice an outbreak of disease amongst their livestock.
• The alert will be visible on a map on the website.
3. Problem Definition
• The primary aim of Agri-Alert is to address the first
Millennium Development Goal to “Eradicate Poverty and
Hunger” and in particular target 1.C: Halve, between 1990
and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
• 10 million people die each year from hunger.
• There was an increase in food prices in 2008 which means
more people are now hungry than before 2008.
• As a result progress on the first millennium goal is actually
going backwards. This means that it is particularly
important to try and address this goal.
4. Problem Definition
• Agriculture provides 70 percent of employment and 30
percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product.
• International Livestock Research Institute estimates 250
million people in Africa - a quarter of the population - rely
on livestock for their livelihoods, yet African governments
invest almost nothing to support the sector
5. Our Solution
• Agri-Alert is a mobile application and website which allows
farmers to send an SMS alert if there is an outbreak of
disease amongst their livestock.
• A text will be sent to the farmer and they will be asked to
answer a few short questions to help determine the disease
that the animals are suffering from.
• The farmer will then be offered practical advice on how
best to handle the situation and any actions they could take
to help the animals.
• The alert will appear as a coloured dot on a map on the
website in the location the alert was sent from.
6. Our Solution
• The alert on the map will be available for other farmers to
see.
• Farmers who have registered with Agri-Alert who are
based near to where the diseased livestock are will be sent
a notification, making them aware that their livestock may
be at risk.
• The farmer will be advised as to what symptoms they
should look out for and this in turn may result in the
disease being caught in time to be treated.
• Veterinary and Animal Health organisations such as the
“Community Animal Health Network” (CAHNET) will also
be notified.
7. Our Solution
• These organisations will be able to use the mapped alerts
to see the main areas of outbreak and monitor where their
resources are needed most.
• This may help the livestock industry to be better able to
contain and control disease.
• Veterinary and Animal Health organisations will also have
the option to use the mapping system to keep track of what
supplies have been distributed and also of the stocks of
vaccines and medications they have.
8. Our Solution
• Agri-Alert will operate using SMS incident mapping.
Incident mapping uses SMS to report a given incidence, in
the case of Agri-Alert it will be livestock disease and map
the data geographically.
• Other websites have successfully implemented SMS
incidence mapping to document things such as reports of
violence and election results, however, no other website
has implemented it to track livestock disease.
• Applications similar to this have been set up to deal with
human diseases such as malaria but none to deal with
livestock disease.
9. Our Solution
• Other applications offer advice to farmers on how to
improve their farms but no other application gives farmers
the opportunity to report directly to veterinary
organisations when their animals are sick.
• No other mobile application will notify neighbouring
farmers when there has been an outbreak in their area.
• Studies have shown that helping Africa’s smallholder
farmers grow more food is a proven pathway out of hunger
and poverty.
10. Similar Applications
• Ushahidi is a non-profit software company that develops
free and open source software for information collection,
visualization and interactive mapping.
• They set up a website which used SMS reporting to report
incidences of violence in Kenya. It has since been expanded
and was used to report in the aftermath of the earthquakes
in Haiti, Christchurch and Chile.
• Reports can also be sent in from Twitter and by e-mail.
12. User Experience
• Agri-Alert website and mobile application will be clear and
easy to use.
• It will be aimed at rural farmers who will probably not be
very computer literate and so the application will have to
be very simple to use.
• Try and make use of pictures and symbols instead of text as
often as possible as many users will have poor reading and
writing skills.
14. Business Viability
• Studies show that gross domestic product (GDP) growth
from agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing
poverty as non-agricultural GDP growth.
• Other applications such as SMS for Life and Ushahidi have
been very successful.
• Although penetration of mobile phones in Sub-Saharan
Africa is only 57%, people share their phones, enlarging the
access to them. Most rural communities in Africa have at
least one mobile phone at their disposal.
15. Business Viability
• The Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M University carried out
an assessment of Animal Health Organisations in Sub-
Saharan Africa, they noted that “It will be necessary to
engage smallholder farmers as more willing participants in
livestock disease reporting and control programs” in order
to help develop the agricultural sector in Africa.
• The goal of the assessment is to provide guidance to USAID
as it plans its strategy for up-coming investments in animal
health and the livestock sector in Africa.
• Since one of their recommendations was to engage farmers
in report and control of disease they may have an interest
in Agri-Alert.
16. Business Viability
• In 1994 the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
adopted a resolution to rid the world of Rinderpest, a
deadly livestock disease.
• This goal has been achieved.
• One of the first steps that was undertaken in an attempt to
eradicate the disease was to determine the geographical
distribution of Rinderpest. This would suggest that Agri-
Alert would be a very useful tool in the control and possibly
eradication of other livestock diseases.
17. References
• Bulkley, K. (2010). Mobile Technology takes centre stage in
disaster relief. The Guardian. Retrieved from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/activate/mobile-
technology -disaster-relief News
• FAO (2011). Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme
(GREP). Retrieved from
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/gre
p/home.html
• Ford, L. (2011). Farm-Africa to launch 150 branded
veterinary stores across Kenya. The Guardian.
Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-
development/2011/jan/21/farm-africa-animal-healthcare-
franchise
18. References
• Loudon, M. (2010). Mapping SMS incident Report: A
Review of Ushahidi and Managing News. Retrieved
from http://www.mobileactive.org/howtos/mapping-
sms-incident-reports-review-ushahidi-and-managing-news
• Global Development Program (2010). Agricultural
development in Africa. Retrieved from
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/agriculturaldevelopment
/Documents/facts-about-agricultural-development.pdf
• Manager, K. (2011). Mobile Phone access varies widely in
Sub-Saharan Africa: South Africa leads. Retrieved from
http://www.talkafrique.com/issues/mobile-phone-access-
varies-widely-in-sub-saharan-africa-south-africa-leads
19. References
• Oxfam (2010). Millennium Development Goal One.
Retrieved from
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/cymru/201
0/09/millennium_development_goals_1.html
