iCow – Kenya’s Mobile Phone App for Cattle Farmers

In a country where almost everyone makes a living off the land, a useful mobile phone app would be one that helps farmers increase their productivity. This is how Su Kahumbu, an organic farmer from Kenya, explains how she started developing her program.
The iCow allows cattle farmers to register each of their cows individually. In turn, they can get SMS for every registered bovine that contains veterinary advice on care and feeding. It also offers a database of agricultural experts and sends out current market prices for cattle.

Some of the challenges that a cattle owner has to face are: knowing the right time when a female cow is ready for breeding, choosing the right type of feeds, and being up to date with the market rates. Through iCow a cattle farmer can more easily hurdle these obstacles because he would have useful information directly available on his cellphone. Seen above is Sammy Njoroge, one of the developers of iHub, one of the many incubators helping create apps like iCow.
Even a low technology area such as agriculture can benefit from electronics and computer innovations. It just takes the right kind of perspective and sensibility to make the right application.