Botswana currently has more cattle than residents. Over 100,000 ranches are registered in the country. However, owners who still use traditional management methods are finding it hard to oversee daily activities.  

Motswana Thuto Paul Gaotingwe (photo) developed an offline app to allow livestock farmers to improve the management of their cattle and ranches.  Initially, his goal was to help a friend, but he quickly realized that Botswana's livestock farmers have limited control over the farming process.

"We have worked around innovative ways that still allow them to improve production and efficiency with less change from their old ways," he says.

The farm management app is dubbed Modisar, which means ‘livestock caretaker’ in Tswana, one of the oldest Bantu dialects.  It allows efficient farm data collection, enabling farmers to act accordingly when things seem to be going wrong. 

With Modisar, livestock caretakers and farmers keep livestock, farm, financial, and production records. The app has a built-in "smart farm assistant" feature, which reminds farmers of important tasks and best practices for profitable farming. It also has an "animal management" feature, which keeps track of almost everything concerning the livestock on farms and produces a wide range of operating reports.  

By synchronizing farm data collected, the app recommends solutions to optimize profits. It also integrates a feature that tracks farm assets and inventories while reminding of important actions to take. For instance, it can send text messages to caretakers or farm owners reminding them to vaccinate their livestock or proceed to insemination.  

In 2014, the app won the Orange Social Venture Prize, known by its French acronym POESAM. In 2015, Paul Gaotingwe’s startup, Modisar also, decided to make the app free for farmers, attracting 1,200 farmers at the time.

Adoni Conrad Quenum