Five Sokoine University of Agriculture students who own Afya ya Mnyama Digital Company Limited won the Best Startup Innovation Award for their idea of Mnyama Chech Digital Platforms, which was organised by the local mobile company Vodacom through the Vodacom Foundation in collaboration with HUAWEI and the Mass Challenge.
The young students' idea is to help livestock farmers monitor their animals' health, including early disease detection, reproductive processes like heat (estrus), calving period preparation, location tracking, and feeding schedules, with the ultimate goal of lowering livestock costs through digital access to information.
Speaking about this novel concept and how it will operate, Mr. Marko Mabula, the founder and CEO of the Digital Animal Health Company and a Veterinary Medicine student at SUA, explained that the farmer will be able to identify and coordinate their livestock using a smartphone or laptop computer, where he will be receiving real-time data about disease information and the schedule of pasture, regardless of where the herdsman is at that particular moment.
As a result of their victory, the young students have been awarded HUAWEI funding, and they will be sent to China to learn how Chinese technology companies, including HUAWEI, operate. They will also be empowered and given financial and technical support to ensure that the idea benefits farmers.
Furthermore, Mr. Mabula expressed gratitude to the university on behalf of his peers for its ongoing provision of excellent training. He claimed that their winning streaks in diverse competitions were a direct result of the collaboration facilitated by their professors.
The Vodacom Foundation has established a programme to welcome start-ups with innovative ideas and award the winners with financial and technical support. This is the third season of the initiative.