YAP proposal #114: A Smart APP for Livestock Producer (Guo Leifeng, China)

Hi, everyone! My name is Guo Leifeng, a research assistant in the Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences). I was born in 1985 and I have been engaged in the application of ICTs in Agriculture, more specifically, in the livestock sector for 4 years.

What I’m going to do and also what is weak in rural China is to enhance the information sharing through collecting information from livestock producers and sharing with other livestock producers. The information can be breeding knowledge, special livestock species, and market information, etc which range the whole livestock value chain. I’d like to start with a smart application (APP) positioned to the livestock producer for information collecting and sharing.

I have been focused on livestock for several years and participated in many field researches. Regional difference of the livestock producing is quite significant. In 2015, I visited two cow farms in JiangXi province in the south-central China. Both of the two farms are using the grass breeding model, but the growth of the grass varies much. Grass in one pasture grows very well, but the other is much worse. In this case, there is only three hours’ drive between the two pastures, but there’s quite limited or no communication about the breeding knowledge.

Usually, I will try to tell the livestock producers how the others breeding livestock, however it is inefficient as the more I did I realize. As the ICTs developed fast, I am thinking of the new information technologies, such as extension of APP, which show great promise on information communication. From my project, the livestock producers can learn more knowledge, get more information and communicate with others, all of these are very important for them to better producing and earning more. Also, I can weave a giant virtual network of livestock industry which can provide more convenience for me to collect the research data.

There are several steps to conduct my project. Firstly, I will design a database for information collecting, for which mysql is OK. Also I need to develop the APP which is based on Android and by now it has the most large user base in China. Secondly, my team in CAAS can support to publish the information which we already have during the field research process on the APP and also more data about the livestock is also required to attract and benefit more potential users. Then the APP will be uploaded into the internet, intensive promotion to the livestock producers is more than necessary. At last, a sustainable ecosystem was constructed. The users are very active and they are got used to finding information, sharing information, forwarding information using this APP.

I have won the first prize in the First Hackathon competition for open data in agricultural field in 2014 which organized by YPARD Asia and Pacific Coordination Unit, and sponsored by GFAR, CIARD and FAO. In this competition, my team has already developed a prototype APP with Android. We have collected part of information on livestock produce and established contact with some livestock producers. In the future, my team will continue to conduct field research in China, even abroad.

The number of registered user and active user will be the primary indicator to measure the success of this project, some survey with economic return can be conducted during the field research based on CAAS projects. Also, the volume of data would be another indicator to monitor.

If this project obtains the seed fund, three things need to be put in priority.

• Communication with livestock producer and e-commerce idea awareness training US$ 1500, 2016/4-2016/8
• APP perfection to improve the user experience and data enrichment US$ 1500, 2016/4-2016/8
• Project promotion to the potential livestock producer US$ 1000, 2016/8-2017/4
• Motivation for the active users or good model US$ 500, 2016/8-2017/4
• Scale up in China and experience sharing worldwide US$ 500, 2017/2-2017/4

Blogpost and picture submitted by Guo Leifeng (China): guoleifeng[at]caas.cn

The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.

This post is published as proposal #114 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

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