Livestock Identification and Traceability System (LITS)

24 Nov, 2020 - 16:11 0 Views
Livestock Identification and Traceability System (LITS)

The Sunday News

Judith Phiri, Sunday News Reporter

THE Transforming Zimbabwe’s Animal Health and Food Safety Systems for the Future (SAFE) project is developing a Livestock Identification and Traceability System (LITS) to enhance disease surveillance and reporting.

According to the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP) November Issue 19 newsletter, the Transforming Zimbabwe’s Animal Health and Food Safety Systems for the Future (SAFE) project is developing an integrated information management system to enable value chains and stakeholders to receive up-to-date information on disease outbreaks.

“The project is developing an integrated information management system to enable value chains and stakeholders to receive up-to-date information on disease outbreaks, rangeland monitoring, market regulations, prices, supply and demand, weather, advisory tips, credit risk management, financial management, etc.

“This   will   enhance   disease   surveillance   and reporting as well as serving as the basis for the establishment of a comprehensive Livestock Identification and Traceability system (LITS),” read part of the newsletter.

LITS comes after the current paper-based system is costly and labour intensive and there are too many mistakes at data entry which makes data validation cumbersome and labour intensive.

The newsletter also added that delays in data transmission from the field to province for data entry into database, HQ having to manually import excel data from provinces into central database and reports being generated manually are among some of the reasons the LITS was being developed.

The newsletter also highlighted that some of the system features included web-based system managed from central server that is accessible on computer or smart phone with provision for offline data capture. Also, electronic data capturing on a mobile app and inbuilt validation to minimise mistakes are some of the features.

The newsletter added: “Real time data transmission to server, inbuilt prompts for data validation and automatic generation of pre-formatted reports are some of the features of the LITS.”

LITS development began with the epidemiological units mapping training in March this year. The engagement of developers was done in October and currently the programme is under system development till December. Once the prototype will be developed the testing phase will be from January to February 2021, and finally the launch and roll-out to provinces and districts will be from March to June 2021.

Meanwhile, the newsletter also noted that the Inclusive   Poultry   Value   Chain (IPVC) project   has   developed   and deployed   the   Kurima   Mari Poultry Application (App).

“Farmers are able to download the app which educates and trains   them on   broiler   and   layer production. The   app   includes information   on genetics, disease prevention, feed, good husbandry   practices   and   marketing,” read the newsletter.

The newsletter added that the app will include videos, podcasts and manuals and a tracker to guide farmers in real time on a day to day basis to track the weight their chickens have achieved and thereby trigger early warning   of   any   problem   with   food conversion ratios. The roll-out of the app will be done in the   five   IPVC clusters in Gweru, Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo and Masvingo    reaching    10,000    poultry.

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