The eDairy project aims to automate and computerize Kenya's dairy industry through increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Currently, 95% of dairy operations are manual or semi-automated. The eDairy project implemented a digital weighing scale connected to a database in Kiambu County. This led to more precise weight measurements, timely payments to farmers, and increased revenues for farmers and the dairy. Challenges included resistance to change, lack of infrastructure, and high costs. Lessons indicate a need for standardization, training, and stakeholder collaboration. Increased ICT use could reduce costs, spur economic growth, and improve planning across East Africa.

1. Status of the eDairy Project Keywords 1. Automation 2. Computerization 3. ICT Development

3. Computerization of the dairy Industry

4. The state of ICT in the dairy industry in Kenya

7. e.g. a digital scale with an inbuilt card reader records a single farmer milk weightment within 4 sec, and can therefore handle 360 accurate weightments in one hour; this is automation

8. Here technology combination between the card & digital scale, work together to deliver more in less time

10. These computers process data captured from automated processes in real-timee.g. data downloads from digital scales, POS(from stores) and PDAs (from veterinary services) This results in, information in form of reports This information is the basis on which managers make informed business decisions.

13. 95% of the operations in the dairy sector are manual or semi-automated

14. This can be attributed to the following:-

15. Dairies are rural based and communication infrastructure is still under developed e.g. most dairies don’t have basic internet access

16. None ICT compliant staff are employed at the dairies

17. Resulting in low technology up take

18. The prevalence of a high number of aging employees

19. Cost of automation & computerization is highly prohibitive

21. Delays in monthly payments

22. Transcription errors

23. Miss-trust between the clerks & farmers

24. Manual records prohibit farmers’ access to loans

26. Adds about a cup of water to top it up to 20.5 kgs

27. Delivers his milk to the collection centre, clerk weighs the milk and determines its 20.4 kgs but records 20.0kgs on account of the scale and spillage

28. Farmer in this case loses 0.1 kgs, if the farmer didn’t add water he could easily have lost 0.5kgs

31. Is it the Clerk????

33. An A3 size book called the milk register is used to record monthly intake on which basis farmer payments are generated

34. Pay slips are hand written and most dairies pay 10-15 days into the new month

35. The operations are both labor intensive as well as labor extensive

38. Timely monthly payments

39. Access to produce statements

40. Renewed confidence and good working relationship with the clerk/dairy

41. Farmer access to financial services

43. Elimination of ghost farmers and duplicate records

44. Timely automated farmer payments

45. Accuracy and efficiency in dairy operation leading to less labor requirements

47. Reductions in costs

48. Increased quantity delivered meaning full processor capacity utilization

50. Stakeholders’ mobilization & sensitization

52. Defining the value chain

53. Structure of dairy operations

55. Stakeholder management

56. Investment in the terms of technical

58. Supply of equipment

59. Data migration

60. Integration of middle and 3rd party application

61. Donor support & funding

62. Ancillary and service industry involvement i.e. MPESA etc

64. Recommendations What can dairies do? Enforcing standards as they are in direct contact with the farmers Funds mobilization-it’s the farmers money that sustains the project

65. ICT development a case for the East African Community Reduce costs and add value to the dairy supply chain Spur economic growth – growth of IT-enabled services, farmers can get better access to government and commercial services Employment generation Information dissemination to all on dairy related issues-empowerment all levels Collection of historical dairy information can be used for more effective planning and make improvements in yield and quality

66. Thank youRichard BatandaCTO -Agritrace