Bubona

by

Kazi Jawoad Hossain | Jul 20, 2020 | in Digital change-maker challenge | Digital inclusion

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

The expected objective of this proposal is
(1) Flexible and Productive Income Opportunity: Veterinarians set their own work structure and hourly duration and have all rights to accept or deny the request. The digitization of veterinarian service increases utilization or the amount of time a veterinarian has to pay on the basis of the complexity of the treatment. A number of studies have confirmed that farmers are willing to pay for veterinary care if it’s reasonably priced.
(2) Inexpensive and Reliable Service: Bubona will collaborate with farmers and veterinarians to set up a minimum charge at which they will operate. Bubona supplies farmers' connectivity to reliable veterinarian consultation and reduces the cost when a problem can be solved over the phone- further ensures cost savings. Farmers can trust their veterinarians and veterinarians can trust the farmer’s livestock is in dire need. Since all the prior records are transparently laid out it will create a safer and trustworthy system.
(3) Improve Accessibility and Transparency: Bubona can enlarge the coverage area which increases the number of potential customers and expands market size even in areas where farmers rarely request veterinarians and where rarely veterinarians visit. Gradually, the app will introduce the convenience of payment through the digital payment services, avail livestock insurances, ordering medicine/ feeds, etc. and pay for these services all in one app to maximize the convenience of the farmer.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

The livestock sector is an essential part of the supply of protein for human beings. Owing to the pandemic, this sector is subject to facing privation. Despite unprecedented circumstances and protective measures, there are some aspects of life that simply cannot be postponed, isolated at home or “socially distanced” - and one of these is the health of our livestock. We rely on livestock for a safe supply of milk, meat, especially now that the supply chain is under distribution pressure.

So, while it is wise for everyone to take strong actions in the face of a threat like COVID-19, it is also critical that these restrictions do not put at risk the veterinary services that protect livestock. Like people, livestock are inevitably facing the same, day-to-day health threats and illnesses that arise outside of a major disease outbreak, and like people, livestock will suffer if the veterinarians cannot attend to them.

Livestock farming value chain plays a critical role in the livelihood of low-income rural populations all over the world. Inadequacy of professional practicing veterinarians in rural areas is a global problem. Professional veterinary services remain expensive and inaccessible to the rural smallholder livestock farmers. To fill this critical gap, local para-vets (with limited knowledge and often no formal training) provide door-to-door veterinary services to the farmers sometimes leading to inaccurate diagnosis and prescriptions. Reliance on suboptimal services from rural para-vets risks of livestock welfare as maltreatment is quite high, according to several studies. In best cases, they give unnecessary drugs leading to high expense of treatment and in worst cases, the livestock can die due to wrong treatment.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

The minimum viable solution is a smartphone application which will be called ‘Bubona’. The name is inspired from the Roman Goddess with the same name who cares and protects cattle, and oversees their reproduction and health.  The app will allow livestock farmers to send problems about their livestock's health through structured voice command questions along with photographs and their location. Upon placing a problem, the App’s algorithm will determine the most nearby veterinarian for them based on proximity and specialization. If the problem can be solved over the phone consultation, the veterinarian and farmer can agree on it. But if the problem would require the veterinarian to visit the farm, the App can perform the necessary course-plotting and help the veterinarian to reach the farmer and deliver the treatment to the sick cattle. The payment to be made by the client is systematized through an algorithmic procedure that takes into consideration the factors like complexity of the treatment, the time is taken, distance traversed, fuel cost and farmers’ ability to pay for the service. After a service is completed, the farmer can rate the veterinarian. The system of reviewing and rating a service, as well as complaining in case of any disputes, would eventually create a win-win situation. This is why this innovation is relevant because it democratizes the veterinary service. 

The Bubona will be totally transparent about this dynamic pricing strategy and informs the farmers and veterinarian beforehand if there’s an increase in the price of the service due to a combination of factors. It will also take into consideration the factors like how many veterinarians are willing to travel to remote locations and would actively encourage and reward who does it. In case there are extreme cases (natural disasters, political strikes, etc.) when the veterinarian can’t make it to the location within time, he can reschedule the appointment consulting with the farmer. The time constraint within which the veterinarian is going to show up is always mentioned after the veterinarian agrees to visit the farm. The veterinarian and farmer can contact each other: contact number and professional/ service history are shown to the farmer before the veterinarian commences. 

Share your story (your narrative)

I am Kazi Jawoad Hossain, an incoming Chevening Scholar at Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sussex. I am an aspiring social entrepreneur with 3.5 years of experience in developing digital solutions for the base of the pyramid market in agrarian South Asian communities. I have led the development and operation of GEOPOTATO (a late blight alert), a global award-winning research-based precision agriculture solution. I have raised 3.3M for GEOPOTATO and 3M Grant by Winning BMZ Smart Development Hackathon from GIZ/ BMZ very recently. Although a Chemist by education, I have developed my career around the technology driven social innovation sector. Being a UN Youth Climate Ambassador, an Agvoacte, Thought for Food Fellow and One Young World Ambassador- I am a familiar face in the youth innovation community and am greatly connected in my community. I am a dreamer, a square peg in a round hole and I believe in making the world a better place with my creativity, innovation, dedication and perseverance.     

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

Livestock production comprises about 43% of the global value of agricultural output. The incursion of an animal disease can devastate production, livelihoods and international trade overnight. Bubona will exclusively target emerging markets where digital inclusion has improved significantly. Smartphones and internet usage have been increasing rapidly despite persistent barriers including affordability, low or limited digital skills, cultural values and social norms. By 2025, there will be 280 million new mobile internet users in  Sub-Saharan Africa and which will be 470 million in South Asia.

Global meat production is projected to be 15% higher in 2027 relative to the 323 Mt in 2017. Developing countries are projected to account for the vast majority of this increase. (OECD) Demand for livestock‑derived foods is growing rapidly in Africa due mostly to rising populations and in Asia due to rising incomes as well as populations. However, unhealthy livestock can transmit them to people. Such “zoonotic” diseases are best controlled in livestock – every dollar invested in doing so is estimated to generate five dollars’ worth of benefits. (McDermott et al, 2013) With increasing livestock herd, the burden of diseases is likely to increase. For example in 2019, African swine fever has wiped out roughly one-quarter of the world’s pigs that includes half of China's 440 million pigs. With such prevalence of diseases, global livestock medicine market size reached a value of nearly $20 billion in 2019, and is expected to grow at a rate of 12.5% to nearly $41 billion by 2023. In future Africa and Asia-Pacific will be the largest veterinary medicine market, where growth rate will be 18.4% and 17.1% respectively. So, the App has amazing commercial potential and is likely to reach sustainability by 2025.

Bubona has the potential to monitor, diagnose and detect emerging disease in animals ensuring their welfare and but also contains the disease before it reaches humans. Healthy livestock are less likely to originate or transmit new pandemics. In addition, the App will improve the husbandry so animals get sick less often and, should they become ill, Bubano will provide appropriate animal health services more accessible and affordable.

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes