Indonesian farmers can now monitor livestock on phones

Farmers in Indonesia can now monitor the health of their livestocks through their phones, as an advance against the spread of bird flu.

The app, called Petelur.ID, was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - a United Nations body - to help small to medium scale farmers manage their poultry better.

"This tool will assist farmers greatly in managing their farms, in tracking poultry health and disease and also the productivity of their layer flocks," said James McGrane, Team Leader for FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Diseases (ECTAD) Indonesia, the Jakarta Post writes.

Farmers can key in data on egg production, the weight and amount of feed distributed, and the number of poultry deaths. The app then conducts data analysis, and alerts farmers when food, for example, is lacking.

Small-range farmers don’t keep track of poultry production, and they make farming decisions based on intuition, not data, said Erny Setiawan, national technical adviser for FAO-ECTAD, according to Antara News.

The app can potentially help them improve farming productivity. The app will be developed continuously to serve as a communication platform among farmers and poultry health experts on best practices, he added.

Petelur.ID. is a joint collaboration between FAO, the Indonesian Association of Poultry Veterinarians, and a private developer. Image by @yb_woodstock, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0