Abstract:
Livestock farmers in Mandera County are faced with the devastating effects of climate
change, lack of access to quality information services and absence of effective marketing
means. An alternative marketing platform acting as an early warning system on critical
information such as droughts, climate and diseases, and other issues affecting the farmers in
the county, relevant to the donor community, the government and the farmers is therefore
required. This study therefore aimed at assessing the information needs of livestock farmers
in Mandera County in order to come up with a web portal that serves their needs. The
study‘s specific objectives were to: investigate the information needs of livestock farmers
in Mandera, establish existing channels of disseminating information to Mandera livestock
farmers, survey existing livestock-based information systems and portals serving Mandera
livestock farmers, model the collected data for system analysis and design and develop a
web portal addressing the concerns of Mandera livestock farmers. This study was informed
by Activity Theory, Wilson‘s information behavior theory and the Systems Development
Life Cycle (SDLC). A single case study made up of a structured interview and observation
was used to collect data for the study. The target population was livestock farmers living in
Mandera County with a current population of 1.2 million. A stratified sampling technique
was used to draw a four- cluster sample comprising herders, traders and livestock officers
and for every cluster, a purposive technique was used to select the respondents. The
collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics, presented in
the forms of tables, pie charts and texts. The findings of the study show that the
respondents critically needed information on market, weather, veterinary and lost and found
animals, and mainly used local FMs, friends, barazas, national dailies and social sites for
information sharing. No information system specifically designed to serve livestock
farmers in Mandera County was found. The study concludes that the modes of information
dissemination currently available to the farmers are inadequate to serve their needs and
therefore modernization in this area is required. Based on the findings the study
recommends to the concerned actors the use of modern methods of information
dissemination to reach the farmers, provision of biotech services to improve yields, timely
availing of satellitic data on vegetation cover status to the farmers for early drought
warning and development of an online information portal that can provide information
services needed by the farmers. Further, findings were used to develop a web and mobile
portal that can avail the needed information to improve livestock farming in Mandera
County.