Nigerian agri-tech startup Doorcas Africa operates a social and disease reporting platform aimed at reducing livestock mortality and the associated economic losses in rural, semi-rural, and urban areas.
Founded last year, Doorcas Africa allows livestock owners and veterinary care providers to easily connect with one another, though the platform has wider uses.
“Through our mobile app and SMS reminders, we help livestock owners stay up-to-date on vaccination schedules, preventing the spread of diseases and enhancing overall animal welfare,” Dorcas CEO Abayomi Odole told Disrupt Africa.
“Our user-friendly platform allows farmers to easily report suspected cases of infectious diseases, enabling us to collect crucial data for trend analysis using advanced AI algorithms. This data will aid in researching disease patterns, developing new veterinary medicines and vaccines, creating predictive models, and providing farmers with valuable insights.”
The journey that led Odole to launching Doorcas Africa began with a significant childhood experience.
“Inspired by the success of a relative who raised a healthy batch of poultry in our home, I, as a young enthusiast, was eager to replicate this success. I purchased three chickens from a local hawker and started my farming journey. However, within a day, all three chickens tragically died. This event left a profound impact on me, shaping my path forward,” he said.
As he grew older, this memory fueled his desire to pursue knowledge in veterinary science.
“While pursuing my university degree, I became increasingly aware of the numerous challenges facing livestock farmers in Africa. Endemic diseases among livestock, coupled with the farmers’ lack of knowledge and financial resources, created a widespread problem. Many farmers could not afford veterinary services or access proper agricultural training, leading to low yields and poverty,” Odole said.
After meeting his team at a global competition called the Fishbowl Challenge, Odole launched Doorcas last year, saying it was a response to a critical gap in livestock management.
“We aim to provide farmers with the tools to monitor their livestock in real-time and prevent unforeseen circumstances that could lead to high mortality rates,” he said.
“Livestock farmers in Africa are grappling with uncontrollable losses due to various diseases and infections. A significant challenge is the farmers’ lack of awareness and access to data about their practices or local farming conditions. Without this information, they cannot adequately prepare for disease outbreaks or manage endemic diseases. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies and research institutions lack the data needed to tackle the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance.”
The statistics are indeed alarming. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria suffers an annual economic loss of approximately US$1.5 billion due to livestock diseases, which is 1.5 per cent of the country’s GDP.
“Farmers often rely on unreliable methods to address livestock mortality,” Odole said. “Many turn to unqualified health service providers because of their lower costs, resort to self-medication for their animals, or believe that livestock deaths are due to bad luck. This situation increases the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.”
Doorcas Africa, however, offers a better solution. It connects farmers with certified veterinarians, ensuring access to professional veterinary care and essential information about vaccinations and best practices in animal husbandry.
“We also provide coupons to subsidise the cost of veterinary services, making them more affordable. Additionally, by leveraging analytics, we can predict the rise of endemic diseases, helping farmers take proactive steps to prevent them,” said Odole.
Competitors include Vet Konect, Farm Alert, and traditional veterinary service providers, but Odole said Doorcas stands out as it prioritises education for farmers and provides predictive analytics for disease prevention, along with affordable veterinary care.
Doorcas has taken part in a variety of challenges and accelerators, including most recently the e-Track programme at the UCT GSB in Cape Town, and is currently raising a pre-seed round of funding to boost growth.
“We are steadily growing our community of farmers and veterinarians. Uptake has been increasing progressively, and we are continuously improving our MVP to make it more user-friendly for small-scale livestock owners,” Odole said.
“We have also established partnerships, including a collaboration with Practera, where students from Leeds University conducted user research for us, helping to improve our products and services.”
Obviously, for now, the startup is focused on the Nigerian market, but it does have plans to expand into Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
“One of our key goals is to make our platform accessible in major African languages, making it easier for farmers across the continent to use our service,” Odole said.
