MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF NETWORKS

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

BSE 4100: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PROJECT 1

THE CONCEPT PAPER FOR:

WEB-BASED AND MOBILE APPLICATION FOR MyTractor SYSTEM

PROJECT MEMBERS [GROUP BSE20-27]

PROJECT LEADER: OKURUT JULIUS Signature:……………………..

SUPERVISOR: Mr. ALEX MWOTIL Signature:……………………..

Date: 23rd, OCTOBER 2019

Link to the group Blog

https://mytractorhiresystem.wordpress.com/

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MyTractor System

1. Introduction

Uganda's agricultural potential is considered to be among the best in Africa, with low
temperature variability and two rainy seasons in the southern half of the country leading to
multiple crop harvests per year. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization for the
United Nations (FAO), Uganda's fertile agricultural land has the potential to feed 200 million
people. Eighty percent of Uganda’s land is arable but only 35 percent is being cultivated [1].
Agriculture accounted for about 20 percent of GDP in financial year 2017/2018, and 43 percent
of export earnings, and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) estimates that about 70 percent
of Uganda’s working population is employed in agriculture [2].

Agricultural production is mainly dominated by smallholder farmers engaged in food and cash
crops, horticulture, fishing and livestock farming. Most farmers in Uganda use rudimentary
tools in farming. For instance, out of the 3.6 million respondents from a study conducted by
UBOS, 95.8% used hoes. Farmers that are categorized as subsistence are estimated to deliver
between 75–80% of the total agricultural output and marketed agricultural produce.
Smallholder enterprises, commercial farmers and estate operators are about 15%, 3% and 0.5%
of the farming community in Uganda, respectively.

The Government of Uganda (GoU), through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and
Fisheries (MAAIF) is aiming at commercializing the agriculture sector by 2020 through
agricultural mechanization and modernization at farm level and one of the statuary bodies
playing a significant role in implementing this is the National Agriculture Advisory Services
(NAADS) [3], [4] . A key intervention area is in increasing farmers’ access to agricultural
equipment such as tractors, bulldozers, graders, combine harvesters, forklifts, agro-processing
machinery, farm tools, straw choppers, excavators, bowsers, transformers, among other
equipment.

2. Background to the problem

Hiring tractors in Uganda traces back to the 1970s where a tractor hire service was set up under
the Department of Agriculture and their main objective was to reach small farmers through
subsidized hire services. However, it proved difficult to make the scheme financially viable

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 and alternatives such as innovative intermediate technology type low-cost tractors were sought.
By the mid-1980s, the public sector schemes were abandoned, the machinery sold off and
attention turned towards stimulating the use of draught animals.

Today, the GOU has come up with an agriculture mechanization strategy of restructuring the
sector. Efforts were put in place, which has seen farmers change their ways of farming,
mechanization has become one of the key pillars of agricultural transformation and
modernization. The efforts directed into the occupation of cost-effective farm tools and the
Government has tried to integrate majority Ugandans who represented over 70% of the
country’s labor force.

However, despite the efforts made, many challenges still hinder agricultural mechanization.
These include poor access to information about the availability of the equipment, inadequate
complementary infrastructure for using agricultural equipment, delayed initiation of
procurement process, inadequacy and inappropriateness of some supplied equipment, absence
of some spare parts, high poverty levels to mention but a few.

3. Problem Statement

Many farmers cannot afford to buy their own tractor. The price is often prohibitive, not to
mention that the few suppliers of tractors are not able to answer most of the requests. Farms in
Uganda are generally small, and therefore it is difficult for each farmer to own his own tractor.
Besides that, farmers that are in remote areas find it difficult to access tractors therefore they
resort to manual labor, which is way less-effective than tractor use. Even when the farmer can
access the tractor, the quality of the tractor may be bad and yields poor on-farm work which
does not benefit the farmer at all.

The Government of Uganda has tried to solve part of the problem by procuring and distributing
tractors to farmers across the country [5]. However, some challenges are still to be addressed
for instance reliable tractor performance, shortage of high-quality operators and fraud
prevention.

Tractor usage can be used in land preparations, crop growing operations, harvesting and comes
with a lot of benefits like enhancement of labor usage and efficiency, provision of greater
precision in farm operations, reduction in agricultural losses and value-addition to products

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 with processing and packaging. Therefore, there is great need for action to improve
mechanization of agriculture in Uganda.

4. General Objective

To gather and analyses requirements, design, develop and implement a system which will
provide a platform that effectively and efficiently offers tractor-sharing services to Ugandan
farmers.

5. Other Objectives

i. To gather and analyze the requirements of “MyTractor Hire System”.

ii. To design and implement “MyTractor Hire System” basing on its requirements.
iii. To test “MyTractor Hire System” to ensure that it meets its requirements.
iv. To deploy and maintain “MyTractor Hire System” so that it can be accessed by its intended
users.

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6. References

[1] "Uganda[112]," [Online]. Available: http://www.fao.org/3/y4632e/y4632e0x.htm. [Accessed

12 September 2019].

[2] "Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The 2018 Statistical Abstract," pp. 27-29, 2018.

[3] "Operational Management for Access and Management of Tractors provided by GoU,"
February 2019.

[4] "National Agricultural Advisory Services Strategic Plan 2015/16 - 2019/20," July 2007.

[5] "Government to distribute tractors to districts across the country," 8 March 2019. [Online].
Available: https://www.ntv.co.ug/news/national/Government-to-distribute-tractors-to-
districts-across/4522324-5016096-pyc8bf/index.html. [Accessed 13 September 2019].