Question 1

What is FarmWise?

Accepted Answer

FarmWise is a free farm management app built for African livestock and crop farmers. It helps you track your animals, schedule daily tasks, record health and money, and diagnose sick animals, all from your phone.

Question 2

Is FarmWise free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, free to start. No credit card, no trial countdown. You can use the core features (records, tasks, symptom checker) for free forever. Paid plans only kick in for larger farms that need multiple users or advanced reports.

Question 3

Does it work for pig farmers, poultry farmers, or both?

Accepted Answer

Both. The symptom checker covers pigs and poultry (the most common livestock for African smallholders). The task system, health records, feed tracking, and finance modules work for any species. Crop farming modules are also available.

Question 4

Can I use it if I can't read or write well?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The app is mostly visual: icons for each animal, color-coded tasks, picture-based symptom selection. We've designed it so even semi-literate users can navigate it. The app also works in English and French.

Question 5

I farm part-time. Is this for me?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FarmWise is built for farmers who have day jobs, family commitments, or other businesses. The daily task list keeps you on top of feeding, cleaning, and vaccinations even when you're not at the farm. The offline mode means you can update records on your phone during your lunch break.

Question 6

Is this only for Cameroon?

Accepted Answer

No. FarmWise is built in Cameroon and our prices and examples use FCFA, but the app works anywhere in Africa. We support multiple currencies and the disease database covers the most common African livestock diseases.

Question 7

Does it work on my phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if your phone can run a modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox). FarmWise is a Progressive Web App, which means you don't need to download anything from an app store. You just visit farmwise.app and it works. You can also add it to your home screen for a one-tap launch like a regular app.

Question 8

Does it work without internet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Once you've loaded the app once, it works offline. You can add records, mark tasks done, run the symptom checker, all without data. When you next connect to the internet, your changes sync to the cloud automatically.

Question 9

Will it eat my data?

Accepted Answer

No. FarmWise is designed to be data-light. The app loads once and then works offline. Syncing only sends small text records (task completions, health notes), not images or videos. A typical day of farm records uses less than 1MB of data.

Question 10

Can I install it on my phone like a regular app?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open farmwise.app in your phone's browser, tap the menu, and select "Add to Home Screen". You'll get a FarmWise icon on your phone that launches the app full-screen, just like a native app. No app store needed.

Question 11

What if I have a slow phone or old Android?

Accepted Answer

FarmWise is built to be lightweight. It runs fine on phones with as little as 1GB RAM. The offline mode means once the app is loaded, your phone doesn't need to keep fetching data. If pages feel slow, try clearing your browser cache and revisiting farmwise.app.

Question 12

What does the symptom checker actually do?

Accepted Answer

You select the symptoms you see in your animal (fever, swollen eyelids, diarrhea type, etc.), and the tool ranks the most likely diseases with treatments, exact drug dosages, mortality rates, and confirmatory signs to look for so you can tell similar diseases apart. It covers 28 pig and poultry diseases. It is a diagnostic aid, not a replacement for a veterinarian.

Question 13

How does the task list work?

Accepted Answer

Every morning, FarmWise generates a daily task list based on your animals and housing. Pigs get feeding, water checks, muck-out. Poultry gets feeding, water line checks, litter top-up. Layers get egg collection. Chicks in brooders get temperature checks. You just tick them off as you go. It takes the mental load off remembering what needs to happen today.

Question 14

Can I track how much my animals actually cost me?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The feed cost tracker lets you log every bag of feed, every vaccine purchase, every vet visit. The app calculates your real cost per pig, per bird, per batch. Most farmers are shocked the first time they see their true cost per animal.

Question 15

Does it track my money in and out?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The finance module records sales (pigs sold, eggs sold, manure sold) and expenses (feed, medicine, labor, transport). You can see your profit or loss per batch, per month, or per year. No more guessing whether you actually made money.

Question 16

Can multiple people use it for the same farm?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can invite workers, managers, or family members to your farm account. Each person gets a role (owner, manager, worker, viewer) with permissions. A worker can mark tasks done but can't see the farm's money. A vet can see health records but can't see finances. Useful for farms with employees.

Question 17

Can I use it for my crops too?

Accepted Answer

Yes. There's a crops module for tracking planting dates, fertilizer applications, harvests, and storage. It's lighter than the livestock side but useful for mixed farms.

Question 18

Who can see my farm data?

Accepted Answer

Only you and the people you invite. Your farm records are private. We never sell farmer data to third parties. We never share your contact list. We never see your farm's money details.

Question 19

What happens to my data if I stop using FarmWise?

Accepted Answer

You can export all your records as a CSV file at any time (Settings > Export). If you delete your account, all your data is permanently erased from our servers within 30 days. We don't keep backups of deleted accounts.

Question 20

Is my farm data safe if your servers crash?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We use Supabase (a database backed by Amazon Web Services) with daily automated backups. Even if our main server fails, your data is recoverable. The offline mode also means your phone always has a local copy of your latest records.

Question 21

Why should I trust the symptom checker over a real vet?

Accepted Answer

You shouldn't. The symptom checker is a diagnostic aid, not a veterinarian. It helps you narrow down what might be wrong so you can take action fast in an emergency, or know what to tell your vet when you call. For confirmation, always send a sample to a lab or consult a veterinarian. The app even tells you when a disease is notifiable (must be reported to authorities).

Question 22

How do I get started?

Accepted Answer

Go to farmwise.app, tap "Start free", enter your name and phone number, and the app walks you through setting up your first farm (animals, housing, currency). Takes about 2 minutes. You can also try the demo first without signing up.

Question 23

Can I try it without signing up?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Visit farmwise.app/demo to click around the dashboard with sample data. No email, no phone number, no commitment. See if it's useful for you before you create an account.

Question 24

What if I get stuck or find a bug?

Accepted Answer

Tap the menu > Help to see our guides. If something is broken or confusing, tap "Send feedback" inside the app and tell us what happened. We're a small team and we read every message. Most bugs get fixed within a week.

Question 25

Can I use FarmWise for a cooperative or farmers' group?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The "Large Farm" and "Cooperative" plans support multiple farms under one account, shared reporting, and aggregated statistics. Useful for cooperatives that want to track member production or aggregate sales. Contact us for pricing.

Question 26

Will FarmWise work for farmers outside Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but our disease database and pricing examples are Africa-focused (Cameroon-based with FCFA prices). Farmers in other regions can still use the task, finance, and records modules. We're expanding the disease database to cover more regions over time.

Question 27

Can I save a diagnosis and show it to my vet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. After running the symptom checker, tap "Save diagnosis" to download a text file with the symptoms you selected, the ranked diseases, treatments, and mortality rates. You can share it with your vet via WhatsApp, or print it. This is especially useful when calling a vet who can't visit the farm immediately.

Question 28

What's the difference between the free plan and paid plans?

Accepted Answer

Free plan: unlimited animals, unlimited tasks, symptom checker, basic finance records, single user. Paid plans add: multiple team members with role-based permissions, advanced reports (profit/loss per batch, feed conversion ratio), multi-farm support, and priority support. Most smallholders never need to upgrade.

Question 29

Can I get reminders for vaccinations and farrowing dates?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The calendar module auto-generates reminders for upcoming vaccinations based on your animals' schedules, and predicts farrowing dates from the breeding date (114-day gestation). Reminders appear in your daily task list and (coming soon) as push notifications.

Question 30

Can FarmWise work for cattle, goats, or sheep?

Accepted Answer

The records, tasks, finance, and feed modules work for cattle, goats, and sheep today. The symptom checker currently covers only pigs and poultry. We're expanding the disease database to include cattle (FMD, brucellosis, mastitis, lumpy skin) and small ruminants (PPR, contagious ecthyma) in 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What FarmWise is

Phone, data & offline

What the app does

Privacy & data

Getting started & support

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