In Uganda, apiculture is a growing sector with a vast untapped potential which employs a substantial number of people, mainly because of the ease of operating the business and the fact that it requires less finance to start and run.

The study examines the usability of three digital applications that are part of a youth employment program (one of the current projects funded by the CFYE Trees x Bees) in Uganda, introduced with the aim of solving problems of access to finance, quality assurance, and traceability among smallholder farmers.

The apps are used for registration, accessing credit, and gamified learning, and the study explored their usability in a developing country’s context, giving several recommendations to improve digitization. The study paid attention to the individual characteristics of users, the technological factors, and the influence of the social environment and infrastructure, finding that the use of proxy users is essential for beekeepers to interact with digital solutions effectively, and recommending a focus on training, device distribution, and better offline functionality for digital applications.

For more on beekeeping and digitalisation in Uganda, visit this page.