How a young Tanzanian farmer built promising poultry tech startup

The numbers, so promising on paper, had crashed in reality. What was originally meant to be a strategic investment in dual-purpose chickens had come to become a personal and financial crisis.

“Emotionally, it was devastating. I felt deep regret and helplessness, thinking, maybe this isn’t for me,” he recalls.

According to Brayan, previously, he calculated that he could earn twice as much by keeping dual-purpose chickens instead of broilers; however, just two months later, feed prices rose, and his finances evaporated.

“So as you can imagine, I had to incur debts so that I could sustain the bird's weight…I took some money from friends to sustain feeding the chicks for the remaining time, and that put me in a bad spot,” he said.

He remembers so well that feeling of failure — the humiliation, the helplessness, the fear that he would never make it in poultry farming after all.

And what Brayan did not know then was that this difficult chapter would mark the beginning of something far greater: a digital solution that would change the lives of poultry farmers across Tanzania.

That whole experience eventually sparked the idea behind Fuga — a home-grown mobile and web application that is quickly becoming one of the country’s most promising agricultural innovations.

Hidden costs, hidden losses

Brayan’s initial missteps were not unusual. They exposed a far larger issue within the poultry sector in Tanzania: the lack of proper planning and financial literacy among smallholder farmers.

While poultry farming may appear straightforward — buying chicks, raising them, and selling them — the economic nuances are often overlooked.

Feed prices fluctuate. Chick mortality affects margins. Overfeeding drains resources.

And many farmers, especially those just starting, are unaware of how these variables impact their bottom line.

As Brayan recovered from his ordeal, he began talking to other farmers. What he discovered was both validating and alarming.

“I realized that nearly 70 percent of the farmers Brayan spoke with were women, and many were running small poultry projects, but often the capital to start those ventures came from their husbands,” he said.

One woman in particular received over six million shillings to raise layer chickens.

However, she ended up overfeeding the birds, thinking the feeding schedules for broilers could apply to layers.

By the time the birds were nearing the point of laying, the money had already run out.

Her husband, unaware of the technical mistake, began questioning where the money had gone.

That story, like many others, stayed with him. He started building simple Excel tools to help new farmers forecast the costs of their projects.

But one day, during a conversation with his uncle, a more transformative idea took shape.

His uncle wanted to start a poultry project, but kept changing the number of birds he wanted to raise.

Each time, Brayan had to recalculate everything manually.

It was tedious, and that’s when the lightbulb moment came: What if farmers could calculate costs themselves, digitally, and even generate reports they could share with their funders?

Solutions: Fuga web calculator and the Fuga App

That question led to the creation of the Fuga Web Calculator — a user-friendly online tool that allows farmers to estimate their start-up costs based on the breed and number of chickens they plan to keep.

The tool was a hit. But Brayan and his team didn’t stop there.

Recognising that many Tanzanians access the internet primarily through their phones, they developed the Fuga App — a more advanced, offline-accessible version of the calculator packed with features designed to make poultry farming smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable.

The app simplifies every step of the process. Farmers enter the number of birds and the breed they intend to keep, and the app automatically calculates a cost estimate, taking into account feed, vaccinations, equipment, and more.

It also allows users to subtract items they already own — like feeders or thermal lamps — for a more accurate budget.

But the real genius lies in what came next.

As Brayan continued consulting with farmers, he realised that many had no idea how much to feed their chickens each day.

Some simply filled up buckets or trays, unaware of how overfeeding could sabotage their profits.

Others continued feeding dead chickens, simply because they hadn’t adjusted the daily feed to reflect losses in the flock.

One farmer, Brayan recalls, lost over Sh320,000 in a year simply because he didn’t reduce his feed after 10 birds died in the first week.

The Fuga App includes a feed calculator that shows exactly how much feed to provide based on the number of live birds.

It also features a feed tracker that tells the farmer how many days of feed remain, and when to switch from one feed type to another.

Crucially, the app sends automatic SMS reminders for vaccinations — an often-neglected but vital aspect of poultry health, ensuring that farmers never miss important dates.

To top it off, farmers can log expenses, record egg production, calculate the cost per chicken, and determine their selling price based on real data, not guesswork.

And despite being rich in functionality, the app is remarkably easy to use. Its design is so intuitive that even farmers who struggle with smartphones find it accessible.

“We tested it with people in their 40s and 50s, and we made sure the design was even simpler than WhatsApp,” Brayan says with pride.

“So that if a person can use WhatsApp can use Fuga”.

He says the app uses very clear steps: just enter the number of chickens and select the breed, and everything else is calculated automatically.

It avoids complicated words and uses familiar farming terms in both English and Swahili.

Plus, many features work with simple buttons like “Add Expense” or “Record Death,” making it easy even for first-time smartphone users.

“Everything is designed to feel like talking to a farming friend, not using a difficult app,” he said.

Though still in its early days, Fuga is already beginning to transform how Tanzanians approach poultry farming.

In just two weeks since the app’s launch, Brayan and his team have received an array of surprising feedback, including from a pig farmer who, despite the app being designed for poultry, is using it to track his piggery costs and calculate profit margins per animal.

It is, as Brayan puts it, “proof that when you solve real problems, people will find a way to adapt your solution.”

Feeding the nation, digitally

Beyond the individual stories, Fuga is beginning to take on national significance. Tanzania’s poultry sector is both vast and underperforming.

With over 3.7 million households involved in agriculture, the country still struggles with a shortage of poultry meat and inefficient production practices.

Fuga offers not just a solution, but a foundation for reform.

“If we want food security, we need data,” Brayan says firmly. “Farmers need tools that help them plan, measure, and grow sustainably. Right now, many don’t even know if they’re making a profit. That has to change.”

What makes Fuga especially powerful is that it aligns with broader national priorities.

With over 65 percent of Tanzania’s population under the age of 35, there is a clear need to make agriculture appealing to the youth.

Brayan believes digital tools like Fuga are essential for shifting agriculture from a survival activity to a modern, profitable enterprise.

“We need to build better infrastructure for the coming generation so that they can be attracted into agriculture and not to think it as a retirement plan when they get old,” he says.

“It should be a smart business choice. And to do that, we need infrastructure that supports young people and gives them confidence,” he adds.

Looking to the future, Brayan and the Primax team envision Fuga as a digital ecosystem that stretches far beyond poultry.

They plan to expand the app to include tools for other livestock, including pigs, goats, and fish.

They also want to integrate training, financing options, and market access — essentially becoming a one-stop shop for farmers across Africa.

“For Primax, we aim to grow beyond just being a software company, we want to be a trusted partner for farmers in every step of their farming journey, from training to technology to market accessibility,”

“We also plan to expand to other countries beyond Tanzania, starting with East Africa, because the challenges farmers face are very similar across the continent,” he added.

Brayan’s own journey — from debt and disappointment to digital innovation — reflects the very spirit that Tanzania’s agricultural sector needs: resilience, creativity, and a commitment to lifting others.

He didn’t build Fuga in a boardroom. He built it in the ashes of a failed farm, armed only with lessons learned and a determination to do better.

Brayan is helping rebuild the future of Tanzanian farming — one chicken, one farmer, one data point at a time.