Challenges and opportunities of tablet-based electronic performance data collection and feedback system for artificial insemination delivery in dairy cattle: experience from the land O’Lakes Venture37 PAID project in Ethiopia

Abstract

Land O’Lakes venture37 (v37) has been using Open Data Kit (ODK) to collect Artificial Insemination (AI) technicians’ field performance within the Public Private Partnership for Artificial Insemination Delivery (PAID) Ethiopia Project from Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities Peoples (SNNP), and Tigray regions. This study assesses the challenges and opportunities of the Tablet-based project field performance data collection and feedback system. Information gathered from AI technicians using a structured questionnaire was analyzed using the crosstabulation procedures of SPSS and index methods. Almost all (96.7%) the interviewees had never used Tablet for data collection before PAID project. After training, about 82% of the respondents were able to use the ODK tool to collect and send data to PAID. However, there were reports on the challenges of using ODK that include poor or interruption of internet connectivity (index = 0.272), lengthy (time taking) nature of the forms (index = 0.241), and difficulty of updating the system (index = 0.093). Almost all the respondents were willing to use ODK in the future, provided internet is available and reliable (index = 0.248), and proper training is given (index = 0.238) for using ODK provides confidence that the report is delivered (index = 0.259), and it is timesaving (index = 0.24).