Abubakar Sadiq Abbas, a poultry expert from Katsina State, has combined his knowledge of computer science with years of hands-on experience in poultry farming to develop a digital platform designed to transform farm management and decision-making in the poultry industry.
Abbas has worked in poultry production and farm management for several years, including eight years as a general manager overseeing the day-to-day operations of a poultry farm.
His experience managing poultry operations exposed him to significant gaps in farm management, particularly in the way farmers record, analyse and use information to make decisions.
This experience motivated him to leverage his expertise in computer science to develop a system known as PoultryPro.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, Abbas explained how his background in technology, business administration and hands-on poultry farming contributed to the development of the platform.
Describing the technology, he said PoultryPro was a digital poultry farm management and intelligence platform designed to help farmers manage their farms from a single platform.
‘Farmers record their daily farm activities, including egg production, feed consumption, bird numbers, mortality and culling, health, medication and vaccination, inventory, sales, expenditure and revenue.
‘The platform then turns these records into analytics and performance insights. Farmers can see trends in production, feed usage, bird performance, costs, revenue and other important indicators, allowing them to understand how their farm is performing rather than relying on guesswork.
‘PoultryPro also incorporates AI-powered intelligence. The long-term objective is for the AI to analyse the farm’s historical and current data, identify unusual patterns and provide useful insights, forecasts and alerts that can support farmers in making better decisions,’ he said.
Abbas explained that PoultryPro was structured around three phases: ‘Capture’, ‘Understand’ and ‘Predict’.
He said the system ‘captures reliable farm data, uses analytics to understand what is happening on the farm, and uses AI to help predict trends, identify potential problems and support better decision-making.’
Abbas, who is currently pursuing his doctorate, said his inspiration for developing the platform came from his firsthand experience in poultry farming since 2017.
‘After spending years managing poultry operations, I realised that many farmers have a lot of information about their farms, but that information is often scattered across notebooks, spreadsheets, WhatsApp messages or simply kept in memory.
‘The bigger problem is that recording data alone is not enough. Farmers need to understand what the data means.
‘For example, knowing that a farm produced fewer eggs today is useful, but being able to analyse production trends alongside feed consumption, bird numbers, mortality, expenses and revenue can help the farmer understand what may be affecting profitability.
‘That is what inspired PoultryPro. I wanted to move poultry farming from basic record keeping and guesswork to data-driven management, analytics and eventually AI-assisted decision-making,’ he explained.
Abbas said PoultryPro had been undergoing continuous development since 2025, with the platform evolving based on practical insights and feedback from poultry farmers and other industry stakeholders.
He said the development had been progressive, starting with the basic concept of farm records before evolving into a comprehensive farm management tool.
The platform currently includes financial tracking, sales monitoring, data analysis, artificial intelligence capabilities, human resources management, notification systems and other functionalities.
PoultryPro is fundamentally a software solution rather than a physical machine requiring imported raw materials.
The digital tool is designed to streamline poultry farm operations and can be accessed through devices such as smartphones and computers.
Abbas said the main objective was to demonstrate that locally developed agricultural technologies could effectively address challenges faced by farmers.
On financing, he said, like many emerging technologies, securing financial support had been a major challenge.
‘I started by leveraging my personal experience, technical knowledge and available resources, rather than waiting for large external funding before beginning development.
‘I also participated in innovation and entrepreneurship programmes where PoultryPro was presented and received valuable feedback and support. The platform has benefited significantly from competitions, mentorship, exposure and feedback from stakeholders.
‘One of the most important things I have learned is that you don’t necessarily need everything at the beginning. You need to start with the problem, build a solution, test it with real users and continuously improve it,’ he said.
The innovator said the response from the poultry industry had been encouraging.
‘We recently engaged with the Poultry Association of Nigeria, and they were impressed with the concept and provided recommendations for taking the platform to another level,’ he said.
According to him, one of the features that distinguishes PoultryPro is that it is not simply a digital notebook but combines farm management, financial records, analytics, alerts and AI intelligence on one platform.
Abubakar said the analytics could help farmers understand areas such as production performance, feed consumption and efficiency, bird numbers and losses, mortality and culling trends, revenue and expenditure, farm profitability, as well as historical performance and trends.
He said the AI component was designed to take the process further by analysing data generated by the farm and helping to identify patterns, anomalies, potential risks and future trends.
‘For example, as sufficient farm data is accumulated, the system can potentially identify unusual changes in production or feed consumption and provide an early warning for the farmer to investigate.
‘Our vision is for PoultryPro to become a digital operating system and intelligence layer for poultry farms, not just a record-keeping application,’ he said.
Abubakar encouraged farmers to recognise that farm data was an asset, saying PoultryPro allowed them to capture such data and turn it into more useful information through analytics and AI.
‘Instead of simply asking: How many crates did I produce today?
‘The farmer can begin asking: How is my production performing compared with previous weeks? How much feed am I using per bird? Why is production changing? What are my major expenses? What is my actual revenue and profitability? Are there unusual patterns that I should investigate?
‘This is where the analytics and AI components become important,’ he said.
Abubakar said PoultryPro was designed to evolve from simply telling farmers what happened to helping them understand why it happened and, ultimately, anticipate what might happen next.