Umujyanama is a free farm advisory service for Rwanda, on the web at umujyanama.hekitari.com and as an app for Android and iPhone. It is run by Hekitari ("we"). This policy says what information Umujyanama collects, what it is used for, who else handles it, and how to delete it. The web site and the apps are the same service and this policy covers both.
What we collect
- Your account: your full name, the username you choose, your telephone number and e-mail address if you give them, your district, and your password. The password is stored only as a scrambled hash that cannot be turned back into the password.
- Your fields: the land parcels you add (their land registry number or the outline you draw), the name you give them, the crop, variety, planting date and whether they are irrigated, and the satellite analyses made of them.
- Plant photos: a photo you take or choose for a disease check, and the result of the check.
- Land studies: the areas you ask to have studied for crop suitability, and the advice given.
- Questions to the adviser: what you type or say is sent to the adviser to be answered. It is not kept on our servers; your conversations are kept only on your own phone or browser.
- Sign-in and usage: when you sign in we keep the session with the device's internet address and browser or app name. We keep a record of what was done in the app (for example "analysed a field", "checked a photo") with the time, district and parcel number, so we can see how the service is used and keep it working.
- Location: if you press the "Aho ndi" (where I am) button, your phone's location is used to move the map to where you are. It stays on your phone and is not sent to us.
The camera, microphone and location are only used when you press the button that needs them, and your phone asks your permission first.
What we use it for
- to give you the service: monitor your fields by satellite, estimate their health and yield, check plant photos for disease, study land, and answer your questions;
- to keep your account safe and keep the service working;
- to understand how the service is used, in totals, so we can improve it;
- to add the outlines of fields and their crops to Rwanda's farm map used for national crop monitoring (see below).
We do not sell your information, we do not show advertising, and we do not use tracking or advertising cookies. The only cookie Umujyanama sets keeps you signed in.
Who else handles it
Umujyanama relies on the following services, which handle information only to provide their part of the service:
- Hosting: Render (the server), Vercel (the web site) and Supabase (the database and photo storage).
- The adviser and disease checks: Google Gemini receives your questions, recordings and plant photos, with the details of the field they are about, to answer them. Groq may answer typed questions when Gemini is unavailable.
- Satellite analysis: Google Earth Engine receives field outlines to read satellite imagery.
- Maps and the farm map: Esri ArcGIS Online provides the maps. The outline, crop and analysis results of your saved fields, with your name and username, are written to a farm map held on ArcGIS Online by Esri Rwanda for national crop monitoring.
- Land, weather and soil: Rwanda's National Land Authority land registry (to find parcels), Open-Meteo and OpenWeatherMap (weather), and iSDA (soil). These receive the location of a field, not who you are.
How long we keep it
We keep your account and fields for as long as your account is open. Sign-in sessions end after two months. When you delete your account, your information is deleted as described below.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time, in the app or on the web site:
- Sign in to Umujyanama.
- Open the account menu (the person button at the top).
- Choose Siba konti (Delete account), type your password, and confirm.
If you cannot sign in, write to info@hekitari.com from the e-mail address or telephone number on your account, giving your username, and we will delete it within 30 days.
Deleting your account removes at once and for good: your account details, your sessions on every device, your fields and their analyses, your land studies, and your plant photos and their results. Two things remain:
- fields that were already on the national farm map stay there for crop monitoring, but the field's name and your name and username are removed from them;
- the usage record keeps what was done and when, but no longer who did it.
Your rights
Under Rwanda's law on the protection of personal data and privacy (Law Nº 058/2021), you can ask to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or object to how it is used. Write to info@hekitari.com. You can also complain to Rwanda's National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA), the data protection supervisory authority.
Children
Umujyanama is meant for farmers and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly create accounts for them.
Security
Information travels encrypted (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, photos are kept in private storage, and access to the administration of the service is limited to Hekitari staff who need it.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for important changes, say so in the app.
Contact
Hekitari · info@hekitari.com