Mobile Phones Gives Farmers Access To Information

Without information, farming in a rural area, as majority of developing countries are rural areas, can be very difficult. Now millions of farmers are using mobile phones to gather information such as weather, price and farming tips and advice. There has been great success in many countries, helping farmers farm smartly with information. This information sharing platform has helped farmers by providing information, hence being more efficient. Also, has helped suppliers of agriculture products know what methods are working, and therefore what products are in demand. It is essentially creating a market by giving buyers and sellers symmetrical information.

In general these platforms are

• Based on Mobile phones, where communication is done through text or voice messages, along with photos from mobile phone.
• Response time is fairly efficient (usually within the day. If farmer seeks answers to complicated questions, may take up to 4 days).
• Use sensors like GPS and Google Earth to gather data on weather, common pests, food-grain prices and soil conditions on a specific location

The following are few examples:

mKRISHI

• Based in India
• Developed by Tata Consultancy Services
• $1 to $2 a month for service

Reuters Market Lite

• Based in India
• $4.20 for three-month subscription
• provides local weather and price information several times a day
• over 125,000 users

Nokia Life Tools

• Based in India
• Provides education, entertainment along with information on agriculture (price, weather, farming tips).
• Costs 30 rupees (less than $0.60 a month)

Nong Xin Tong

• Based in China
• Mobile service offered in Chinese mobile phones
• provides news, weather  and government policies related to agriculture.
• Costs $0.30 a month
• over 40 million users

Farmer’s Friend

• Based in Uganda
• Developed by MTN, Google and the Grameen Foundation’s”Application Laboratory.”
• Cost $0.05 each time

Google Trader

• Matches agricultural produce and commodities buyers and sellers.
• Matches buyers and sellers from 30 km for seven days.
• First five weeks received over 1 million queries.

“Mobile Phone Farming (mKrishi),” Devin Banerjee, The Wall Street Journal

“Beyond voice: New uses for mobile phones could launch another wave of development,” The Economist