www.cabi.org

KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE

Mobile Agro-advisory project in Mobile Agro-advisory project in India: CABI & IKSLIndia: CABI & IKSL

Third IAALD Africa Chapter Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa 21 – 23 May 2012Sharbendu Banerjee, CABI South Asia-India

Agenda

● Background

● ICT applications in agriculture extension

● Mobile telephony in agri-extension

● IKSL Case Study:

● Synopsys & services

● Coverage

● Success

● CABI IKSL joint program

● Key Learning

● Next Step; Direct2Farm

Background

The Hunger Index:● South Asia is the home to 1 billion poor people living under

$2/day● 40% world’s 925 million hungry people live in China and

India

What “Better Information” can do to make things “Better”● 50% Reduction in crop loss due to “correct information”

through mobile phones rather than “guess work” by farmers ( ICRIER 2009)

● 22% higher yield of Basmati rice because of better information through mobile. (IKSL Contract Farming project2008)

A “Farmer’s eye view” of the agriculture knowledge

landscape

The Bottlenecks

Information: The information is held by dispersed and diversified entities; e.g. academia, businesses, service providers, farmers, governments etc; Information must be Standardized for congruity and authenticity

Communication: “WYSINWYG” ; Information generated for one target audience may not make sense to other target audiences ; Information must be Re-purposed as per the target audience

Technology: The “last-mile” is not friendly with many “common technologies” (e.g. Internet); Technology must be Accessible and Adoptable for the target audience

Information need

Farmers wants information that is:

And solve their problems

“Knowledge harvesting is one way to draw out and package tacit knowledge to help others adapt, personalize, and apply it.... Knowledge Solutions, ADB, 2010”

“Just as personal computers changed the nature of communications and information access in the developed world in the 1990s, mobile phones are now changing their nature worldwide.. The real digital divide. The Economist, March 2005”

ICT Applications in agriculture extension

“The next wave of Telecom growth will come from the bottom of the pyramid. For majority of the population in the rural segment, the mobile phone is the first communication device..IAMAI 2008

Mobile telephony in agriculture extension

•Rural India accounted for around 38-40% of the total Indian mobile handset sales by 2010.•in India alone, mobile value added services (mVAS) market size is estimated at USD 158 billion; which by 2015 will grow to USD 671 billion•For a subscriber, mobile phone is not just a device to communicate, it’s a multipurpose tool that enables users to communicate as well as provides “infotainment” to them

The landscape

Communication is not about what is said, but about what is heard

....NLP principle

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) ● For profit company, formed as JV between IFFCO, Airtel & Star

Global● Operational since 2007● Current subscriber base over 4 million in India● Farmers subscribe by purchasing a SIM card from Airtel (branded as

Green SIM)● Farmers also purchase some airtime (min USD 0.20) form Airtel● Receives 5 voice messages in local dialect every day;

● 2 on crop● 1 on animal● 1 on weather/market price

● Can access local language speaking helpline by dialling a short code: 534351 ( normal call tariff payable)

Synopsis & services

IKSL Agro-advisory service schema

Image Courtesy: Google Maps

•18 States18 States

•Over 4 Million SubscribersOver 4 Million Subscribers

•Over 100,000 Voice Messages deliveredOver 100,000 Voice Messages delivered

•Over 35,000 Farmers’ queries resolvedOver 35,000 Farmers’ queries resolved

IKSL Service Coverage in India

How CABI is helping IKSL

CABI has been the preferred source of information for the agriculture

researchers for last few decades, now CABI is going to bring its experience, expertise and enthusiasm to provide high quality actionable information to

farmers to solve their day to day farming problems

Knowledge Management● Helping IKSL in developing in-house agriculture

information repository● Content provision ( factsheets having actionable

information for farmers)Content Quality Assurance:● SOP-s and protocols ● Authenticity of information● Content process audit for monitoring and

improvementCapacity building of IKSL agents● Training and coaching● Developing customized tools for increasing

efficiency (e.g. Web based crop health diagnosis tool to analyse farmers’ narration for understanding real issue)

It is amazing what you can achieve bycommunicating, sharing and collaborating....

CABI IKSL Joint Program

What CABI is doing

Effective communication is about twice listening to feedback than communicating message; that’s why we have 2 ears and only 1 mouth....

Key LearningRe-purposing Knowledge ● Farmers need “actionable information”● Information has to re-packaged as per local context● Voice has more reach over text as many farmers

are illiterate

Real-time communication through Mobile Phones● Farm to Lab● Lab to Farm● Farm to Farm● Farm to Market

Mobile Technology augments conventional Extension● Using Mobiles, extension reaches farmers’ fields

24x7● Extension-farmer interaction becomes real-time● Mobile network operators are finding agro-

information key to their rural marketing strategy; conducive for Public Private Partnership in Agriculture

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems...MK Gandhi

Mobile Agro-infomediary service

Direct2Farm is a mobile enabled agriculture infomediary Service aimed at making high quality information readily accessible to farmers, enabling them to solve their everyday farming problems by making “application of better knowledge” and by taking “informed decisions” resulting in profitable farming activity and improved livelihood.

CABI DIRECT2FARM

www.cabi.org

KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE

xie-xie

zikomostuh-tee

thank you

cảm ơn cô

urakoze

merci

terima kasih ke itumetse

dhanyawaadmersi efharistó

salamat asante sana Assalamualikum

tak

谢谢

kiitos

danke

शु�क्रि�या�

grazie

ありがとう

благодаря

gracias

спасибо

teşekkür ederim

நன்றி�

faleminderit