Delivering livestock knowledge to Indian farmers through mobile phones

Delivering Livestock Knowledge to Indian Farmers through mobile phones

Sagarika Gandhi ICT4Ag International Conference, Kigali, Rwanda

4-8 November 2013

Service Provider (Lead partner) - Handygo Technologies Pvt. Ltd (Handygo) Content Providers - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) - CABI (CAB International) - Digital Green

Active Partners

Passive Partners

Funding Partners - GSMA Foundation - USAID - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Key actors involved

Purpose of the project

Providing smallholder farmers with access to actionable,

relevant and timely information on livestock through mobile

phones

Improving livestock productivity, decision making ability and

better incomes to the livestock keepers

Empowering women by reducing information asymmetries due

to gender disparity

Target Beneficiaries

Marginal farmers- less than 1 ha land holding Smallholder farmers- between 1-2 ha land holding

Farmers practicing mixed cropping and livestock farms.

Approach Followed

Need Assessment

Content & Service Design

Quality Control

Awareness & Promotion

Feedback & Capacity Building

Loyalty & Satisfaction

Strategy for achieving results

Location Specific focused content development approach

Quality check at various levels before sending to Users

Integrating mobile delivery channels (IVR, SMS, Voice Message and Call Center)

Pushing Dynamic information based on the profile. Regular User Testing, feedback analysis Focused outreach strategy

Role of mobile

To provide scalable and affordable advisory services to info-poor livestock keepers

Accessibility- IVR & voice messages overcomes literacy barriers

Reduction of transaction costs of advisory services Improving farmer decision making ability Strengthening expert- farmer linkages

Delivery mechanism(s) Primary Information Pull Delivery Agro advisories: Regional IVR allows user to easily navigate the mKisan advisory capsules by selecting alpha- numeric keystrokes. Farmer Helpline: A team of experts attend farmer queries on livestock. It is much more efficient and cost effective than a conventional call center.

Primary Information Push Delivery Agro bulletins: Dynamic micro- information based on farmer profiles delivered via SMS.

Complementary R & D Information Pull Delivery Videos: To be tested for users acceptance on mobile available on demand.

Outcomes

• Total unique users are 24,081 • Total content usage is 112,910 pulse• Total calls made by users is 73,566• Information on General care and management is

in high demand among users with total usage of 53,974 pulse. (48%)

• Cattle management advisories are more popular followed by goats, buffalo and poultry.

Success Factors

• Localized and quality content delivery• Service design- IVR & voice capsules• Access to low cost handset• Lower pricing and subscriptions available in

various denominations

Challenges

Implementation effectiveness barriers - Socio political and cultural diversity

- Infrastructure development difference

Local agro knowledge providers and expert availability Content sourcing and validation Dynamic user base Frequent change of Mobile Numbers restricting to profile a

user

What next…..

Gender focused content delivery Assessing loyalty and user satisfaction Impact assessment

Final Thoughts

Provision of funds exclusively for content Long term projects are required to create real

impacts Potential of ICT is underutilized by farming

communities Localized and validated content- district and state

level