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