A Brief Note on Alignment of IKSL’s Initiative with MDGs

IKSL’s approach and strategy is resulting in productivity enhancement and increased production at individual farm level resulting in increased availability of food thus helping in mitigating hunger, and higher income to farmers thus contributing to eradicating poverty. Farm income is increased through better management and timely information on weather and market prices. Some of the specific examples of the success stories impacting the MDG’s are:

Poverty Alleviation – MDG 1 

A small farmer Shivalingegowda, having two cows yielding only 6-8 litre milk yield per day. He listened a message of animal feed for increasing milk yield and started feeding maize (250 g) and groundnut cake (200 g) supplement every day. He doubled milk production and trebled his profit to more than 100USD.  Ravindra of village : Bakhari, Silhamarhi (Bihar) was having problem of weeds in his maize feed. From the helpline he got the recommendation of spraying weedicide. On a spend 15USD per hectare on weedicide application, the increase in yield was 125 ton/ha. Adoption of chemical weed control technology gave him additional income of 240 USD - per hectare.

A message about control of watermelon leaf curl caused by sucking pest was adopted by Mr. Choonappa in his 2 acre of land. He sprayed right chemical at the proper rate, controlled the disease effectively. He saved 33USD in chemicals and harvested 9 tonnes from 2 acres double of the previous year.

A landless labor Mr. Shiva taking care of cows in his owner farm prepared balanced feed for animals after listening to related message and feeding this to animals along with green fodder. Getting 4 litres of additional increased milk yield per cow. He commands more respect and wages now & also earned social recognition.

Mr. Vasudev Bhat and Mr. Malleshappa marginal & blind farmers are totally dependant on IKSL messages & helpline support for growing cereal crops and doing animal husbandry successfully

Gender, Health – MDG3 and 5Health tips disseminated in messages regarding ‘dos, and ‘don’ts’ for pregnant women and also home made medicines for post delivery care were adopted & appreciated by many farm women

Active participation of farm women in special women quiz programme (>100 calls per programme), talk to lady doctor (>60 calls), health-in-hand programme & calling helpline is the clear evidence of gender inclusiveness

Gender, Primary Education – MDG 2&3A message delivered about free residential school for girl child (Kittor Rani Chennamma School), helped Mr. Nayan a schedule caste small farmer to admit his sister Ms. Mamatha to this renowned school

Gender – MDG 3Ms.Prabhamani, small farm women(1.5 acre) after listening message followed Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of controlling mastitis disease in Cows. Saved 33USD in expenses or 1/3rd of average monthly income

Apart from the above, 2 special communities showcase the real power of the communication platform that IKSL has executed:

1. Vidiyal in Theni (Tamil Nadu) – a women’s Self help Group involved in goat rearing.With the help of Vidiyal an NGO and the Commonwealth Of Learning an inter Government body involved in giving lifeskills, 1300 women of a community got a loan of approx 250,000USD to start a goat rearing business. They were equipped with IKSL connections and then fed messages on Goat & Cow Rearing, Education on Women's Rights and Women’s Health. At the end of the 1st year, in 2010, 30% of the loan was repaid, the value of the assets ( animals) had gone upto approx 750,000 USD and the group had expanded to 1200 women. Presently, 5000 women are being added to the group.. Now banks are willing to finance such ventures as they believe

that the timely delivery of vocational messages and expert advice in rearing such animals is a key success factor which could not have been achieved with the infusion of capital alone.The goats under the Life Long Learning project (L3) were also scientifically assessed by experts on certain parameters and were found to outscore the other goats in surrounding areas on every parameter. The details are below

2. Hafed in Haryana – a basmati rice contract farming experienceHafed , a State Govt marketing Federation, involved in contract farming of Basmati rice contracted IKSL to equip farmers with a mobile connection and send them expert advisories on rice cultivation with a a view to improving the yield per acre cultivated. It was observed that the number of farmers harvesting basmati paddy rice yield of 13q/ac declined from 173 in 2008 to 63 in 2009 and the number of farmers with yield above 13 q/ac increased from 105 in 2008 to 215 in 2009. Highest yield recorded crossed 19 q/ac mark. The details are

The business model has also allowed IKSL to grow a pool of rural entrepreneurs as marketing associates who are sourced from the local villages and asked to work with the farmers in the teritories close by and are promoting the use of our services and in the process ewarning their won livelihood and supplementing the family income. Close to 500 such associates have been contracted by the Co.

In recognition of our efforts, the Bill & Melinda gates foundation via a sub grant through the GSMA provided a fund of 450,000 USD to IKSL for upgrading our content management & delivery systems and improving our quality control processes. These have impacted both the quality and execution capabilities in managing of content. The system allows for management of all the services of IKSL in relation to relevant MDGs. A screen shot is shown below with respect to documentation of Helpline queries.

We engage with the farming community by utilizing our considerable field force to hold daily farmer meets at villages, where the benefits of the service are demonstrated, successful farmers are invited to share their experience and other actors of the rural arena like seed sellers, pesticide retailers are also educated on the impact on ground.

IKSL & UN-GAID

An invitation was extended by the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN-GAID) for IKSL to participate in their Consultative Meeting during Sep 1-2, 2010 at UN Head Quarters in New York. Altogether 144 members from 44 countries have participated in the deliberations. The CEO (IKSL) has made a presentation on IKSL which was well received by the participants. CEO (IKSL), in his intervention, has expressed whole hearted support to further the cause of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of UN through IKSL's services. IKSL is actively involved in the development of an E-Enabler for supporting UN-GAID. Based on the deliberations, the Content Team of IKSL have started monitoring the voice messages & helpline based on MDGs.

Shri S. Srinivasan, participating in the Meeting of UNGAID in New York during Sep 1-2, 2010