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Business

Indian farmers texting their way to prosperity

By: Santosh :+: Under: Business
On: ⋅ May 9, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

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Or SMSing, as they call it in India. BBC News has this neat story on how Indian farmers are using a text messaging service from Reuters to better their lives, and their crops.

The farmers use text messages to get the daily weather reports to decide optimal plant nutrition, ….

It’s a new service called Reuters Market Light, and he was one of the first to sign up in this area.
The first message every morning is a daily weather forecast for his area.
“By getting the weather reports we can see exactly how much water our banana plants need,” he says, “I keep my cost down, and get the best crop I can.”

to decide on product pricing, ….

In the wholesale market in the city of Pune bananas and melons are piled up as traders haggle. Knowing the right price to ask for makes a huge difference to the farmers selling here. Text messages let farmers know what prices different buyers are offering
It’s always been the buyers who’ve had the upper hand. Now that’s changing.
Scribbling the day’s prices in his notepad is Nadeem Gaikwad, Chief Market reporter for the area for the Reuters financial news service.

and save their crops.

In his banana field Kapil Jachak points to a withered brown banana plant. Last week his trees started dying. A text message alerted him that this is the season when banana stem weevils attack crops.
The text recommended a pesticide. Kapil was able to save his plants.

People complain about the folks in rural and backward areas of India getting left out of the information gold rush. That is a pretty myopic view because you don’t have to sit in front of a computer with keyboard and mouse for “information”. That is so 90s. Pretty much anyone in India, who earns some amount of money, can afford a mobile phone these days, and that is not hyperbole. And guess what the easiest and most convenient way to access information is? An entire set of people numbering greater than the population of the USA are bypassing computers altogether, but still getting information. Hope some entrepreneur minded person is listening.

Funny but true story about the word: SMS, and mild reverse culture shock. When I visited India in 2003, after a gap of 3 years, cell phones were starting to bloom all over the place.
Buddy: Send me a SMS and I’ll come pick you up. We can go grab some drinks ….. blah blah blah ….
Me: Yea sure. Sounds good. We should also invite …..blah blah…. Btw, what is a “SMS”?
Buddy: (amused, slightly annoyed, but patiently explains to me what a “SMS” is)
Me: Oh you mean a text message?

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