Showing posts with label agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agriculture. Show all posts
Mobile Phone & The Indian Farmer.
Friday, January 15, 2010
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It’s always amazing to know how a small gadget called mobile phone is making life easier for us. Not just as a communication device but more as a multi utility device across socio economic strata. Being in the digital media industry I come across many such utility applications which are trying make our lives easier and engaging in one or the other way. But what really makes me more thrilled is when simple technologies are used to bring some kind of reforms at the grass root levels, especially the farmers. In our country in which half the population depends on farming and most make out a living as subsistence farmers.
Here is one interesting yet simple innovation by engineers who are trying to make farmers lives easier with the help of mobile phones.
If you come from a farming background you would definitely know how many times fluctuation of power makes farmers run to their farms to switch on the irrigation pumps. Indian engineers have come up with a device that allows farmers to use cell phones to remotely turn on their irrigation pumps. All they do is install the switch box type device next to the pumpset panel and this machine will work through the sim card inserted in it.
once installed farmers can just dial a number from their mobile phone, wherever they are and the motor will start pumping water to their fields. Not just this they also get SMS when the power comes
With the rural mobile penetration growing at an amazing rate, there's a whole lot of opportunity for viable solutions like this.
Network(ing) in the upcountry.
Monday, August 18, 2008
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A recent trip to my native village taught me a new lesson in rural marketing with a live case study. My curiosity triggered when I saw an Airtel and IFFICO branded truck standing in front of my house selling prepaid SIM cards to the farmers. My initial investigation started onsite by asking few people around the truck on what was so special about the SIM cards sold in the truck. Farmers were more than thrilled to speak about the cost benefit they were getting and customized value added services attached with the connection.
My second level investigation started once I was back in Bangalore. Like always, I Googled it to dig more information on the initiative. I found the news coverage on the JV launch, which apparently had happened just 15 days before I Googled it. I also felt bad for missing out the news when it happened which was covered in almost all the news and business portals in India.
It’s a new benchmark set by Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s leading integrated telecommunications services provider, and Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative limited (IFFCO) to usher in the Second Green Revolution to benefit millions of rural consumers. The JV is called IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd. (IKSL) to provide big boost to Indian agriculture and rural economy. IKSL will offer products and services, specifically designed for farmers, through IFFCO societies in villages across the country. On offer will be affordable mobile handsets bundled with Airtel mobile connection. The farmer will also get access to a unique VAS platform that will broadcast 5 free voice messages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts, diary farming, animal husbandry, rural health initiatives and fertilizer availability etc. on a daily basis. In addition, the farmer will be able to call a dedicated helpline, manned by experts from various fields, to get answers to their specific queries. (not too sure if this is a toll free no.).
It’s a new benchmark set by Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s leading integrated telecommunications services provider, and Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative limited (IFFCO) to usher in the Second Green Revolution to benefit millions of rural consumers. The JV is called IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd. (IKSL) to provide big boost to Indian agriculture and rural economy. IKSL will offer products and services, specifically designed for farmers, through IFFCO societies in villages across the country. On offer will be affordable mobile handsets bundled with Airtel mobile connection. The farmer will also get access to a unique VAS platform that will broadcast 5 free voice messages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts, diary farming, animal husbandry, rural health initiatives and fertilizer availability etc. on a daily basis. In addition, the farmer will be able to call a dedicated helpline, manned by experts from various fields, to get answers to their specific queries. (not too sure if this is a toll free no.).
Bharti Airtel will offer competitive calling rates @ 50 paise/minute for calls between IFFCO members. This is expected to promote community building within the society and rural community at large. Bharti Airtel will also set up towers at sites provided by IFFCO societies to provide quality services to farmers.
By 2010, the rural population is likely to touch 800 million and two-thirds of those would be prospective mobile users. The platform will help make available voice advices in all local languages. The Indian farmer will be able to look forward to the benefits of mobile telephony and Internet.
Being a strong advocate of mobile as a medium to reach masses at the grass root level, here is one more reason for me to believe why mobile will overtake internet in the rural India.
OurVillageIndia.org – Rural India on the web.
Monday, June 9, 2008
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During the last few visits to my native, I had been desperately trying to know the exact population of the region for which I got different answers from each one of them I met. Some said thousand and some said more. To my surprise I got the right answer from one of the newly launched unique website called OurVillageIndia.org. A dedicated team of Indians and Indian Americans have developed OurVillageIndia.org that seeks to provide information about census data, geographic location, infrastructure facilities, local government, history, prominent people, interested volunteers, change-makers and NGOs for all the 600,000 plus villages of India. OurVillageIndia.org is dedicated to put every village in India on the web. Though the main goal is to create a web presence for every Indian city/town/village on the WWW map, the ultimate objective of the makers is to bring people in these places to come together to help their motherland. Organization’s mission is to help accelerate sustainable development in rural India by building up a network of social entrepreneurs, donors, volunteers, role models among individuals, NGOs, projects and village folks.
It’s a place where PIOs, NRIs and RIs can find their roots, learn what is going on and adopt villages/districts for rural development. It’s also a place where one can find subject matter experts on water, education, agriculture, livelihood, training, health, energy, ecology, sanitation and waste management. The portal will also serve to find role model villages and districts; new technologies and methods (solar energy, vermicompost, etc.); NGOs, which are doing work in villages; success stories; and information on how to replicate sustainable development in villages. If you are interested in publishing more information about the village you know, you will be able to request publishing rights for that village. If you are interested in a particular project, you will be able to send a request to the project owner to be included. With a very little effort, we all can make huge difference to the people living in the rural parts of the country by registering as voluntaries for either our own villages or to the villages we know.
For more details, log on to www.OurVillageIndia.org.
'AFRICA WORKS' with Benetton.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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Benetton perhaps is one brand which is known for its hard hitting and sometimes politically incorrect campaigns than the stuff it sells. Also known for its global activism, Benetton recently launched a financing initiative created to support Birima, a micro credit organization founded by renowned Senegalese musician, Youssou N’ Dour. (Honestly speaking, I had never heard this musician’s name before.) Contrary to the belief that fashion and cause don’t traditionally go together, Benetton has contributed $ 1.5 million as direct funding and will also make certain that the scheme and the initiative get noticed worldwide through a wonderful media campaign that features brilliantly expressive images. (http://www.benetton.com/africaworks/)
Since majority of Africa lives on less than one dollar a day, micro credit is the best way to enable people who live in the base of the pyramid to invest in their skills and talents. Microcredit organizations give them small loans which is otherwise be denied by larger financial institutions and banks. By financing what are deemed unfeasible business like tailor, craftsmen, street side vendor, farmer, fishermen, Africa works (Name of the initiative) makes clear that it is not a charitable scheme, even if it is based on optimism for the future.
Alessandro Benetton, Executive Deputy Chairman of Benetton Group explains the conviction with which Benetton has backed the project: "We chose to support and promote this important project because, unlike traditional acts of solidarity, it offers tangible support to small local entrepreneurs through the efficient use of micro-credit. Precisely because it is based on entrepreneurial talent, hard work, optimism and interest for the future, this project effectively promotes the new face of Africa."
This initiative should inspire India Inc, which still thinks CSR is all about fund raising, donating, cleaning slums, which end of the day, gives nothing beyond a little PR to the company and false hopes to the people. More and more micro credit organizations backed by the large corporate not only helps eradicate unemployment problem, but also helps nation to enhance its wealth and talent .Helping people fish is always a better way than giving them fish everyday.
From Lead India to Change India…
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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Remember RK Mishra? Winner of the much hyped yet sensible program on television called Lead India, an initiative in association with times of India. He is back again, for all the good reasons with a strategy in place to try and change the nation with the help of change agents (You & I), with a movement called change India. Unlike Miss Indias & worlds who vanish away after winning the title.Everybody wants to change the nation, but no one knows where to start from. Here is a chance for people who are concerned about various issues hindering the growth of the nation. If you are game for it, all you have to do to start is to register online with http://www.changeindia.info/, opine, discuss, debate and analyze various issues of local/national interest. Bring together doers; Make a policy impact, create a self - sustaining eco – system and an ‘I will make a difference’ attitude.
Change India also provides space for various social entrepreneurs, activists, NGOs and advocacy groups to host, promote, seek funds and popularize their ideas, concepts, projects and organizations on http://www.changeindia.info/. This will give the members a ready shelf of ideas, projects and social entrepreneurship avenues.
Catch you on http://www.changeindia.info/
Connecting the Disconnected.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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My work, family, friends and my lifestyle always gives me an opportunity to meet people from various walks of life, from farmers to entrepreneurs, techies to cabbies, housekeepers to house owners, socialites to social evils:). One common thing about all the people I meet is that when ever we catch up over a cup of coffee, knowingly or unknowingly we tend to discuss issues related to technological inventions in the recent past. Needless to say that the discussion predominantly revolves around the INTERNET and the way it is changing our life at the end of this century. Most of the time we only discuss about the initiatives which are made towards making life comfortable for the people who are already living in a comfort zone or leading a luxury lifestyles. Be it about the new feature added in the Mercedes cars, the online railway ticket booking systems, Job boards, eShopping, online banking or anything which falls in the same page. From New York to Tokyo, the Internet has fundamentally changed work, recreation, lifestyle, marriages and even love to name few. But in Kodihalli, a village in Karnataka or Patalgarh, a tribal hamlet in MadhyaPradesh, life remains very much the same as it was 10 years back. Very few people I meet are really concerned about the situation and are aware of those sustainable initiatives in the online space, which are in some way or the other making difference to people who live in the base of the pyramid, for whom the words ‘Internet’ and ‘technology’ are just an alien terms. Having been part of the Internet business in India for over six years and being a strong advocate of economic developments through social enterprises, I get propitious when I come across a new initiative in this space.
Out of the many social enterprises launched in the online space, I would always love to profile, talk and discuss about the 2 portals which are keeping people at bottom of the pyramid equipped for the race of survival. First one is the recently launched Babajob.com and the second one being eChoupal.com. Directly or indirectly, they are also contributing some amount to the over all economic development though their online initiatives.
Babajob.Com: Any online initiatives especially Job sites, help people who have access to the net. However, there are millions of people in the country like cooks, drivers, housekeepers, gardeners, plumbers and etc, whose only connectivity is a friend, family or his employers who have access to digital world. Babajobs have a new model which helps people escape poverty by connecting employers to informal sector employees - such as maids, cooks and drivers - through people they know. Uniquely, when an employer hires someone on babajob.com, Babajob compensates whoever digitally registered the job seeker and up to 2 people that connect the employee to the employer. The Bangalore-based company was profiled in the New York Times piece as a significant innovation that “seeks to bring the social-networking revolution to the world’s poor”
ITC’s eChoupal: The unique web based initiative of ITC’s International Business Division, offer the farmers of India all the information, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity improve farm gate price realization and cut transaction costs. Farmers can access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal. eChaupal also facilitates supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their door step.
Apart from these two, there are few other online initiatives which were launched with an objective of promoting Indian handicrafts, and create sustainable environment for the craftsmen and artists, but however, they were less talked about and I am really clueless about the results these portals are achieving. Hence, I refrained from profiling them.
{Image in the post has been taken from hindu.com}
Bridging The Gap - Community Radio Station.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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I had been to Dharwar over the last weekend on a personal trip. Dharwar, a city, home of delicious, mouth watering Pedhas and for renowned centers of learning with various educational institutions and a city with various firsts to its credit.My appetite to know new things about the places I visit triggered yet again. This time, top of the list on the menu was the new Community Radio Station (CSR) named as “Samudaya Banuli Kendra", launched recently targeting the farmers in and around the city. This of course has been launched as a pilot project covering the radius of 8-10kms, and will be extended to other parts of the district in the coming days.
Country’s first of its kind, this initiative is a brain child of The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, launched with the financial assistance of the Union Government. The whole idea behind this launch was to reach the farmers through the medium of radio, which is a powerful medium to interact with themasses at the grassroots level and try to address their problems. The channel, with the catch line “Raitharinda Raitharige”, (by the farmers, for the farmers), deals with issues related to agriculture, health, nutrition, hygiene and income generating schemes for farmers. Apart from the said programmes, progressive farmers in the region are also invited to give advice to the farmers and to share the secrets of their success. An advisory committee has been formed which comprises officials from the University staff, five men farmers, five women farmers and two non-governmental organizations to take care of the content and programmes that catch the attention of farmers. Apart from this, local farmers and public are also invited to give their opinion and suggestions to improve the channel.
These kinds of initiatives will definitely help farmers to learn new methods of cultivation as well as find solutions to the problems they face in their day to day life and will defenietly bring in reforms to the already sinking industry. CRSs should in fact go one step ahead and provide information about the buyers, co-operative societies etc. More and more multinational companies in the country should launch CRS as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative, if it is sustainable (CRS at Dharwar was set up at the cost of 15L). Radio surely has more reach than the online initiatives which are currently operative in the same segment. Having said that, I completely accept the fact that online initiatives are doing a fairly good job, but it definitely takes some time to reach the masses at the grassroots level. Hope to see CRSs targeting farmers at every district headquarters in the next few years to come.
From cabbage to garbage – A Devastating condition of Indian vegetable cultivator
Saturday, October 6, 2007
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I have been visiting my parents for almost every weekend over the last few weeks at my village near Hassan for one or the other reasons like marriage, festival, pooja etc. Last week when I met my dad for the third consecutive weekend, I found him too low and disturbed. While discussing with him on the various issues pertaining to Agriculture, plantation and villagers, I came to know that he had sold two truck loads of Cabbage grown in his plantation for just Rs.7000/-. Needless to say this made him feel so low. This exactly is the situation with every farmer who grows vegetable in India.While on my way back to Bangalore, I was thinking to myself, if this is the result you get after investing 3 full months, 3shifts a day and few thousands of rupees on fertilizers, pesticides, labors etc. there is no wonder why farmers in some parts of the country are committing suicide and most of the others are migrating to nearby towns and cities in search of jobs.
Contrary to the situation faced by farmers the people who live in towns and cities have different story to say. They always crib about hike in the vegetable price and how it results in toppling their financial plan, every hotelier saying that, hike in the vegetable price has resulted in increased cost and thus they have increased the prices of food. So, a same vegetable plays two different roles in two different places from ruining up farmers life to jeopardizing the financial plan of city dwellers.
So, what exactly is the reason for this leakage? Any kind of rocket science approach is not required to find out the answer, but I feel some of the reasons are 1) there is no organized distribution system 2) There is no support price given. 3) Buyers are not regulated. 4) Too many middlemen. I believe by the time it reaches consumer it changes at least 3 hands at various stages. 5) Prices are fixed by middlemen. 6) Shortage of cold storage units.
Considering the fact that vegetables are highly perishable in nature, there has been no effort put by government to set up cold storage units in the rural areas. At least a cold storage in every gram panchayat may bring in some kind of positive change in the lives of vegetable cultivators during the glut.
A minimum procurement price supported by organized distribution system through fair price shops dedicated to sell only vegetables will also avoid cultivators making loss. Kiosks in every post office in the rural area to give information about the prices of the vegetable in various parts of the country and other related issues will also bring in lot of reforms. The reason why I have mentioned post office is because of their reach. Even today in India no distribution channel has got as close reach as post offices have. Of course there has been couple of initiatives taken by private sectors in India both in improvising the distribution system and providing required information to the farmers. Pepsi foods initiative of buying potatoes & tomatoes from farmers, which did not take big leap because of their poor supply chain management and ITC’s e-Choupal is more or less a paper tiger and almost struck in the same place where it started seven years back.
Contract farming is something which is picking up very well in the country, but nevertheless it has to be monitored closely by either government or APMC since it is proving biased against the farmers in lot of cases. For instance, small and marginal farmers are not equipped with information and knowledge required in this regard and farmers have very little bargaining power at the present model. Growing retail sector is also giving some kind of hopes as some of the big retailers are sourcing vegetables directly from the farmers.
Agriculture provides livelihoods to 70 percent of the rural people resulting in India being the largest producer of vegetable in the world. Post Green revolution of 1970s which enabled India to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains, agricultural growth has slowed from 3.5 percent in mid 1980s to 2 percent in mid 1990s to 2000s. Farmers migrating to cities in search of jobs are a major cause of concern. This has already resulted in low agricultural productivity. This time, the government of India has no ample time to react to this situation. If they do not act in the next hour, we’ll end up importing vegetables and fruits in the years to come.
Village, villagers and the metamorphosis
Friday, May 18, 2007
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Circa 1980s:It was a perfect sunny day in the summers of late eighties.I was helping my dad in his farm as I always did during my summer vacations. I was bit over dressed for the job I was doing, wearing branded denims and T-shirt which made me look like an alien to our farm labours. My uncles in the neighboring plantations started calling me as a 'Modern farmer'.
Radio was the only gadget used in the farms in and around our village.Workers enjoyed listening to 'aakashvani' while working..(Hey, its not MNCs who introduced radios at work place..thanks to those visionary farmers who introduced them in the farms & plantations of southern Karnataka)
The only TV set in the village attracted a minimum of 200 people to watch 'Ramayana' on Sunday mornings.Yes, TV was one of the most luxurious product those days.A car parked in the entrance of the village would attract a minimum of 50 people (majority of them being kids). Few telephones in the village used to handle incoming calls for almost an entire village.
Circa 2007:
What a change...denims have become a dress code, people talk about Levis,Pepe,Killer..shades and caps are additions. Though iPods are visible here and there, radio still rocks in the fields and plantations.Cars can no more attract people unless a Ferrari or a Lamborghini is parked.Few people do possess plasma sets, large screen TV sets are quite common. Forget about landlines, every household has at least one cell phone and it has become a craze among youths in the village.My dad don't have to come home to inform my mother about no. of workers present in the filed, she is just a dial away for him..thanks to BSNL & Airtel. Rigtones are challenging the vocal abilities of the migrated birds in our plantations.
One good thing about this sea change is, I am no more an alien or a modern farmer as most of the people dress better than me in the village!
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