Farming with mobile phones

For long, they have brought good news about friends and family, but now they will tell farmers when to sow their crops and what fertilisers to use.

Mobile phones are set to change the way farming is done in the country. Thanks to wireless solution provider Handygo Ltd, farmers across the country can now learn about good farm practices and share their views with experts on their mobiles.

With more than one in every third Indian a mobile phone owner, Handygo has tied up with mobile service provider Bharti Airtel to offer expert advice and information about farming as a value-added service.

Handygo is also in talks with Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular to further increase its reach, Handygo Chief Executive Officer Praveen Rajpal told PTI.

Farmers will have to call the company's service centre on a particular number and spare Re 1 a minute to get inputs about weather, fertiliser, seeds, pesticide and irrigation through its interactive voice response (IVR) technology.

The company has hired a team of farm sector experts to the answer the queries. The service will also provide weather forecast using its tie-up with the Indian Meteorological Department.

Though information is now being provided through recorded messages, the company is targeting  to make the service interactive very soon. It is dispersing information in 20 local languages.

Information on bank loans, wholesale rates of various farm items and human and cattle diseases along with their prevention and treatment, will also be added to the services soon.

"We will provide all the latest information to the farmers in their local language and also advise them on the type of crop, which will be beneficial for them with regard to the local weather and geographical conditions," Rajpal said.

This service began a month ago in Haryana and Punjab and till now about 70,000 calls have been received by the company, which Rajpal expects to shoot up in the days to come.