An SMS-based info service for farmers soon

The service would be launched across the country to provide information, advisories and services for India's 120 mn farmers

Following the footsteps of services like Reuters Market Light (RML) of Thompson Reuters and Dr. Dekalb Farm Care of Monsanto India, the Union department of agriculture is starting its own SMS-based farm information and advisory service to be called the Kisaan SMS.

According to an official statement, the SMS-based service would be launched across the country to provide information, advisories and services for India’s 120 million farmers. President Pranab Mukherjee would formally inaugurate it on July 16.

The Kisaan SMS service would provide customised weather forecasts, advisories on disease, market-related information, soil test results, information on selections of fertlisers, its dosage etc, all for free to farmers.  

“To get the information, farmers would have to get themselves registered with any of the Kisan Call Centres by dialling a toll-free number,” a senior official explained. He said farmers would be offered customised SMS packaged according to the need and requirement, all for free.

“Arrangements have been made with all major telecom service providers to operate this service across the country,” the official explained. He said the service would enable farmers to select better suited crop variety or animal breed according to the local conditions, advance warning on weather and planting advisories etc.

The service can also be accessed through a web portal called the Kisaan SMS portal. The department has developed a back office of experts, scientists in research institutions, both off-field and on-field, who would disseminate this information to farmers in their local language.

RML, one of the first to start a service of a similar nature in India, provides personalised agricultural information over mobile phones to the farming community. According to the company’s website, RML has one million unique subscribers so far in an estimated 50,000 villages across 13 states. The farmers can choose information for 300 crops in 1,300 markets on RML.

Monsanto’s Dr. Dekalb Farm Care is a free phone advisory service for growing the Dekalb brand of corn, which is manufactured by Monsanto India. Content is delivered via automated voice and SMS text messages and staffed answer centres, the company’s website said.