Hyderabad, India
30 Dec 2014
A customized low-cost combination phone and tablet computer called “GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM” was commercially launched on 29 December 2014 by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICIRISAT) at its global headquarters in Telangana India.
“ICRISAT has been at the forefront of using the latest technology to benefit smallholder farmers. The GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder farmers. This will help farmers purchase inputs at lower price, get a better price for their produce, and link them to markets, thus putting them on the path to prosperity,” said Dr William Dar, ICRISAT’s Director General, while launch-ing the GreenPHABLET.
The GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM is priced at US$ 299 and has been developed by the ICRISAT Center of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture in collaboration with NUNC Systems, a company based in Hyderabad, India.
Info-entrepreneurs/extension professionals equipped with a GreenPHABLET serve as intermediaries, collecting information on registered farmers' landholdings and cropping practices, and questioning the database to pull information on their behalf, supporting informed regular decision-making and monitoring.
“This device acts like a mobile village knowledge center/common service center, enabling farmers to benefit from contemporary information and communication technologies and expanding Internet connectivity in remote rural regions,” says Dr. Dileepkumar Guntuku, Global Leader and Director, ICRISAT Center of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture. “It creates an ecosystem of services that will improve the quality and convenience of information dissemination and knowledge sharing among stakeholders,” he added. Discussions are in progress for the device to be rolled out India-wide and to Africa.
“Real time information sharing between farmers and researchers enables farmers to improve crop produc-tivity and researchers to collect accurate data in real time. This lays the road for future innovations in the field of agriculture,” says Sandeep Dega, Senior Director, NUNC Systems.
The GreenSIM is a special SIM card that can be used with any mobile phone. Apart from regular phone services developing world smallholder farmers receive free messages about the weather and pest problems while sharing the most competitive agricultural input and crop prices. This has proven successful in pilot tests.
In its first six trial months of operation, the GreenSIM program has saved precious food supplies while improving farm incomes through timely messages to 40,000 rural subscribers so far -- its uptake exceeding all expectations.
“In 171 villages across three states of India (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka), farm incomes have gone up since farmers can now compare prices of agricultural crops and inputs offered by both the traditional local agent and, now, via the GreenSIM,” says Dr Guntuku.
Chandrakala, a farmer from Addakal, Mahbubnagar district in Telangana, southern India is one of many to have experienced the benefits first hand.
“Last season, our whole groundnut crop was destroyed due to unexpected rain,” she says. “However, this season a weather forecast voice message received on my mobile phone through GreenSIM saved our crop. We were able to harvest three days ahead of the original harvest date and this saved our season-long efforts and hard work,”
GreenSIM is also applauded for encouraging entrepreneurship at the grassroots level. Interested youths, farmers, women and unemployed community members act as “info-entrepreneurs,” selling GreenSIM cards, earning 10 rupees (US$ 0.17) for each card and 2.3% of every mobile recharge coupon sold to the farmers.
The GreenSIM was created under a unique partnership between ICRISAT, mobile phone service provider Airtel, and the IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative) Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL). The GreenSIM (previously trialed as Krishi Gyan Sagar and Krishi Vani) received the prestigious Flame Award 2013 from the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI), and was cited for ‘showcasing innovative use of technology of the decade’.
The GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM takes ICT mediated advisory services initiatives to the next level by providing pull based personalized advisory services to individual farmers rather than providing push based generic advisories.
About ICRISAT (www.icrisat.org)
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT) is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid tropics have over 2 billion people, and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT innovations help the dryland poor move from poverty to prosperity by harnessing markets while managing risks – a strategy called Inclusive Market- Oriented development (lMOD). ICRISAT is headquartered in Patancheru, Telangana, India, with two regional hubs and six country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. For ICRISAT’s scientific information see: http://EXPLOREit.icrisat.org
About CGIAR (www.cgiar.org)
ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. CGIAR science is carried out in the consortium's 15 research centers, in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations.
Partnered organizations
NUNC Systems
NUNC Systems is a software development organization providing one-stop comprehensive IT solutions in the domains of agriculture, automobile, financial and travel to clients in USA, UK, and Asia.
Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers.
IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited)
IFFCO is a cooperative society engaged in the production and distribution of chemical fertilisers and agriculture related products.
IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL)
IKSL is a joint venture, promoted by IFFCO, Airtel and Star Global Resources Limited, established to promote rural communications with value added services.
Species
