Indian farmers could earn millions more by going mobile
Mobile services were identified to help 70 million Indian farmers, and to boost the €3.60 a day average farming farm income in India.
Agricultural information services on phones could give early weather warnings on the best times to harvest, and advice on crop techniques.
Receipt services would increase transparency in commodity supply chains, improving efficiency and eliminating fraud.
Farmers could access payments, loans through secure mobile financial product and service systems such as Vodafone’s M-Pesa, launched in India in April 2013. This alone could boost some farmers’ incomes 39%, it was discovered. Mobile information services and money systems would also improve local supply chains, enabling small-scale producers transact with local co-ops.
Quality, sustainability and certification requirements could be better monitored electronically via tablets and mobile data.
Vodafone’s Connected Farming in India report concludes that mobile services could boost the farm gate incomes of €70 million Indian farmers by €8.2 billion in 2020.
India is one of the world’s largest food producers, with more than 200 million working in agriculture, around 100 million of them farmers, and the remainder agricultural labourers.
About 62% of farmers own less than one hectare.
The Vodafone Farmers’ Club is being launched in India, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.
It offers mobile services to help farmers, and was first launched in 2009 in Turkey, where about 25% work in agriculture, and the Club programme has helped 1.2 million farmers to enhance crop yields and increase farm incomes.
A variant of the Farmers’ Club in New Zealand connects farms, agribusinesses and rural communities, helping to drive productivity, profitability and innovation.
