Importance of Information Services
FarmGuide has designed its information services based on the farmer difficulties that have prevailed since ages. A need to digitize the traditional processes in agriculture was visible on a wide scale. But before digitization can indulge itself into the complex processes in agriculture, information symmetry has to play its part in bringing balance in farmer lives first. If this symmetry is established, the former can be executed amazingly.
There are different type of agriculture ranges where information asymmetry has spread its wings in the past years. We have designed our information services in such a way that they address the basic challenges of a farmer.
Crop Advisory Calls
As there are new hybrids and varieties of seeds emerging everyday, it is important to train and educate the farmers about them. Also knowledge about pests, water spacing, and requirements to prepare their soil for cultivation can be very useful for the farmers to increase yield and benefit from the variety of seeds used.
The information services would also advise farmers about various precautions that can be taken to prevent losses due to pest attacks, overuse of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs.
Weather Advisory Calls
If a farmer has knowledge about location specific and quantified weather forecast, real time needs could be easily met. Also, crop management strategies which are weather based and farmer operations to improve crop production and food security can be increased and improved.
By linking the Information Service Module with Automatic Weather Stations present in different regions of the farmers, FarmGuide information services provide differentiated weather advisories and forecasts. This helps the farmers to manage their crops according to areas.
Contingency Information Calls
Right from the time of sowing, agricultural production in India faces risk from natural calamities. Floods, drought and excess rainfall affect the farming community. The hard work, labor, and time put in by the farmers gets wiped of in just a single stroke.
At times, farmers have to be vigilant for the entire nights to take protective measures against natural calamities. If contingency calls are provided and sudden changes in the weather conditions are notified to the farmer, the loss of harvest overnight can be reduced to some extent.
Agriculture Market Advisory
In most cases, the small and marginal farmers are not aware of the market prices due to presence of middlemen and commission agents in the market. Farmers do not profit from the high consumer prices due to unawareness and exploitation of middlemen in the agriculture market system.
In order to create a medium where farmer can be educated about the existing market prices and mandis where maximum profit can be obtained, we decided to extend market advisory to farmers.
Government Schemes Information
Policies and Schemes released by the government are targeted towards benefiting the small and marginal farmers in India. But due to lack of symmetry in information and a proper medium, the small and marginal farmers fail to benefit from the government schemes. Lack of information, local infrastructure, and absence of robust communication channels are the main reasons behind a farmer not profiting from the government schemes.
FarmGuide information services include calls that provide information about not only the government schemes but also the way to get maximum benefit from the schemes. These calls are filtered as per region, crop and cropping cycle. The calls also facilitate communication channels for farmers in order to reach out to local agricultural office and stay updated with any new government introduced schemes.
Storage and Warehouses Information
Storage is one of the prime issues in post harvest process. The produce needs to be stored at appropriate warehouses and cold storage houses in order to avoid sudden natural calamities. But farmers often face issues in storing their produce due to lack of space in storage houses.
Our calls will inform them about the nearest cold storage and warehouses that have the capacity to accommodate their produce. This will not only prevent post harvest loss but also reduce the time taken in decision making regarding transport and logistics cost.
All in 60 INR
These above mentioned information services are being extended to farmers in 60 INR for 6 months through phone calls throughout the week. The phone calls extended would be in regional languages of the farmers in order to promote smooth two way communication.
Information services available in the market already can surely benefit the farmer. But the involvement of technology increases the cost attached and makes it impossible for a small or marginal farmer to afford them.
We have decided to turn the tables. We wanted our information services to be the best in the market and also to be cheap and affordable for the farmer. With a lot of hard work and dedication for more than an year, we trained our information services to be the best in the market.
It is time we realize that agriculture is the future of development in India. It is our responsibility to make agriculture not only a sustainable profession but also a profitable one.
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