Real Time Farming Techniques, Sent Directly to Your Phone
When Myanmar farmers travel the distance to attend our farming workshops and meetings, we want them to walk away with as many helpful techniques and solutions as possible. But workshop time is limited, and details of these techniques can get blurry after they return to the field, as questions and problems arise throughout the farming process.
For years, we wondered: is there a more efficient way to deliver the right techniques, at the right time, directly to the right farmers who need them?
This February, we launched Shwe Pyo, an SMS-based message service that aims to deliver timely and useful farming techniques and solutions to the farmers in rural Myanmar. Shwe Pyo is designed to address farmers’ concerns with the technology they feel the most at ease with. Our team of field extension officers picked out the program name, Shwe Pyo, meaning “Golden Sprouts” in Burmese, with their hope for good harvests in the Golden Land.
Since Myanmar opened up in 2007, the price of a cellphone SIM card has dropped from more than $2,000 to $2, making cellphone services significantly more accessible. However, Internet connection can be unstable in rural areas and data usage often gets pricey. In turn, Myanmar farmers are still seeking the most affordable and hassle-free method to obtain reliable farming information. Text message service, cheaper and easier to operate, becomes a natural option when communicating with this group.
Signing up for Shwe Pyo involves one easy step: sending a message to +95 9964107979
(valid only for Myanmar numbers) with the user’s cellphone to enroll. This first message should contain the farmer’s name, his or her geographic location, the variety of paddy he or she plants and the planting date. Once successfully enrolled, the user will receive a welcoming message. Following this message, farmers will receive a series of text messages at various dates essential to a successful harvest, starting from two weeks before planting and throughout the planting period.
Besides receiving messages for scheduled reminders and farming techniques, farmers can also text to ask specific questions or seek advice on puzzling situations concerning diseases, pest outbreak etc. Our agronomists on staff can problem shoot and send a reply within 24 hours of receiving the message, or refer the user to a local extension officer for further assistance on the ground.
Recording information on farmers’ locations and paddy varieties enables our team to deliver customized information when it comes to weather or natural disaster alerts and pest warnings. If a pest problem is affecting several villages in the Ayeyawardy Delta, a message will reach the farmers in this region and leave farmers in the Dry Zone out of unnecessary alert.
By the end of June 2017, we foresee 20,000 farmers in Myanmar relying on the messages delivered to their cellphones to keep track of farming timetable, have their questions answered and receive assistance. Many of the 70,000 farmers we have advised over the years will become the first to sign up. More farmers who previously could not travel the distance to attend in-person trainings can begin to benefit from direct and easy access to useful farming knowledge.
#ProximityPeople
Meet the people involved in turning the idea of Shwe Pyo into reality:
