Why Should You Sponsor A Farmer?
We wake up everyday to experience a life which is driven by technology. We have alarms to wake us up and applications that help us follow our morning fitness routine. We book a cab through our smartphone and start working in our smart offices. We use Google very often to find solutions to our problems and use applications that bring food right to our desks. We take a cab back home, use social media for recreation and to connect with people. We even have applications that helps us stay calm and in peace.
With information and technology, everyone’s life is sorted. Right?
While we feel proud of how technology has made this life effortless, we tend to forget that there are people with zero access to any of these facilities and still manage to feed us everyday with hard work, dedication and strong will power.
India has the second highest arable land after the USA at 160 million hectares, yet the country’s yield levels are far below other major agricultural producers. Reason?
Farmers are giving up!
Indian Agriculture — Present Scenario
Farmers go on 10-day strike, vegetable supplies take the hit — Times of India
50,000 farmers march towards Mumbai — The Business Line
Farmers have called a 10-day strike in Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala — The Quint
Stories behind farmer suicides in India — FarmGuide India
These are some of the headlines of Agriculture news being posted everyday. Why are the farmers unhappy? What is the one big thing that they need?
You will find the answers to these questions here. The one solution fits all approach being followed in such a diverse country like India couldn’t make much of a difference. Loan waivers failed to make an impact on the lives of farmers. Suicide rate of farmers has been increasing year by year.
This is one of the 4 suicide letters written by Vishal Pawar, a farmer who had 15 acres of land but ended up committing suicide due to debts and minimum profits.
My daughter, Vaishnavi,
You are a kid now but I am leaving you considering you are a grown up kid. I never wanted to be an irresponsible father but situation were such that I couldn’t become a good father. As a father, I couldn’t give you much, hence leaving you alone.Please forgive me. When you grow up, you will realize my situation. Please do me a favor. Please don’t cry, missing me. Grandfather, grandmother, Uncle and Mother will love you so much that you will never miss me. That’s the only thing I pray for.
There are many similar stories where farmers ended their lives trying to clear their debts. Every problem farmers face actually motivates them to give up on this precious profession. As we mentioned earlier, there is no one solution fits all approach, but,
Technology can make a difference
FarmGuide believed in the above mentioned statement and started working on building a product that makes technology and innovation accessible to Indian farmers back in 2015. We visited several farms to deep dive into the problems of farmers.
Introduction of Information Services
We identified that information asymmetry is the biggest problem faced in Indian Agriculture. Farmers need a medium that lets them know about smart agriculture information in the most simple and preferred language. To provide that medium, we introduced information services.
Information services are designed 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. These information services are sent to the farmers through a phone call in the farmer’ regional language using an in-house IVRS system. These phone calls provide information about,
- Weather Advisory
- Market Prices
- Government Schemes
- Crop Advisory
- Contingency Situations
How Can You Help?
Involvement of technology increases the cost attached to Information services 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. We tested our information services at various places to make sure they help the farmer in the most effective way possible.
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. If you sponsor a farmer with an amount as less as 60 INR, the information services for a farmer can be sponsored for 6 months straight.
Helping a farmer might not change the whole world, but it could change the world for one farmer.
Read more about information services here.
