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CIMMYT-India
Impact of Mobile Communication in Improving Agricultural Productivity at Smallholder Farms
Surabhi Mittal
CIMMYT-India
Paper presented at the National Conference on Livelihood Security of Smallholder Farmers,
on 19 August 2010 at NASC Complex, New Delhi.
Indian Agriculture
Positive and accelerating TFP
Farmers face threat of
Productivity hampered by
• deficits in physical infrastructure
accelerating TFP growths of 70s and 80s turned
stagnant or decelerated
since early 90s
threat of economic
viability and sustainability in crop production
• shortcomings in availability of necessary products and services
• lack of information about techniques and inputs
Literature
Precision Agriculture
• Information-based, decision-making agricultural system is designed to maximise agricultural production and is often described as the next great evolution in agriculture.
Michael, 2008
• The combination of GPS and mobile mapping are supposed to provide the farmers with the information for implementation of decision-based Precision Agriculture
Jensen, 2007; Abraham, 2007
• Found that introduction of mobile phones to Kerala fishermen decreased price dispersion and wastage by facilitating the spread of information which made the markets more efficient of markets by decreasing risk and uncertainty
Present Advantage
• Increasing penetration of mobile networks and handsets presents an opportunity to make useful information more widely available to farmers.
Study sought answers
Are mobile phones used for agricultural purposes? If so how?
Have mobile phones helped drive agricultural productivity? agricultural productivity?
Which agricultural information is most valuable?
What are the constraints to improve agricultural productivity
through mobiles?
Methodology and Data
Case studies
• IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL)
• Reuters Market Light (RML)
15 Focus groups -using the standard mobile phones as well as those with
agricultural information
service on mobile
Individual
Interviews
• 40 in-depth interviews
• Over 160 people interviewed, of whom 80% were small farmers
Interview and research locations
District Village
Allahabad Saidabad, Bijhayan, Malak
Harhar, Vardaha, Panwar
Agra Medhapur, Mania
Mathura Usfar, Lalpur
Alwar KhairtalAlwar Khairtal
Dausa Khanvaas
Bhilwara Lesua
Baran Himoniya
Jaipur Murali Papmaanbali
Satara Arphal, Bharatgaon, Indoli
Pune Kumbhar
Mobile information services for farmers
IFFCO – IKSL Reuters – RML
Began Service June 2007 October 2007 (pilot in January 2007)
Locations of Survey Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu Maharashtra
Cost Free Voice messages
Helpline service at a cost of Rs. 1/min
Rs. 175 for three months, Rs. 350 for six months
Rs. 650 for an year
Nature of Delivery Voice message (non-customized) SMS-text message for two crops as subscribed
# of Daily Messages 5 4
Information Provided • Weather • WeatherInformation Provided • Weather
• Crop/animal husbandry advisory
• Market Prices
• Fertilizer availability
• Electricity timings
• Government Schemes
• Weather
• Crop-advisory (one crop)
• Market Price (for 2 crops and 3 markets each)
• News (commodity specific and general)
Subscribers (at time of
investigation)
• Uttar Pradesh: 200,000
• Rajasthan: 65,000
• 82,000 (India-wide); 77,000 in Maharashtra
Comments • If message not immediately received by
farmer it can listened to by dialing a
number at a cost of Rs1/ min.
• Messages delivered at unpredictable
times of day
• Revenues are made from the sale of cards
• Message will be retrieved/saved if farmer’s
phone is on within 24 hours of message
delivery
• Messages delivered at preset times of day
• Subscription is only revenue source
Information Needs
Information Sources
What Interviews revealed?
Small farmers
prioritized the most
important
information
Other requirements
Use of mobile phone
Primarily for social purposes but use it for at least some agricultural activity also.
Traders and commission use it daily in assessing commodity demand/supply situation by contacting commodity demand/supply situation by contacting
farmers and various markets
Maharashtra farmers reported greater use of their mobile phones to access information and also greater use of the mobile-enabled information
services.
Wealthier farmers reported fewer challenges with infrastructure gaps, access to credit or other
potential limitations on leveraging information
Impacts on productivity
Access to better
Improved yields
Adjusting supply to market demand
Access to information
Access to better quality Timely
availability
Drivers of mobile impacts
easy access to
customized
content
• 5-25% increase in earnings, mainly attributable to the adoption of better planting techniques
• Weather forecast prevent losses
• describe plant diseases from the field to experts
Mobility
• describe plant diseases from the field to experts
• Better coordination with their hired laborers
• traders and commission agents- ability to shift supply to markets in response to changing market conditions
time savings
or
convenience
• avoiding local travel saves Rs. 100-200 per trip
• better decisions in choosing market to sell output
But there are binding constraints
Credit constraint-‘Bondedne
ss’
Ability to trust the
informationMarket
inefficiency
Lack of skill and
risk taking
capacity
Physical Infrastruct
ure
Encouragingly the research suggests
Social networks -
role in building the trust to influence the
adoption of new mindsets and actions
by small farmers
Extension services and Extension services and capacity-building efforts
can complement
mobile based
information dissemination to
accelerate the adoption by small farmersdissemination to
accelerate the adoption of new techniques.
Policy changes needed to
encourage better
access to high-quality
inputs and credit for small farmers
Public and private investment- necessary
to resolve critical
infrastructure
gaps
Key TakeawaysMobile phones and mobile enabled information services can act as catalyst in removing existing
information asymmetry
Bridge the gap between the availability and delivery of inputs and infrastructuredelivery of inputs and infrastructure
Magnitude of economic benefits depends on quality, timeliness and trustworthiness of the
information
Small farmers are not able to leverage the benefits as efficiently as the large farmers