Connected-Farmers

Information services
Building knowledge among India’s smallholder farmers
Lack of information is a major barrier to improving yields and therefore incomes
for India’s smallholder farmers. Since 2007, the Reuters Market Light (RML) mobile
information service has helped many farmers overcome this challenge by delivering
personalised agricultural advice and news, local weather forecasts and updates on
market prices direct to their phone.
In India, around 95% of farmers work landholdings of four
or less hectares 46 . For these farmers, getting access to the
information they need to make informed decisions can be a
major challenge, particularly if they have low literacy levels or
live in remote areas.
With RML, farmers receive around five SMS alerts a day with
information that can help them to plan their planting and
harvesting, improve crop cultivation, manage pest and disease
outbreaks, access government subsidies and negotiate better
prices for their crops. This includes local weather forecasts and
market prices, as well as advice on the latest farming techniques.
Information is provided in real time and is highly personalised
thanks to RML’s network of 300 agriculture specialists and
content developers. Farmers can select from around 35
parameters to tailor the information to their needs, including
crop type, soil type, planting cycles, farm location and choice of
markets. The service covers 450 different crop varieties and has
information on prices for 1,300 local markets. Users can receive
the information in one of nine local languages and can also
contact a multilingual call centre for support and advice.
Farmers pay a small subscription charge to use RML and can
receive information alerts via SMS if they have a basic handset
or, if they have a smartphone, via the recently launched myRML
mobile app. RML also uses the data and insights gained on
farmers, crops, markets and prices to provide commercial data and
intelligence services to agribusinesses and financial organisations.
RML was incubated at Thomson Reuters and, since 2013, has
been an independent company. Planned developments to the
service include predictive analytics services; for example, using
data to predict pest outbreaks after certain weather conditions,
enabling farmers to take preventative action, or predicting crop
yields and quality so buyers of agricultural produce can plan
ahead. RML is also exploring how the service could use data
on farmers’ input requirements to enable bulk purchasing of
fertilisers to reduce costs for farmers.
The RML service has been recognised for its positive impact
on small farmers with awards from organisations such as the
United Nations Development Programme, the Financial Times
and India’s Marico Innovation Foundation and NABARD.
10 Vodafone Connected Farming in India