CABI and mobile

CABI works with farmers, mobile operators, content providers,

extension services and industry bodies to provide mobile
services across the whole agricultural supply chain.
The growth of mobile in developing countries, and rural
regions in particular, presents an opportunity to deliver
critical, information-based agricultural services directly to rural
smallholder farmers. Access to the right information, absorbed
and applied correctly, can increase productivity and improve
livelihoods in many of these farming households.
Across the developing world, around 40% of people now actively
subscribe to mobile services, with 130 million new subscribers every year,
and mobile (2G) coverage is around 95% by population
1
.
In addition, the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions in developing
countries surpassed those in developed countries in 2013, reaching a total of
1.1 billion
2
.
CABIs Direct2Farm mobile-enabled agriculture information service is being used to underpin
multiple agro-advisory services across India and Africa. A key feature of these mobile services is the
ability to reach large groups of remote users such as rural farmers. They are therefore being used to
complement existing eld-based extension services operated by Governments and private industry.
Targeted information is being pushed out to farmers by text and voice message and farmers are
able to contact agricultural experts via mobile helplines or use Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
systems to pull the information they need.
Not only can mobile services be used to provide information directly to farmers, they can also be
used to gather information from the eld. CABI has developed a data collection application that is
being used by extension eld workers equipped with smartphones or tablets to gather and process
information from remote sites both quickly and efciently.
The highlights of our work to date include:
Delivery of agro-advisory services to around 4 million fee-paying smallholder farmers
Creation of a core information product; a database of actionable agricultural extension
information (factsheets)
Development of mobile data collection application and systems to enable extension
workers to gather and analyse eld data
Development of web based analytics and inference tools
CABIs expertise in indexing and managing vast amounts of complex data, combined with our
experience in agricultural best practice, soil health, and plant pests and diseases have allowed us to
harness mobile solutions to improve livelihoods of smallholders worldwide.
1. GSMA Mobile for development Intelligence: Scaling Mobile for Development A Developing World Opportunity, 2013
2. ITU World telecommunication / ICT database (estimate), 2013
KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE
about CABI
CABI is a not-for-prot international organization that
improves peoples lives by providing information and
applying scientic expertise to solve problems in agriculture
and the environment.
CABI is a global organization
Our geographical spread enables us to share knowledge
and apply solutions that may be developed elsewhere in the
world but are relevant to your business in your region.
staff expertise
CABI has at its disposal a unique combination of business,
content management, technical and project management skills
in mobile that enables us to produce world class products,
information services and scientic outputs aimed at meeting
the needs of a variety of stakeholders including private sector,
farmers, researchers, governments and policy makers.
a unique membership-based structure
CABI gives its partners a bridge to developing-world
governments, providing them with unique insights into the
needs of their priority countries. Our member countries guide
our agenda and we support them to address their priority
development objectives.
putting research to practical use
In addition to our excellent technical expertise, we are known
for our practical approach, which involves training trainers,
engaging with entrepreneurs and using new technologies to
deliver development impact on the ground.
partnerships
One of our greatest strengths is our ability to work in partnership
with different types of organizations in the public and private
sector. We develop and implement collaborative projects with
national, regional and international organizations.
with thanks to our mobile partners and donors who
include:
CABI Development Fund (CDF)
Department for International Development (DFID)
GSMA mAgri (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States
Agency for International Development (USAID))
International Coffee Organization (ICO)
Coffee Board of India
Common Fund for Commodities (CFC)
IFFCO KIsan Sanchar Limited (IKSL)
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Digital Green
Handygo Technologies
Directorate General of Agriculture and Adoptive Research,
Punjab
Contact:
Sharbendu Banerjee, Global Director Mobile, CABI, 2nd Floor, CG
Block, NASC Complex, DP, Shastri Marg, Opp. Todapur Village, PUSA,
New Delhi 110 012, India
Tel: +91 (0)11 25841906 F: +91 (0)11 25842907 E: s.banerjee@cabi.org
www.cabi.org
Third party information
KNOWLEDGE FOR LIFE www.cabi.org
case study:
IKSL agro-advisory service
CABI has provided content and content quality assurance services
to IKSL since 2009. IKSL is a joint venture between the Indian
Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) the largest farmers
co-operative in India and Airtel, the countrys largest mobile
network operator, along with Star Global Resources Limited, a
rural telephony company. In 2008, IKSL launched a voice-based
mobile agricultural information service to empower rural farmers
and reinforce the IFFCO cooperative. By 2012 there were around 4
million subscribers to the service.
IKSL distributes Airtel SIM cards branded Green SIM to its IFFCO
members and other farmers. The Green SIM functions as a normal
SIM as well as providing the agricultural valued added services.
The user receives 5 recorded voice messages, free of charge, each
day covering both local and national agricultural topics. Green SIM
users access an Agri Helpline where they can get answers from
agri-experts to any farming question they care to raise.
At the heart of the service is a database of content that has been
gathered from local agricultural institutions and universities. Using
state and national institutions to provide content ensures that it is
highly relevant and accurate, which helps build trust among the
farmers that use the service. CABI plays a vital role in this process
by subjecting the content database to regular and rigorous quality
assurance processes. CABI also devised the protocols that cover
the standardisation of data, content sourcing and editing which are
unique to IKSL.
case study:
Caf Mvel mExtension service
In 2012, CABIs Direct2Farm Service was customized into a mobile
extension service for the coffee farmers of India. This service, named
Caf Mvel is aimed at providing information and advisory support
to around 150,000 coffee farmers in southern India. This programme
is supported by the Coffee Board of India, the International Coffee
Organization and Common Fund for Commodities.
Features of the service include an interactive FAQ (Frequently Asked
Question) section, accessed by an IVR, a private discussion thread
between planters and experts, functionality to broadcast voice casts
of the discussion threads to a community, and market and weather
information voice feeds.
CABI is providing the end-to-end mobile information solution for the
service and is responsible for the overall knowledge management
and analytics. The Coffee Board of India is the major content and
advisory service provider and CABI is working with other providers
such as the Indian Meteorological Department, to supply weather
based advice and information.
In future, the service will integrate coffee processing and marketing
businesses, thus offering a complete one-stop-shop solution for the
coffee farmers.
case study:
GSMA mFarmer initiative mKisan
In 2011, CABI joined with Handygo Technologies, International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Digital Green, in a consortium,
to develop and implement mKisan, a mobile enabled agri-service
for 1 million farmers in India. This consortium is funded through the
mFarmer grant of the GSMA Foundation, under its mAgri programme
supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.
The service delivers authentic, validated agriculture information
through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system accessible
from any mobile phone. Using voice as the primary communication
medium overcomes literacy barriers and targets the poorest
population. Through using the service, farmers are able to learn
directly from agriculture experts through a real-time and interactive
helpline and watch mobile videos (provided by Digital Green)
demonstrating farming best practices and techniques. These videos
help facilitate community learning at a large scale.
Since its launch in July 2012, the service has been used by over
a million farmers and about 300,000 of them have continued their
subscription. In order to support continual improvement of the
service, baseline surveys are used to capture farmers proles and
information needs. In July 2013, a Farmers Helpline using Hindi
language was added to the service. This will enable farmers to call a
short code from their mobile phone and speak directly to a subject
matter expert in their own language.
CABI is the principal knowledge partner in the mKisan service
and the Direct2Farm database forms the backbone of the content
development and quality assurance process. The database not
only captures information on crops, but also on livestock, provided
by ILRI. In addition, CABI also provides scientic backstopping to
mKisan service, and provides agriculture experts to the mKisan
Farmers Helpline.
case study:
E-Zaraat mobile extension service
About 4 million farmers in the Punjab region of Pakistan rely on
government extension ofcers as the main source of agricultural
information. However, the ofcers often have difculty reaching all
the farmers due to the geographical spread of the region. If rural
small holder farmers are to succeed, they need timely access to
the latest information on crops, weather and market prices.
The E-Zaraat project, in partnership with the Directorate General
of Agriculture Extension and Adaptive Research, Pakistan, is
developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
solutions to support the extension services to get these farmers
the information they need, when they need it.
The project is being piloted in three districts in the Punjab region:
Vehari, Sialkot and Sargodha. To date, a baseline survey has been
completed, documenting the prole of farmers, their information
needs, current agricultural practices and womens role in the
rural economy. A web application for data entry and analysis,
and a mobile application for data collection from the eld have
been developed; and a call centre has been deployed to provide
extension services to the farmers.
The E-Zaraat service will create better linkages between extension
experts and the farmers, in order to help them produce better
crops that can fetch better prices. E-Zaraat will enable a more
on-demand extension advisory model that will help deliver scarce
extension resources to where they are most needed.
Direct2Farm Information Schema
Information
Aggregation
Information
Dissemination
Content Development &
Quality Assurance
Research & Policy Framework
Real-time data
collection
Analytics
Academia
Research
Private sector
Policy makers
Agri-Extentionists
Rural service
providors / NGOs
Farmers (through
mobile operators)
Digitization
Ag. Extension Literature
Repurposing
CABI Factsheets
Quality Assurance
Standard Operating Proceedures
Quality Control Workow
CABI Direct2Farm
Knowledge Repository