According to a report released by Vodafone India, the introduction of simple mobile services designed to help small scale farmers could boost farm gate incomes grow by Rs 560 billion by 2020.
Based on research commissioned by Accenture Strategy and supported by the Vodafone Foundation, the ?Connected Farming in India? report indicates that at present average farming household lives on less than Rs 250 per day. Further, the findings of the report imply that mobile services – including early warning for weather events, harvesting best practices techniques to enhance yields, access to financial products, field auditing and communication channels between buyers and sellers ? could help increase earnings to Rs 8,000 each year.
Vodafone India estimates that 46 per cent of rural Indians own a mobile phone and access to telecom services is growing rapidly. And there exists a great opportunity to leverage mobile as the technology platform to provide farmers various informational services to help boost productivity.
