Why should the city folks have all the luxury of having a phablet, a hybrid of a smart phone and a tablet? Now, small and marginal farmers can have a phablet to access the rich trove of information on agriculture and related subjects.
While they can use the device as a phone, they will also get free messages on the weather, pest problems and prices of agricultural inputs.
Christened GreenPHABLET, the GreenSIM-powered device is now available in the market at $299 a piece. Outgoing Director-General of the Icrisat (International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics) William Dar said that the device empowers the farmers to know the competitive prices for various agricultural inputs. “It will also link them with the markets,” he said.
The phablet was developed by Icrisat’s centre for ICT Innovations for Agriculture at its Patancheru headquarters near here. NUNC Systems, a Hyderabad-based firm, helped in developing the device. Airtel and IFFCO are partners in the programme. The institute is in talks with ecosystem partners to make the device available in the open market in India and the African Continent. The institute has decided to go for commercial launch after testing it in a few pilot projects. In its first six months of trial operation, the GreenSIM programme sent messages to 40,000 rural subscribers in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
“It will improve the quality and convenience of information dissemination and knowledge sharing among stakeholders,” said Dileepkumar Guntuku, Global Leader and Director of the Innovations centre, in a statement on Tuesday.
He said that the device would act like a mobile village knowledge centre or common service centre, giving farmers latest developments that are relevant for farming and marketing their produce.
Besides, it would connect with the scientists in real time, helping farmers address issues. “This would open up avenues for more innovations in the field,” Sandeep Dega, Senior Director, NUNC Systems, said. The institute asks the youth to become ‘info-entrepreneurs’ by selling GreenSIM cards for ₹10 on each subscription with a margin of 2.3 per cent on each recharge coupon sold there on.