NEWS

We got a message (in reply) from Aravind Ghule of Sawargaon Ghule village, Sangamner taluka who said “Very important information i have received from Wotr through sms. It is useful for recent cropping pattern. And also i would provide this information to other farmers through discussion. Thanks.” …and we knew YES! It works.

Aravind Ghule’s SMS was in reply to the agro-advice for the week for the Gram crop to control gram-pod borers with pheromone traps. It was an advice which popped up on Aravind Ghule’s mobile as an SMS. In a language he could read – Marathi. Which was specific to the weather conditions in his village. Specific to the crop he was growing. And because of this, relevant to Aravind Ghule. Hence his happy gratitude.

It is not everyday an NGO gets kudos from a farmer. Hence, appreciation from the field, from the last guy down the line becomes an honor badge we feel happy to wear. Especially so in the case of locale-weather-crop specific agro-advice by SMS – in Marathi. It was a long struggle to bring together diverse entities, marry high-end technology to local-underdeveloped communications, infrastructure, and literacy conditions, leap over obstacles of band-width, language, and data-assimilation, and on top of it convince a suspicious wait-and-watch community of its efficacy.

Zzzzzt. Rewind to the beginning.

Pan to the Situation:

Remote villages. Non-existent communication systems. Unpredictable weather conditions. Meteorological data which did not apply to the local situation. Generalised agro-advisories from experts. Disappearing traditional knowledge systems.

The Solution:

Locale-specific meteorological information. Weather-and-crop specific agro advisories. Building on existing good-practices. Promotion of Environment-friendly solutions.

The Process

(Step 1): Met stations installed in villages. Local village youth trained to read the met-data. Information displayed on black boards in public places. Community people sensitized to “read” and understand this new met-language. Trainings on maintenance of weather stations conducted.

(Step 2): Hourly local Met-data sent via SMS to WOTR’s servers. Daily 3-day cluster-level weather forecasts received from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Forecasts sent verbally to the villages.

(Step 3-simultaneously with Step-2): Demo plots taken up on specific crops. New farming practices introduced and show-cased on demo-plots through Farmer Field Schools.

(Step 4-simultaneously with Step-2 & 3): Data on cropping patterns and agri-practices collected. Collected data plotted on GIS maps. Traditional agricultural practices documented.

(Step 5): Agro-advisories based on locale-specific weather and crop conditions generated and circulated through weekly wall-papers.

(Step 6): Pilot SMS service set up with 300 farmers in 28 villages. Local language SMSes set up and tested.

(Step 7):  Farmers’ feedback loops set up.

(Step 8): Agro-advisories sent in local language (Marathi) to 300 farmers for 5 crops – Sorghum, Gram, Wheat, Tomato, Onion.

Each of these steps had their own difficulties – right from physical difficulties of installations in remote villages to the seeming impossibility of tying it all up together.

Aravind Ghule’s reply-SMS thus becomes important. For us it has become a symbol – a (satisfied) communique from a farmer. A communication that, for us, shows that all the steps set up are functioning coherently and smoothly. Resulting in a two-line timely advice a farmer can use. An Orwellian dream-come-true of the Future which for the rural farmer is HERE and NOW.