Digital Bharat

Digital Bharat: A mobile impact case study

Kisan Sanchar  was the winner of Mobile for Good Awards in 2012. It is an interactive platform for scientists, agricultural experts and institutions for sharing their technology and knowledge with the registered subscribers i.e. farmers who have willingly opted for the mobile information service. The Kisan Sanchar knowledge is shared in Hindi language in text as well as voice format. It is an enterprise based communication platform to broadcast text and voice messages on the mobile phones of individual farmers. It enables its users (which are mainly agricultural experts and institutions) to send personalized and interactive outbound text and voice messages at the touch of a button.

Farmers register themselves voluntarily to Kisan Sanchar by contacting project volunteers and by making a missed call on a dedicated mobile number 9812430006. The call is automatically disconnected after one ring and number is registered on the database. Farmer’s membership is confirmed by delivering a text message on his mobile phone.

Kisan Sanchar delivers free of cost information and learning content developed by Krishi Vigyan Kendras and various Agricultural Universities in form of text & voice messages to the member farmers registered with Kisan Sanchar through Krishi Vigyan Kendras.

Approximately 33066 farmers from seven states of India (J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan & Gujarat) have voluntarily opted for the services of Kisan Sanchar through various Krishi Vigyan Kendras and are being benefitted from free of cost the services.

Result: Launched with full effect on 1st September, 2010, the project since then has broadcasted around 1500 messages to approximately 33066 farmers in 7 states (J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan & Gujarat). Kisan Sanchar launched its Voice Messaging service on 19-2-2011 in the state of Gujarat. It has covered 140 districts in North India.