mobileu.co.uk

Phone-happy farmers in Philippines offered new service

Mobile phone coverage in the rural Philippines has become so commonplace that one scientist is now launching a text message advisory service that offers farmers help with how they grow their rice.

The computer scientist behind the project, Weng Castillo, said it was a very effective way of getting very important information across.

"Every farming household has a cellphone, so it should be easy to reach most farmers," she said, having noticed that phones had much greater presence than computers and heard the frequent statistics showing that people in the Philippines text more frequently than any other nationality.

The information dispensed will be specific to the terrain and the genus of rice, isolating where each farmer is, assessing the factors affecting the growth of rice there and advising accordingly.

Ms Weng said, "We've been doing research for a long time, and we found that field-specific advice could increase yields. Even rice plants that are adjacent to each other have different requirements for fertiliser."

She said sending the information out in text message made it digestible to farmers who, otherwise, would not have the scientific abilities to understand it.

Farmers will phone a central number, answer a series of simple voice-activated questions about the conditions of their field, and within a few minutes receive a reply. It will detail the amount of rice needed to be sown, the type of fertiliser needed and when it should be applied.