ICT and Agriculture : Benefiting the Poor

Presented by

Md. Asad-Ur-Rahman NileSenior Business Consultant

Swisscontact, KatalystGeneva, Switzerland

May 2012

A real life storyMoharaja HossainA 32 year old farmer, from Pantapara village, Sharsha of Jessore District, with little formal education.On average his yearly earning is BDT 50,000 (≈USD 595)Last season, Moharaj observed that the leaves of his bitter gourds were curling up. This disease was gradually spreading and diminishing his gourds. Within 15 days, approximately 160 Kgs of what could have been his produces got damaged.He was unable to find solutions from regular sources.

Finally after 15days he took the solution from one of the telecentre’s known as Grameenphone Community Information Centre (GPCIC) and managed to save his produces. At the end of the season he earned BDT 18000 (USD 214)

Content

• Katalyst at a Glance• ICT & Bangladesh• ‘The Constraint” and Katalyst Strategy• Innovations with private sector

– Grameenphone CIC experience– Banglalink Agri-helpline experience– Impact

• Lessons Learned• Way Forward

Katalyst at a GlancePhase I Phase II

Donors • DFID• SDC• SIDA

• DFID• SDC• CIDA• The Embassy of Netherlands

Implementers Swisscontact, GTZ-IS

Swisscontact, GTZ-IS

Duration • Oct ’02 –15 Mar ’08 • 16 Mar ’08 – 15 Mar ’13

Budget • US$ 20 million • US$ 45 million

Line Ministry Ministry of Commerce Ministry of Commerce

Katalyst Approach

Demand SupplyCore

Govt.

Informal network

Private Sector

Business Membership Organizations

Infrastructure

CoordinationR&D Information

Supporting Functions Skills &

Capacity Related Support Services

Regulations

LawsRulesStandards

Informal Rules & Norms

Informing & Communication

Setting & Enforcing Rules

Source: The Springfield Centre

The Constraints

Lack of relevant

servicesAccess

Policy

Awar

enes

s

Service Delivery

ADVANCED MARKETING PROCESS

Lack of appropriate policy support for growth of ICT based services

Limited access to ICT tools and technology

Low awareness and usage of among rural people

Lack of appropriate ICT-based service offers targeting rural sectors

Lack of adequate skill set among service providers

Katalyst Strategy

Constraints of using

ICT in agriculture

Market based

solution

Engage private sector

Develop an ecosystem

Build partnerships

Policy advocacy

Partnership with Grameenphone (GP)

• To develop a delivery channel • To create a sustainable mechanism

for access to technology and information

• To develop a private sector led & commercially viable ecosystem for accessing agriculture information

• To create a strong rural presence• To develop potential touch-points for

products and services• To develop the rural segments with

bundle of Value Added Services (VAS)• To promote data usage in rural areas

Katalyst Grameenphone

Partnership formed

Grameenphone Community Information Centre’s (GPCIC)

The CIC’s• Grameenphone (GP) branded rural

telecentre• Franchise model

– GP provides technology, branding material, training

– Entrepreneur invests in equipments & establishments

• Standardized• Bundle of services

– Information services– IT-enabled services– Top-up, photography, telco-products

• Commercially motivated entrepreneurs• Without any subsidy

The Ecosystem• Developing commercial

content provider• Capacity building of the

service providersKatalyst

• Promotion• Service integration• Monitoring and adviceGP

• Commercial content providers developed

• The channels became efficient in delivery

• Awareness increased• Number of services increased• Business case strengthened

A sustainable delivery channel to deliver agriculture information with nationwide outreach

Deepening the Impact

• “Now What?”• More than 18 million farmers• High & growing tele-density• High latent demand of information• Interested private sector partners• Ecosystem of commercial content providers

needed more opportunities

Partnership with Banglalink

Katalyst

Banglalink

Improved performance of farmers & rural entrepreneurs

Value added services for more market

share in rural markets

Kata

lyst

Bang

lalin

kMarket assessment Capacity building Content/Service development Promotion

Branded Value added service for targeted customers Capacity building of the Call Center service provider Demand stimulation and promotion of VAS

The Outcome: Bangallink Agri-helpline 7676

• A call-centre offering only agriculture related solution

• Commercially operated• Branded by the second large mobile phone

operator Banglalink• Commercial content provider, commercial call-

centre • Human interface not IVR based• Affordable for the farmers (0.06 USD / Min)

Service Delivery Model

Customers dial a short code 7676

Agents take notes of queries

If the information is not available in the database

Routed to a call center

Agents browse the database and finds the

solution

Call center agents receive customers call

Support team gathers info

Database is updated

Customer is called back

Agents provide the info over phone

The Impact

• There are more than 500 CIC’s in rural areas of Bangladesh– The average footfall in each CIC is 100 per day– Cumulative access outreach from March 2008 - June 2011 is 1.5

million+ only from the Grameenphone– Cumulative benefit outreach from March 2008 - June 2011 is 600,000+

• Impact of Banglalink Agriculture helpline from Jan’11 to Dec’11– Relevant calls 32,904– Repeat calls 22% (7,219)– Asia Mobile Awards 2009, organized by the GSM Association– Nomination in The World Communication Award 2009 and The Global

Mobile Award 2010.

Source: Katalyst Annual Report 2011, Banglalink & Grameenphone

Agriculture Information

• The demand of agriculture information services is low compare to other services but its growing slowly

• Specialized Agriculture information like online based Fertilizer Recommendation System has been integrated in both the platforms

• The reasons behind the growing demand of agriculture information services– Easily accessible through the operators/entrepreneurs– Quick service delivery (very crucial in case of disease)– Possible to take print of the solution– A wide variety of solutions (crops, fisheries, livestock, poultry, fruits )

• Slow adoption among the intended Target group• Latent demand• New technology• Reliability factor

• Revisiting the business case for different key actors• Harmonization between different projects for optimum

impact at beneficiary level– Reduce cannibalization– Increased Synergy

Challenges Ahead

Lessons

• Partnering with right large Private Sector (PS) partners with right commercial incentive

• High Volume-Low margin business model• Effective service development and delivery process

– Demand led– Conveniently accessible

• Multi-stakeholder partnership for:– Taking ride on the core expertise of different actors– Reduction in cost of doing business and associated risk– Time efficient implementation

Lessons (contd.):

• Role of Government• Creating conducive policy environment for PS to

perform– Extend cooperation to PS for developing and

delivering need based services– Service quality and standardization– Endorsement and mass promotion of private

sector lead initiatives• Shift from “service provider” role to “facilitator” role

Way Forward

• Changing the “mindset”• Increase participation of women in availing ICT based

services• Developing strong role based partnerships with

government organizations• Advocacy for conducive environment• Deepening the impact by developing ecosystems

Way Forward (contd.)

• Widening the impact by developing right partnerships

• Increasing specialized agricultural services like fertilizer recommendation, irrigation recommendation, soil testing, weather forecasting etc.

• Introducing mobile fund transfer for benefitting the farmers

• Facilitating direct market access of the farmers

Thank You