Handygo & CABI Join Hands to Provide Mobile Based AgricultureSolutions to Rural India
Handygo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a leading provider of VAS solutions, and CABI have joined hands with each other to provide mobile based agriculture solutions to the rural population in India. CABI is a not-for-profit international organization that works towards improving the quality of people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.
The region specific data including agricultural content, advisory, etc will come from CABI, while Handygo will be providing technical solutions by bridging the gap between the NGO and the rural hinterlands.
The association will work well with MNO’s, Government bodies, NGOs and educational and research institutions who could use the data to provide customized solutions to the rural subscribers. This innovative product would be available on both IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and SMS platforms designed especially to provide solutions to mobile subscribers on agriculture and allied topics. This pan India service is available in 18 regional languages.
Dr. Elizabeth Dodsworth from CABI said, “We are delighted to partner with one of India’s leading VAS provider, Handygo. We have noticed a great potential in the untapped and high potential rural market and look forward to sharing the research and data with various stakeholders for ensuring the latest and validated information. Content from our Direct2Farm Agriculture Knowledge Repository will be made available by Handygo in all regional languages along with Hindi and English.”
The association will also help Government and private bodies involved with different projects across the rural markets in provision of customized information about the rural market. A huge gap exists between the rural and urban India in the areas of health, agriculture, financial inclusion, education, etc. Moreover agricultural, regional health, banking, education issues have also been given due focus by Handygo, while making this service.
Handygo will provide exhaustive and up to the minute information regarding health, education, finance, weather information, mandi rates, livestocks, agriculture and fisheries.
Speaking about the tie-up, Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Handygo said, “Handygo endeavors to support the development of the rural region in the country along with CAB International by providing the various stakeholders working in this domain with specific information about the users via a communication channel that has the maximum penetration – the mobile.”
The rural markets are the focus of the mobile operators too, who have just begun exploring these markets for prospective customers post exhausting the urban markets. Recent studies and the National Telecom Policy 2012 have escalated the interest levels of the mobile service providers in these areas, with vast potential and limited information about the usage patterns, requirements and demographics of the probable subscriber base there.