NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The introduction of a number of simple mobile services in India has the potential to boost the income of two-thirds of the country’s small-scale farmers by up to $9 billion a year by 2020, according to a report by Vodafone.

The report, based on research conducted by Accenture Strategy with support from the Vodafone Foundation, found that using six basic mobile services – such as early weather warnings, harvesting best practices, access to financial services and improved communication channels between buyers and sellers – can increase 70 million farmers’ income by an average of $128 a year.

The average farming family in India lives on less than $4 a day, so the initiatives could increase their income by almost 9 per cent.

India is one of the world’s largest food producers in the world with more than 200 million people working in agriculture. About 62 per cent of farmers in India own less than one hectare of land, which significantly increases their exposure to the effects of crop failure, pests, disease and volatile market pricing, the report claimed.