Socio-economic impact of mobile phones on Indian agriculture

[Knowledge base]

This large-scale study was published in February 2010 by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations. Authors Sanjay Gandhi, Gaurav Tripathi, and Dr. Surabhi Mittal interviewed 200 small scale farmers to highlight the best uses of mobiles to support agricultural productivity.

The authors organized 17 focus groups over four months across India, and conducted 46 individual interviews with subsistence farmers. In total, they spoke to 200 people, living in villages where both mobile services and agricultural information sources are available. Farmers grew a wide of crops and average household incomes varied. The researchers partnered with organizations that provided agricultural information services linked to mobile phones.

This paper investigates a series of questions that explore this topic:

• What kind of information do farmers value the most to improve agricultural productivity?
• Do mobile phones and mobile-enabled agricultural services have an impact on agriculture?
• What are the factors that impede the realisation of the full productivity enhancing potential of mobile phones?