A Review of Role of Mobile Based Advisory System for Transfer of Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Development

Abstract

Mobile phones have established itself in the rural areas and are becoming quite popular both with farmer and farm women. These powerful electronic machines that were a farmer’s dream earlier have become a reality as the farmer’s can immediately make use of them to address their field problems and other farm difficulties. The Government gifted Kisan Call Centres (KCC) are functioning the all over India which give answers to the farmer queries in local languages to this toll free number 1800-180-1551. Grameen Phone is a commercial operation providing cellular services in both urban and rural areas of India, with approximately 40,000 customers. A pilot programme of Grameen Phone, through the Grameen Bank and a wholly owned subsidiary called Grameen Telecom, is enabling women members of the Grameen Bank’s revolving credit system to retail cellular phone services in rural areas. This instrument is more than a means of communication and it is being used as a weapon for empowerment and fight poverty. Mobile advisory system have been developed and utilized for transfer of agricultural technologies for sustainable development across the world. The findings of the different mobile based studies conducted across the world have reviewed and presented for replicating the suitable models in similar situation for effective dissemination of the technologies. It is concluded that mobile platform is only tool to reach the last mile connectivity especially in rural areas for delivering need based technologies in time.