For long, they have brought good news about friends and family, but now they will tell farmers when to sow their crops and what fertilisers to use.
Mobile phones are set to change the way farming is done in the country. Thanks, to wireless solution provider Handygo Ltd, farmers across the country can now learn about good farm practices and share their views with experts on their mobiles.
With more than one in every third Indian a mobile phone owner, Handygo has tied up with mobile service provider Bharti Airtel to offer expert advice and information about farming as a value-added service.
Handygo is also in talks with Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular to further increase its reach, Handygo chief executive officer Praveen Rajpal told PTI.
Farmers will have to call the company's service centre on a particular number and spare Re 1 a minute to get inputs about weather, fertiliser, seeds, pesticide and irrigation through its interactive voice response (IVR) technology.
The company has hired a team of farm sector experts to the answer the queries. The service will also provide weather forecast using its tie-up with the Indian Meteorological department.
Though information is now being provided through recorded messages, the company is targeting to make the service interactive very soon. It is dispersing information in 20 local languages.
