Mobile Based Agriculture Information Service
Mobile phone has changed our daily life tremendously. If we utilize this small and smart tool in our every sphere of life, certainly we can reach our target of development. Agriculture is the largest sector in Bangladesh, comprises almost 80% peoples involvement. Timely and demand led information dissemination is the prime objective right at this moment. If we can successfully utilize the mobile devices for agri information dissemination, tremendous development in agriculture is quite possible. Keeping these in mind, Agriculture Information Service under Ministry of Agriculture and Access to Information (A2I) Program of Honorable Prime Minister’s Office, Government of Bangladesh jointly launched Mobile based Agriculture Information Service with the technical help from private mobile operator ‘Banglalink’. We could say we have successfully started.
What we deliver
SMS, Group SMS, IVR of pre-fixed contents related to Agro-technology and different agricultural issues.
Whom we deliver
In this service our prime target stakeholders may be classified in two major groups: first one is farmers/farmer association and secondly is Government/NGO personnel. There are some agri technology based common information which is being transferred to among both these groups. Moreover there may be specific administrative instruction or information which is being disseminated among the Government personnel. Agriculture department as a whole comprised by huge personnel (around 20,000 persons). So this service enables to communicate with huge numbers at moment. In the IVR system, famers or any interested person can get agri information 24×7 time.
Why is the project unique?
The proposed project is unique in nature. Because as it has been mentioned earlier, it was very difficult to communicate with farmer communities and the officials of the remote areas. Moreover, as the same message is being transferred among several people, so less chance for message disruption. In IVR, one can get basic agricultural production based technology in 24×7.
Contact
Md. Nazrul Islam, Director
Agriculture Information Service (AIS)
1st Building, 1st Floor Khamarbari, Farmgate
Bangladesh, Dhaka 1215
URL/Website – http://www.ais.gov.bd
