Reuters Market Light
Description
Agricultural markets in developing countries are rife with significant information asymmetry between market participants. Farmers particularly suffer economic losses as a result of: • poor price discovery in the value chain • lack of timely and localized weather forecast • lack of reliable, timely and relevant news that affect crop or input prices. In India, where nearly 60 percent of the working population makes their living from agriculture, millions of farmers do not have timely and affordable access to relevant decision-critical information. By one estimate, a farmer in India gets only 20-25% price of their final produce vis-a-vis 40-50% in the developed world. Following nearly 18 months of market research, concept tests, prototyping and market trials, RML, a highly personalized professional information service customized to each farmer’s individual preference was launched in India in October 2007 to serve the Indian farming community. It applies an innovative acquisition and service model to provide personalized content to the farmers. RML was incubated by the venture board of Thomson Reuters chaired by the CEO, Tom Glocer and was built from ground-up to serve the information needs of the farming/agricultural community: right from sourcing, production, delivery, sales and distribution, marketing through to customer support. Leveraging a dedicated information network for farmers in India and Reuters global commodities coverage, RML provides personalized market intelligence to farmers in their local language that includes crop prices from local markets, local weather forecasts, region-specific or crop related and crop-specific advisory information.
What we deliver?
We provide personalized professional information service to the farming community via mobile phones. Farmers access a choice of content (crops, markets, weather location etc) in local language • Spot Crop Prices on daily basis (2 Crops & 3 Markets) • Localized Zilla (50 KM radius) level Weather Forecast • Crop Advisory for one selected crop • Commodity News & Information • Any other Agri-rural information relevant for farming community
Why is the project unique?
RML has grown from a 1 page idea in 2006 to a pioneering business that operates in 11 states of India. To achieve that, numerous processes, prototypes & business model innovations have been accomplished. Key innovations include: Product Innovation: Launch of the first ever information card (RML direct card) and delivery of the service via all handset models and on all operators Process innovation: Sourcing process for news and market data has been continually improved from the widely fragmented market but also provide local news that helps save farmer transportation costs or better plan their operations based on availability of power Business model innovation: RML has built its entire operating model from scratch – from content sourcing through to delivery and customer support. This industry sector – personalized professional information services for farmers – did not exist ‘til RML launched the business in 2007. Many new companies (Nokia, Handygo, etc.) are trying to replicate the business which will only help take this service to millions of farmers thereby multiplying the empowerment as well as the financial benefit. The two biggest changes RML has brought about in society are a) empowerment of the farmer in the truest sense and b) Direct financial benefit that is already raising their incomes.
Contact
Reuters Market Light
Subodh Marwah – Vice President, Marketing
Piramal Towers, ‘B” Wing, Peninsula Corporate Park, G.K. Marg,
Lower Parel (West), Mumbai 400013
URL/Website – www.thomsonreuters.com