Indian government is planning to launch an innovative service called as spoken web service that will provide information on farmers queries related to agriculture and weather-related queries.
To launch this innovative service ministry of Earth Sciences has approached worlds leading IT giant company IBM to develope service for farmers. IBM has recently launched a service which connects farmers to milk supplier Amul Dairy.
“Through SMS and IVRS service, farmers only get updates but through spoken web service they can ask questions and get answers for their queries related to agriculture,”Spoken web service will be of great use to illiterate farmers who are not technologically equipped,”Shailesh Nayak, secretary in the ministry, told IANS.
Spoken web service is a project where farmer can ask their queries. Farmers can also dial toll free number and ask questions and get them answered.
According to a National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) report, roughly 24 percent of farmers in over 550 districts are either aware or using the Agromet services, while two million farmers are availing themselves of the mobile SMS service which started over a year ago.The Rs. 50,000 crore figure could rise to Rs. 211,000 crore if the entire farming community in the country was to judiciously use the Agromet information and apply it to agricultural activities.
