Monsanto India to Expand SMS Text Messaging Program

Posted by Jackie Pucci|6 June 2014

Monsanto India announced it is expanding its Monsanto Farm AgVisory Services (MFAS) in India to serve an additional 1.3 million local farmers with daily mobile text messages, providing them with information that affects the success of their crops and farming practices.

Monsanto will offer agricultural advisory services to farmers across three states in India via an SMS mobile-based platform, which includes real-time information on market prices, weather alerts and other relevant support services.

Mike Frank, vice president of international row crops and vegetables for Monsanto, emphasized the company’s vision to collaborate with farmers around the world to help grow more food sustainably. “Continued improvement in farm management recommendations through the use of data science and information technology is important for agriculture around the world and can benefit all farmers, regardless of their farm size or farming methods,” said Frank. “Expanding our platform underscores our ongoing commitment to deliver new products and solutions that can provide smallholder farmers around the world with additional actionable information that can boost productivity and help manage risk.”

To expand services to farmers, Monsanto said it will offer service that provides daily mobile text messages to farmers, providing them with important data-driven insights that can be used to make informed decisions on market prices and weather. Monsanto India’s current advisory service portfolio will be enhanced to include these additional service offerings, and provide farmers with information advisories across the crop cycles.

In 2010, recognizing mobile devices would be an ideal platform for delivering information to farmers in rural India, Monsanto launched a free service known at the time as Dr. DEKALB Farm Care to support farmers in the region. The service, now known as MFAS, offers a toll-free number that corn, cotton and vegetable farmers can call to speak directly with an agriculture advisor. Available 365 days a year, the service is a customized approach that provides farmers with immediate access to information on a variety of topics to help support their production efforts. From seed selection to land preparation to pest control and more, the service provides agronomy services in seven languages to farmers in 16 Indian states.