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mAgri Programme Overview

The GSMA’s mAgri programme aims to improve the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers in emerging markets through commercial mobile services.

There are over 2.3 billion people in the world who live in poverty and the majority earn their primary livelihood from small farms in developing countries. In many of these countries, farmers get information such as planting techniques, crop management and pesticide use from agricultural extension workers. But in some countries, one extension worker can service up to 4000 farmers, resulting in long delays between each visit. Without access to timely information, farmers are vulnerable to factors such as weather, pests and disease, which can destroy their crops, harm their livestock, and keep them stuck in the cycle of poverty.

With mobile phone penetration in the developing world now exceeding 70% and continuing to grow rapidly, mobile technology provides a platform to bridge the information gap and connect smallholder farmers to timely, vital agricultural information that can help them make more informed decisions and boost their productivity. Success stories in India for example, demonstrated that commercially profitable mobile advisory services can be delivered that help boost productivity and income of smallholder farmers by up to 50%.

mAgri Programme Activities

Through our mFarmer Initiative, the GSMA mAgri programme works with mobile operators, the development community and agricultural organisations to facilitate the creation of scalable, replicable and commercially sustainable agricultural information and advisory services. The Initiative includes challenge fund grants, provision of digitised agricultural content via an online database, technical assistance, sharing of best practices and impact evaluation.

Since its inception in 2009, the GSMA mAgri programme has supported 2 pilot projects in India and Kenya, benefitting over 1.5 million farmers in the two countries. We have subsequently provided grants to 4 mobile operators under the mFarmer Initiative in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID to develop agricultural information and advisory services that will benefit over 2 million additional farmers.

Working with us

Mobile Operators:
We provide mobile operators with relevant tools, forums, and information to identify opportunities and implement Agri VAS:

Development Community:
We help the development community understand and partner with our mobile operator members to leverage mobile to deliver agricultural information and advice sustainably, efficiently and at scale. We also develop tools and frameworks to measure the impact of mobile information and advisory services on farmers.

Agricultural Organisations:
We help agricultural organisations understand, partner with and leverage the mobile channel.

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