Dialog Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka | Agriculture

The problem

Smallholder agriculture dominates rural Sri Lanka, home to 80% of the population. Agriculture employs 33% of the workforce. The lack of access to funding (formal sector) has been a key inhibition factor for the growth of farmers from subsistence farming to be a Agro-Entrepreneur. Lack of timely advice has dropped the productivity of the farmers and ever increasing volatile nature of the climate change has put the farmer at risk, without a social safety net.

The company

Dialog Axiata is the largest mobile operator in Sri Lanka with a mobile subscriber base of over 13 million as of the end of 2018.

Project description

Dialog Axiata PLC has a longstanding commitment to leveraging agritech services for the benefit of smallholder farmers. Having invested in a proven digital platform field-tested in the tea sector, Dialog are integrating their Govi Mithuru agricultural advisory service in addition to the eZ Cash mobile money service to provide a holistic suite of digital services to enhance smallholder tea farmer’s productivity, financial inclusion, climate resilience and livelihoods. Dialog are also investing in novel use of commercial microwave links to support weather-index insurance services through hyper-local weather monitoring and real-time decision-making for insurance payouts.