Peter, 50, Lari
“When my cows, Juni and Nguno, are sick, I call m-Kilimo.”
“Recently, my cow had a rough coat and the hair was standing upright. The agricultural expert that I spoke to at m-Kilimo diagnosed the condition to be a result of worm infestation. He advised me to administer a broad spectrum de-wormer. I was also advised to strictly follow the de-wormer administration instructions to ensure I achieve the desired results.
I followed the advice and my cows became healthy. For this information, the local vet would have charged us 4,000 shillings just for the visit, which he might also have been delayed for some days. The m-Kilimo experts quickly return my calls and the service is reliable.”
About M-Kilimo
In 2009, the Mobile for Development’s mAgri Programme, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, set up a farmer helpline, M-Kilimo, in Kenya. M-Kilimo had at its heart three aims:
- To set up a fully functioning helpline that provided high quality information services to smallholder farmers
- To understand the information needs of farmers
- To test the commercial viability of a sustainable Agri VAS deployment
The pilot was designed as a voice-based service where farmers spoke with helpline experts who dealt with any agricultural query raised by the user. Here, Peter from Lari, Kenya explains what happened when his cows became ill.