Telenor-Winrock Audio Platform To Deliver Agriculture Advisory Through Smartphones

MULTAN, (Muzaffargarh.City – 16th Oct, 2018 ) :Telenor Pakistan and Winrock International, a leading provider of social, agriculture and environmental solutions, have entered into an agreement to launch a digital audio platform that farmers would access through smartphones for agriculture advisories, weather updates and modern technology.

Telenor Pakistan, through its flagship m-agri service `KhushaalZamindar’, will collaborate with Winrock International to facilitate farmers to increasing productivity and reducing post-harvest losses through the introduction of innovative techniques and technologies in 12 districts of Sindh and Punjab provinces, says a release issued here Tuesday.

Khushaal Zamindar is a digital audio platform which provides access to real-time weather conditions, tips for effective harvesting and live audio advisory services to farmers through mobile phones. This knowledge based campaign is part of Winrock International’s Pakistan Agriculture Development (PAD) project.

The PAD technical team has developed content for this campaign including information related to crop/orchard planning, site selection, nursery planning and sowing, seed price, preparing raised beds, pests & disease control, use of fertilizers, harvesting requirements, bunch management, flowering, packing, infrastructure development, financial literacy and marketing.

This content will be disseminated to a targeted group of 400,000 farmers through Telenor Pakistan’s KhushaalZamindar platform.

Commenting on the partnership, Durdana Achakzai, Chief Digital Officer, Telenor Pakistan, said “Access to accurate and latest farming information is the right of all farmers, large or small, and Telenor continues to plays its role in reducing the information gap through KhushaalZamindar in line with its vision of empowering societies and reducing inequalities. Besides helping our farmers take educated agricultural decisions, our partnership with Winrock will also pave the way for greater innovation in the m-Agri sector that an agriculture-based economy like Pakistan’s is in dire need of.” Farrukh Baig Mirza, Chief of Party, PAD project said,”It is very important to introduce modern techniques and tools to small scale farmers for the agricultural development in Pakistan and our partnership with Telenor Pakistan is a step towards this direction.” The service will be executed in regional languages for the farmers in Sindh and Punjab regions including Thatta, Mirpur Khas, Hyderabad/Matiari, Umerkot, Tando Allah Yar and Khairpur in Sindh; Shiekhupura, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Bahawalpurand Lodhran in Punjab.