Capacities for Change, GFAR blog

An Expert-backed WhatsApp group that works for Farmers

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On June 3rd, 2016, I created a WhatsApp group for farmers to meet one of the research objectives of my doctoral programme. It is a small WhatsApp group of 96 farmers, who were chosen from 8 different districts of a hilly state Himachal Pradesh, India. Initially, I was little unsure about the type of conversations and information which were likely to emerge from the group. All of these farmers were unknown to me and were randomly chosen.

I met the farmers individually for the first time during my initial field survey trips across the state. It was during those visits that I discussed the idea of sharing agricultural information through WhatsApp. Though this was a new concept, many of them received it well. In locations with hills and mountains, transportation and mobility has always been a problem. As a result, opportunities for average farmers to interact with others are limited. Some of the districts of Himachal Pradesh such as Lahual and Spiti are situated at a very high altitude (average 3,000 metres).This state is known for glaciers and pastures remains separated from the rest of the state for almost 6 months a year. Such types of immense geographical barriers for delivering agricultural information have been overcome through the WhatsApp group. Infact, some of the most inquisitive participants in the group are from this region: they regularly ask very scientific and thought-provoking questions.

This WhatsApp group works in a slightly different manner

I feel grateful to my PhD advisor Dr. Mahesh Chander, Principal Scientist and Head of the Division of Extension Education, Indian Veterinary Research Institute with whom I initially shared the idea of using a WhatsApp model for the farmers. The model involved handling a WhatsApp group backed by the support of experts in diverse fields of agriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture. The experts provide information individually through WhatsApp to the group administrator (blog author) .The administrator shares the advice and information in an easy understandable form to the farmers. None of the experts form part of the WhatsApp group. This has been done to ensure a free exchange of information among the farmers.

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The initial objective of forming the group was to assess the effectiveness of using WhatsApp as a two-way information delivery. This has been achieved to a reasonable extent as farmers have been regularly asking agriculture-related queries and have also shared their farming stories in the group. Every query presented by the farmers has been responded to in a reasonable time span, with a maximum time limit of 12 hours. The vegetable scientists, veterinarians, plant pathologists, entomologist, horticulture and floriculture specialists of agricultural university , horticultural university, animal husbandry department and department of agriculture in the state have voluntarily supported and provided timely replies to the questions and queries posed by the farmers. With time, I have also been able to receive technical support from other popular agricultural-based WhatsApp groups from other parts of the country such as that of Krishi Vigyan Kendra ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Krishi Jagran and the Pulse group.

Diversity in the group remains a challenge

The group members were randomly selected and as a result, there are variations in terms of age, education, cultural background as well as the type of agricultural enterprise. The group now has members of varied and mixed enterprises carrying out activities in cereal production, vegetable production, dairy production, goat entrepreneurship, poultry, horticulturalism and floriculturism. Further, they undertake agriculture as either a full-time or as a subsidiary activity. The only commonality among them is that they are WhatsApp users. Due to their different backgrounds, information delivery suited to their needs remains a challenge.

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Regular farmer queries are the salient features of the group

To date, 105 queries have been received in a span of nearly three months in this group. Considering that the Whatsapp group is small (with 96 farmers), the number of questions is quite encouraging and the queries are diverse. Many times, farmers seek advice when they face a risk of loss of vegetables due to disease, pests and poor growth. Quite often, the owners are concerned about ailing pregnant livestock or a livestock problem which is unforeseen to them. The worries of these farmers are addressed to a certain extent by the timely response from the experts. This clearly showcases the potential of this tool to serve the farmers’ information needs.

An Awareness workshop that resulted from the WhatsApp group

One of the interesting developments that emerged through the WhatsApp group was that an awareness workshop was organised. During a discussion in the WhatsApp, the idea of setting up a co-operative contract for goat farming emerged. This resulted in a contractual agreement being reached with other farmers to ensure the availability of breedable female goats for breeding purpose .A goat entrepreneur, Mr. Anil Jamwal from Mandi district, came up with the idea as he faced a shortage of breedable female goats in his vicinity. The idea was well received by another progressive farmer, Mr. Karan Chandel from Bilaspur district. Mr.Chandel has good linkages with the Krishi Vigyan Kendra(Agricultural Science Centre), Bilaspur. So, he set up an awareness workshop on goat farming in the local KVK and the idea of co-operative goat farming was well received by many other farmers. This clearly reflects the role of the WhatsApp group in organising needs-based trainings and awareness programmes by extension organisations.

WhatsApp is an easy and cost effective way to establish and maintain linkages with smartphone farmer clientele. As researchers, it does let us know more about agricultural problems at the grassroots level. As an extensionist, it helps build trust and credibility among the farmers. Overall, it is a wonderful tool to promote and support networking, encouragement and enthusiasm among the farmers. Extension-based organisations should encourage and support this innovative outreach tool.

 

Guest blog post by Dr Devesh Thakur (drdth4(at)gmail.com), PhD Scholar,Division of Extension Education, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute.

The views expressed are personal, and cannot be attributed to ICAR or GFAR.

Photo credits:Devesh Thakur

Published by GFAiR

100 thoughts on “An Expert-backed WhatsApp group that works for Farmers”

  1. Congratulations! For effectively presenting the utility of WhatsApp for farmers. In the times of reduced numbers of Extension personnel & financial crunch with organisations. Timely delivery of Extension advice at reduced cost is one big challenge, buy a thing needed most. WhatsApp could be one Good tool to narrow the extension gap if used skillfully. The empirical results from this study would help design Extension interventions in developing countries in particular.

    Reply

  2. Great going Sir, Keep it up. Providing timely and need based information to new generation farmer through social media may revolutionise the information dissemination process under extension advisory services along with positive growth in agriculture and allied sector.

    Reply

  3. A good initiative for the transfer of technology to percolate from the lab to the land. This farmer centric approach should give essence and credibility to the work done by the scientific community.

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  4. This wonderfully shows how effectively transaction cost can be reduced using WhatsApp substituting in person visits of the extension personnel/experts which are already getting scare due to financial crunch with the public sector extension services. In India as also in many other countries, WhatsApp is increasingly being used for information sharing (https://blog.gfar.net/2016/07/14/whatsapp-in-agriculture/ ). Congratulations! Devesh for putting up excellent efforts in right direction.

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  8. I really congratulate Dr Devesh for very informative and need based blog. Such initiatives are very essential for reaching more number of farmers in less time and cost effective mode. Congratulations again sir..

    Reply
  10. Pingback: An Expert-backed WhatsApp group that works for Farmers – Vegetatio

  12. Sir i also want to join ur group pls add my no 9671574490 i m also a farmer from haryana sir pls

    Reply

  13. Hello Mr Pragat,Unfortunately right now I can’t add you as the group is for research purpose.Once It would be open I would definitely add you.There are other popular groups as well such as Pulse group.For the moment you can join them.Thanks

    Reply

  16. Sir I am graduating my bsc agriculture in Tamil nadu I would like to join in your group.
    So I kindly request you to join me .
    My no. 9965535393

    Reply

  20. Hello sir, i am just tarting an animal farm for the first time, could really use some extra tips from fellow farmers. here is my number +2348179087071

    Reply

  23. 🙏🏻 सर
    मैं देवीसिंह राजपुरोहित निवासी गांव -बिगमी, तहसील- ओसियां , जिला – जोधपुर, राज्य -राजस्थान अनार की खेती का प्रथम बार प्रयास कर रहा हूँ ।आपसे विनम्र निवेदन हैं कि इससे जुड़ी सभी महत्वपूर्ण जानकारीयों से मुझे वाट्सअप के माध्यम से लाभान्वित करें ।
    मेरे वाट्सएप्प नंबर हैं
    +918058429000
    सादर धन्यवाद
    आपका
    देवीसिंह राजपुरोहित

    Reply

  25. Sir i also want to join ur group pls add my no 9767296259 i m also a farmer from Baramti sir pls

    Reply

  30. Hi everyone I’m farmer from Maharashtra I will started bee farming any one have what’s app group form bee farming plz add me also my mobile number 7666789717 thank you…..I’ll wait ur what’s app grp link or involved me

    Reply

  39. hi…. im am an upcoming farmer, Farming with chicken and back yard pigeons, kindly add me
    +264813346984

    Reply

  44. My number 8552025038
    I have very interest in farming
    I want to know more . please add me .

    Reply

  61. Sir
    Kindly add my mob.number to this agri WhatsApp group.
    Welcome ,
    Let’s share agriculture informations…

    Thank you
    Mr.Joshy
    farm products.

    mail: farmproductsonline @gmail.com
    9074052687(India)

    Reply

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