Bridging the data divide improves the livelihood of farmers

INFORMATION AND NETWORK 

Gramhal's WhatsApp based chatbot, Bolbhav, enables farmers to easily access and consume agri-related information, and seamlessly connect with nearby markets and businesses.

Bolbhav chatbot has successfully answered over three million queries from 200,000 farmers. In our internal impact study, we found that farmers used price information and quality knowledge to negotiate with buyers and earned higher price. This resulted in an average increase in income of 81%, whereas the median increase in income was 25%.

BIG DATA - ONE CLICK AWAY

Our users exist on the continuum of literacy and digital usage. We used design thinking principles to develop a chatbot that gives farmers response through a single numeric code.

For example, a user can type 1001, and she will receive localised prices of maize crop of nearby agriculture markets and traders.

Low literacy level and vernacular language create unique set of challenges in understanding intent of user's query.

We  have devised a combination of tools to deliver right response to the users. We have answered over one million queries with a response accuracy of 95%.

CORRECT RESPONSES

OPEN ACCESS

We use open data and we commit ourselves to generate open data.

To supplement the open source price data, we collect price data from our own channels. Any other player working with farmers can access our database through open APIs. Similarly, all content created by Gramhal is licensed under Creative Commons.