SMS News is a grass root initiative which use Information and Communication Technologies to eradicate poverty in rural, It is timely needed that making aware of the market prices of vegetables to rural farmers. As a result lacks of sound knowledge about behavior of the market prices, farmers are facing many problems, as well other information like job opportunities, new seeds and fertilizers, vocational education courses and health education & nutritious etc.
Babaragaswewa is a remote village which located seventeen kilometers away from Galewela town. Main income of the villagers is farming. In 1999 Government introduced beet as an alternative crop as farmers lost cultivating tobacco many years. Introducing beet as an alternative, government could change the life of these farmers; they earned much more than cultivating tobacco. Year by year, Galewela beet cultivation was promoted and several other alternative crops also were introduced, like b-onion and onion.
Even though Galewela is locater closer to dambulla economic markets, Bambaragaswewa beet farmers didn’t get the market price, some time farmers were over exploited. But one initiative made huge changers of the farmer’s life after beet revolutions. The foundation call digi.div started a project to send the SMS News with market price in 2008 to target of 300 farmers. They could empowered farmers and enabled them with bargaining power.
The bulk SMS News is being sent using Free and Open Source software which need a Computer, Mobile phone and SIM card, where there are no personal computers or Internet in rural Matale district.
The existing market knowledge chasm was allowed them to re-think and searched the most effective communication tool to communicate the rural in quickly and effectively. SMS news is a small text massage which carries the timely information to farmers or the youths in phonetic Sinhala (Sinhala word written in English alphabet). The SMS News are being sent free of charge and the cost per SMS have been recovered a sending a small advertisement with the news information or without.
This initiative was assisted by e-Society, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka under the Community Assistance Programme. The digi.div foundation has proved that, even without having internet connectivity, or any modern equipment, how they used available technology to improve and empower the farmers.
Shriyananda Rathnayake
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