Effectiveness of mobile agri-advisory service extension model: Evidence from Direct2Farm program in India

Abstract This study examines the effectiveness of mobile as a novel approach for providing targeted and equitable agri-advisory services to farmers at scale. A cross-sectional survey of farmers registered on CABI's Direct2Farm (D2F) user database was undertaken using a combination of telephone interviews, household survey and focus group discussions covering six states in India. Results indicate that majority of farmers receive information from various sources, notably fellow farmers (73%) and government extension (58%). Mobile service was ranked 5th as a source of information out of seven identified. Nonetheless, there was evidence that CABI-D2F mobile services reached a large number of farmers in a short time compared to what could be achieved by traditional extension approaches, and the services significantly influenced farmers to take up new agricultural practices (p