Five million Punjab farmers to get smartphones

The first phones will be distributed in October, PITB chairman Umer Saif says

Five million smartphones will be given to farmers in Pakistan's largest province in an effort to improve knowledge of modern farming techniques, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Chairman Umar Saif said on Wednesday.



Under the initiative, the smartphones will equip farmers with an understanding of how to employ modern farming techniques.  Addressing a meeting at the PITB office, Saif said the distribution of phones would start in October. He said farmers would also be given an annual Rs1 billion loan.

It was also revealed that the smartphones will feature the PITB app and expert advice would also be proliferated via the devices.  "Farmers will receive free alerts about the use of pesticides for their yields," said Saif, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan. Large numbers of farmers in countries such as India and Kenya have also recently experimented with smartphone technology.



Hendrik Knoche at Denmark's Aalborg University was involved in a recent project to design a smartphone interface that could be used by farmers in India -- even those with literacy problems. He said the move by Pakistan was "laudable" but added that there could be difficulties in getting the most relevant information to users.

"A lot of the information that farmers are really interested in is often not available online. Such as whether a local dealer has good quality material or whether it's adulterated," he told the BBC. At the very least, Knoche said, his experience suggested that even farmers new to the devices would soon pick up the basics of how to use them -- and that that could benefit them in the future.