Telenor’s Khushaal Watan platform to empower rural communities and farmers across Pakistan

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi praised Telenor's initiative as he unveiled the Kushaal Watan platform

 

Telenor Pakistan, one of Pakistan’s largest telecommunication companies, leaves no stone unturned when it comes to helping the nation progress. No matter the industry, this telecom company has managed to make its mark by helping streamline appropriate technology needed to boost productivity and enhance cost-effectiveness.

Telenor Pakistan has been empowering the agricultural ecosystem through its interventions like Khushaal Zamindaar. Going forward, the company is all set to foster innovation in the agriculture sector by streamlining the processes and key information through digitalisation for the farmers and rural communities in Pakistan. But what does a telecom brand have to do with the agriculture sector? We’re glad you asked!
 

Earlier in November 2021, Telenor Pakistan’s new and improved Khushaal Watan platform was unveiled by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad. Here’s what happened at the launch event.

Addressing the audience and applauding the initiative, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said:

With fast-evolving developments in technology impacting economies worldwide, it’s important that we take along every person and every sector to match the pace of change through digitalisation. Undoubtedly, agriculture is the largest contributing sector towards Pakistan’s foreign exchequer while employing half of the country’s labour force; this depicts the great potential that can be harnessed through digital interventions to enhance productivity.

Khushaal Watan platform by Telenor Pakistan comes as a promising development to enable the rural and farming community in the country. Interventions like these will ensure progressive and sustainable growth of the economy by enhancing productivity and contribution to the national exchequer. I thank Telenor Pakistan for being far-sighted and ever-ready to help all sectors in Pakistan progress.

Here’s why FM Qureshi was all praises about the Telenor

The M-Agri value chain is a billion-dollar market. In agriculture, a value chain is a set of activities and actors that connect basic agricultural products from the field to the consumer, adding value to each stage of the process. Input suppliers, farmers or primary producers, wholesalers, processors, manufacturers, and retailers are the primary players associated with the process. In Pakistan, the dilemma is that the agriculture GDP contribution remains about 24%, even though the labour force percentage is much higher than other industries, primarily due to the low yield per acre.

Reasons for low yields

The main reason is that farming and agriculture yields highly depend on seasons and weather.

The Khushaal Watan platform helps farmers gain a better understanding of weather conditions suitable for their crops.

With the help of special weather forecasting tools, the platform enables farmers to plan ahead how and when to do things. Insights into the weather conditions are provided to the farmers to enable informed decisions.

The weather forecast and related information can be used for planning purposes. The information can help in understanding whether to start or withhold the sowing process, whether or not to irrigate the crop, when to fertilise, and whether to begin complete harvesting immediately or to delay it – all of which have a significant effect on crop yields.

After conducting extensive research, Telenor Pakistan was able to conclude that lack of information and education on the farmer's side is the primary reason for this disparity. The farmers in Pakistan lack access to the latest research regarding various aspects of agriculture.

Telenor Pakistan understood that cutting-edge digital tools in agriculture could generate significant benefits to agribusinesses in emerging markets. By providing farmers with a pathway to financial inclusion, digitalising agri value chain benefits the overall socio-economic development in the country as well. Farmers need professional advice about the ever-changing situations in real-time to tackle various crop diseases, weather conditions, and more.

Aiming to provide farmers across the country with localised, credible content, information, and tools required for a healthy yield, Telenor Pakistan’s Khushaal Watan App provides accurate and localised weather forecasts to connecting stakeholders in the farming community.

This lifestyle app offers a plethora of outstanding services at unbelievably affordable rates. Here’s a brief overview of some top-of-the-line features people in rural areas can benefit from when they subscribe to the one-of-its-kind Khushaal Watan App.

The journey starts when a user calls on 7272. Telenor has deployed the latest technology that enables them to automatically get information about the crops based on the caller’s current location. The platform was able to gather extensive data about which crops were grown in different regions during different seasons, allowing them to provide accurate updates.

When a user subscribes, they begin receiving targeted, geo-localised information every day via multiple mediums. Automated outbound calls or SMS notifications are sent, and they can also call back to listen to the information if it is more convenient. In addition, the service is offered in multiple local languages, including Sindhi, Punjabi, Saraiki, Pashto, and Urdu.

Telenor has gone above and beyond in creating a persona for this service. The brand has curated a virtual character, Bashir, who interacts with the user in their language. Likewise, the user can scroll down the menu to view weather predictions, which is crucial for ensuring a healthy yield. Farmers can call and interact with the user in their native language or scroll down the menu to see weather predictions, which are crucial to ensuring a healthy harvest.

Moreover, they can engage with experts during live shows where people can ask questions about their selected crops, weather, healthcare, and livestock management. Those in this field can also find information regarding pests and diseases that affect production. Additionally, Khushaal Watan provides rural legal advice to resolve land disputes.

The platform currently boasts over 14 million subscribers. In the beginning, these services were intended to be IVR or call-based. Gradually, Telenor launched an app to ease the lives of its loyal customers as smartphone and internet usage increased and 3G and 4G technology became more affordable, even in remote areas of the nation. Following the success of this feature, Telenor Pakistan went on to launch more extensions of its services.

Telenor has also expanded the platform’s services by adding features such as Khushaal Kaashtkaar, Khushaal Maweshi, Khushaal Sehat, Khushaal Naama, Khushaal Aangan, Khushaal Zindagi, Khushaal Mohafiz, and Khushaal Tahafuz.

In the future, Telenor aims to expand its suite of solutions by introducing something known as smart farms. The idea is to use specialised AI-based tools with satellite imagery. When a person selects their farm’s geo-location, they can get information and updates about urea, irrigation requirements and other things through heat maps that enable the app to provide accurate insights each time the satellite passes over the land.

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We’re truly awestruck by the efforts Telenor Pakistan has made over the past few years to help the country progress rapidly. The prestigious telecom has collaborated with GSMA and Tabadlabs to publish a report with recommendations and situational analysis by experts in the industry. The report, which is expected to be unveiled in the first half of 2022, is undoubtedly a crucial step forward in Pakistan’s M-Agri journey.

From partnering with prestigious institutions to boost digital and financial inclusion to helping businesses streamline state-of-the-art B2B solutions and offering a multitude of user-friendly solutions for customers using My Telenor App, Telenor Pakistan has truly played its part to empower people across Pakistan. Needless to say, the company, once known for providing the best cellular network and mobile internet services, even in inaccessible areas, has now made its mark in the digital world.