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Sunday Nov 24, 2024
Friday, 23 August 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dialog Axiata PLC partnered Hutchison Telecommunications to onboard Hutch subscribers to Dialog’s ground-breaking ‘Govi Mithuru’ platform (‘Uzhavar Thozhan’ in Tamil), Sri Lanka’s first and largest mAgri service.
Govi Mithuru, in line with ‘Sri Lanka E-agriculture Strategy’, espoused by Department of Agriculture, aims to contribute towards the achievement of the country’s agricultural vision and development objectives through technology.
This pioneering collaboration between Dialog and Hutch will enable subscribers of the two networks to avail an expansive suite of services offered by Govi Mithuru. The multilingual Govi Mithuru service provides actionable advice, tailor-made to suit the individual’s activities (e.g. for crops, advise is customised by stage of cultivation, location irrigation type, seed type and other relevant information) to cultivators, home gardeners, dairy farmers, and more.
“We are proud to support the transformation of the agriculture sector through Govi Mithuru platform - first and largest mAgri service in the country. In this respect, we welcome Hutch subscribers to Govi Mithuru platform that would further extend this service, to provide Sri Lankan smallholder farmers with the resources and information required to empower and enable bigger yields, improved family nutrition and enhanced livelihoods,” said Dialog Axiata PLC Group Chief Corporate Officer Shayam Majeed.
Hutch Chief Executive Officer Thirukumar Nadarasa added: “Hutch is pleased to join this effort by Dialog to extend this valuable agricultural information service now to Hutch subscribers so that farmers and other agricultural linked people can improve crop yields and hence livelihoods in the agricultural community which is an important backbone of the economy.”
Govi Mithuru was launched in 2015 by Dialog, to provide sustainable and comprehensive advice to improve the lives of ordinary farmers by sending the right information at the right time for each farmer’s needs, correctly tailored for their crop, location and stage of cultivation.
The pioneering service was recognised by the GSMA, a body representing the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, under its ‘Case For Change’ campaign (https://www.youtube.com /watch? v=1csMMvLvMlw&t=1s), which recognised Govi Mithuru’s contributions towards aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with regards to ending poverty, combating world hunger, advocating good health and well-being and endorsing innovation and infrastructure.
Content partners of the service include the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of Sri Lanka, supported by the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI, an inter-governmental organisation) providing the main agricultural advice, as well as the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine of the Government of Sri Lanka, providing family nutrition advice.
This partnership marks the second occasion Dialog and Hutch joined hands in their shared vision of enriching the lives of Sri Lankans through technology, where they first came together to deliver the world’s first end-to-end mobile money interoperability on the eZ Cash platform.
The support provided by the Department of Agriculture under both former Director-General Dr. Rohan Wijekoon and current Director-General Dr. W. M. W. Weerakoon, was instrumental in allowing this revolutionary platform to take valuable advice directly from the expert to the farmer. In the span of one year, further content was incorporated into the service not only from the Department of Agriculture but also from the Department of Export Agriculture, under Director-General Dr. A. P. Heenkende as well as other Government organisations such as Industrial Technology Institute.
Full-time farmers, planters, agriculture sector officials, and even hobbyists on either Dialog or Hutch networks can subscribe by dialling 616 on their mobile and registering in their preferred language. Registered users will receive voice messages related to each registered crop to their mobile phones for just Rs. 1 +tax per day. Additionally, users have unlimited free access to call 616 to listen to all messages previously received.
