Text Farming

Client: Tim Wilkinson, KisanHub <tim@kisanhub.com>

Low-income countries often have widespread network coverage to rural areas, but the devices and data contracts available to subsistence farmers make voice and SMS more practical then web services. You need to design a subscriber service that provides automated weather, health and market updates which users can personalise to their needs from a basic feature phone. You may need to use SMS gateways, off the shelf Interactive Voice Response techniques, and public APIs for information sources. Keep in mind the need for security, accessibility to low literacy users, and simultaneous support for a large number of local languages.