Socio-Economic Impact of Mobile Phones on Indian Agriculture

This working paper from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations investigates a series of questions: What kind of information do farmers value the most to improve agricultural productivity? Do mobile phones and mobile-enabled agricultural services have an impact on agriculture? What are the factors that impede the realisation of the full productivity enhancing potential of mobile phones?

The study found evidence that mobiles are being used in ways which contribute to
productivity enhancement. However, to leverage the full potential of information
dissemination enabled by mobile telephony will require significant improvements in
supporting infrastructure and capacity building amongst farmers to enable them to use
the information they access effectively.