Free texting service for farmers |13 March 2014

The official launch of the service

Farmers seeking information or who have queries can now send a message to a special toll free number – 9676 – through the short messaging service (SMS) provided by telecommunications firm Airtel.

Besides getting information, the service will also allow the farmers to interact with the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) staff as well as share their ideas.

The project, known as ‘Lifelong Learning for Farmers’ (L3F), was officially launched last week by the Minister for Natural Resources Peter Sinon.

The ceremony took place at the Care House training room in the presence of the SAA chief executive Marc Naiken, Airtel Seychelles’ country manager Vikram Sinha, principal secretary for natural resources Michael Nalletamby, staff of SAA, representatives of Airtel and of the farmers’ association, as well as individual farmers.

The L3F project falls within the framework of a memorandum of understanding signed between the SAA and Airtel Seychelles last year to mark the World Food Day.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Minister Sinon said he was very impressed with the staff’s enthusiasm towards the project.

Before its official launch, the L3F project was piloted early last year and 73% of the chosen farmers for the trial phase found the project useful.

“This project will allow the farmers not only to seek information but to also share their ideas with the SAA staff and their fellow farmers too,” Mr Naiken said.

This facility is available through the Airtel network only. Farmers will need to register first before they can use the facility. The farmers need to send a text of their farming activity, their name and surname, sub district and the district to the toll free number 9676.

The farming activities include poultry, layers, broilers and pigs, pig fattening, pig breeding, fruits, vegetables, cattle, goat, spices, root crops, bee keepers, landscape, backyard gardeners students, training institutions and ornamental plants.

Farmers need to note that districts and sub districts with two words need to be separated with a hyphen when sending the text. For example the district Grand Anse needs to be written as Grand-Anse.

 And farmers will need to register for each of their farming activities. This will allow them to receive agricultural information through SMS on different farming activities from the SAA.

After registering the farmers can send queries and share experiences with the SAA. This can be done by typing “Kestyon” in front of every queries or experience followed by name and surname to the toll free number 9676.

“We at Airtel Seychelles want to invest not for our own personal gain but to help the farmers do good in their field. For when the farmers are doing well the country progresses and it benefits all of us in the society,” Mr Sinha said.

He also made a commitment to the farmers that Airtel Seychelles will soon be providing them with 10 tablets with farming apps as a way of promoting technology among the farmers.