Updates on crop prices, weather and an advisory on farming will on your fingertips, literally.

In April, the Punjab Mandi Board had signed a MoU with Reuters for Reuters Market Light (RML) project, which would be formally launched by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on October 21. With this, all farming-related information will be available through SMS alerts.

The service has already become a hit. After its soft launch in Punjab in September-mid, 2,600 farmers have subscribed to it. “The RML project is an information service for farmers that will have a positive impact on their livelihood. We are covering nine crops, including wheat, paddy, maize, cotton, potato, kinnow and a few vegetables, in about 70 out of 145 mandis of the state. We are using mobile phones as a medium of disseminating information in Punjabi language using Roman and Devanagari scripts since majority of the handsets do not support Gurmukhi,” said a company officer.

He said, “The farmer can chose from three packages of three months (Rs 260), six months (Rs 500) and a year (Rs 850).”

The service provides price updates of different crops, particularly during the harvest time, weather updates and crop advisory duly validated by agriculture experts from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) or other reputed institutes like Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). Farmers are being given information regarding prices of two crops of their choice prevailing in three mandis near their village or any other place of their choice.

“Our focus is on high value crops, like fruits and vegetables,” said the

officer.

The weather updates will include maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, chances of precipitation and forecast for the next 24 hours at the tehsil level. Besides, RML will also inform farmers about the impact of import and export of a particular crop on local markets.

“We launched our services in Maharashtra on October 1 last year and have about 50,000 farmers as subscribers. We have a tie-up with the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB),” said the official.

Talking to The Indian Express, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “This service will link Punjab farmers with national and international markets. Like in the West, the Punjab farmers can also plan their crops now.”