A telephone-based service offering agricultural and veterinary
information to farmers in India has been set up by BT, Cisco and the
OneWorld charity as part of the United Nations’ Millennium Development
Goal of spreading digital inclusion.
Until now community meetings and agriculture extension workers have
been the farmers’ only source of the information. The new service,
called Lifelines, is available 365 days a year.
BT is supporting the project with staff time, commercial and technical
expertise and funding. OneWorld, a media network, picks up farmers’
messages and sources the information from a panel of agricultural and
veterinary experts. Cisco is contributing staff, equipment, donations
and funding. Cisco employees from multiple business units designed and
built the infrastructure.
Arun Seth, chairman of BT India, said: ‘Lifelines helps India’s farming
communities by providing vital knowledge to those who need it the most.
It is one of the most creative ways I have seen of using information
and communications technology to bring life-enhancing expertise to
remote communities in a way that they can readily access.’
Earlier projects in which BT has been involved are the Katha
Information Technology and E-commerce School, known as KITES, which it
established with the charity Katha in Delhi’s largest poor area, and
the St Crispin’s IT Training Centre, set up in Pune to teach children
from impoverished communities.
Seth said: ‘Following in the footsteps of KITES and St Crispin’s,
Lifelines is part of our long-term commitment to CSR in the communities
in which we operate.
