IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 15

raising awareness of the CIC's in the local community
and among local farmers and as well recognizing that
if farmers came in to access the fRS they might at
the same time access other, revenue services at the
same time.
The feedback from the CIC managers is that farmers are benefiting from the service when they use it,
but that there is overall a lack of awareness concerning the service. One perceived advantage of the CICbased fRS was that the service was being offered in
face-to-face mode with the CIC manager having been
trained in providing support to the individual farmer
utilizing the service.
The fRS provided via the GPCIC's however, is just
developing since farmers are not accustomed to taking
services from CIC's including information concerning fertilizers or insecticide, and thus need to develop
trust in the value and validity of services provided
through this source. This will take time to develop.
Normally farmers get this information either directly
from suppliers or from Extension Agents. Grameenphone sees the CICs as long-term investments very
much aligned with GP's goals that may take several
years to become successful as it takes time to earn
trust. GP sees a continuing niche for CICs in providing data services to rural areas given that while voice
(mobile) is getting steadily cheaper the cost of data is
not declining.
The fRS helps with developing the market for
the CIC by bringing additional clients into the Centers. Also CICs offer more services directed specifically to those with low literacy levels who may
need assistance in order to enjoy the full benefits of
ICT services. CICs would be for those not able to
use smartphones but who still need some access to
digital services where a human interface is needed
to provide service for the average farmer in Bangladesh (as for example the fRS service). GP believes
that promotion should be the responsibility of government although they would be willing to contribute through campaign design.
When GP decided to roll out the fRS service
they needed to provide training and training materials to the local managers. This was done at GP's
cost. Also, GP would love to see additional modules
parallel to the fRS, for example recommendation
systems for irrigation or crop varieties, or weather
forecasting.
GP made it clear that if the system is not commercially of interest for the end user it is not likely to continue to be provided through the GPCIS. However, at
the time of the interview GP felt that it was premature
to comment. While the fRS is notfully flourishing at
the moment, it is still early and the fRS needs continuing and increased commitment from stakeholders
to move forward.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2013

Banglalink - History3
The second delivery channel currently being used for
fRS is the Agri Help Line (7676 Jigyasha4), which
is provided as a value-added service, sharing agricultural related information concerning crops, poultry,
and fish among other categories), by Banglalink, the
number 2 (by subscribers) mobile service provider in
Bangladesh. The service is accessed by means of a
call-in to a Banglalink call center. Banglalink is currently operating its 7676 Jigyasha service with the
support of one call center, one content provider, and
25 call center agents.
There is no additional charge for the (for profit)
service over and above the premium call charge for
the Agri Help Line service. The premium charge for
the overall Agri Help Line service is 2 BDT (Taka)
per minute if the individual is a subscriber to the SME
premium service and 5 BDT-per minute per call if the
user is not a subscriber.5
To access the service (which started in 2009) the
farmer calls into a help line (7676) where he is directed
to a call center operator.The farmer is asked to wait
and then connected directly to a specially trained call
center operator-this is reportedly important in the
specific context of Bangladesh. The farmer gives his
information and gets the recommendation back. There
is nointeractive voice recognition. The operator asks
the farmer the limited set of questions required for
input into the system, makes the input directly, and
then reads the output back to the farmer directly.
fRS is a stand-alone database. When there is a call
they need to find out where the caller is located, thenthey need to obtain the additional inputs including the
intended crop. If the call is concerning fertilizer and
they wish to access the fRS database, then there is a
need for an Internet connection from thecall center in
order to access the database and to do the calculations
(the contents of the other services are hosted locally).
Often the callers don't know about fRS. They are
just asking questions about fertilizer. Before the fRS
database was available the 7676 service had a generic
database from a content service provider.According
to Banglalink, 20% of crop-based calls are concerned
with fertilizers and overall some 10% of calls concern
fertilizers. When there is a call to thehelp line the call
is charged to the end user but the lookup on the database is free.
The call center support provider (a contractor to
Banglalink) has a direct telecommunications connection to SRDI. When an updated version of the database
is available the service provider needs to access to it
3

This section is based on an interview with the Banglalink representative
responsible for its fRS service.
4
Query" in Bangla.
5
$1 USD = 80 BDT approx. and 2 BDT = $.025 USD.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013