Irrigation Advisory SMS Service for Farmers
Pakistan
PCRWR launched the service on April 18, 2016 which is an outcome of international collaboration extended by the University of Washington (UW) and NASA. The UW is providing real time daily Potential Evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation for entire Pakistan using NASA’s remotely sensed data. PCRWR determined crop coefficients (Kc) for different crops in different agro-climatic zones of Pakistan. The service informs the farmers about their net weekly irrigation requirements, considering ET and precipitation. In the long run, PCRWR envisions extending the service to all farmers of irrigated areas, through international and national coordination. Active since 2016 in over 40 districts of Pakistan. Mainly SMS service based advisory in local languages.
Digital Solution (DS) Category
Digital Agriculture
Digital Solution Type (sub-category)
Farm advisory services
Delivery type (format)
Mobile app
SMS services / Voice messaging
DS supplier-user category
Government to business
Government to government
Type of entity (ICT developer-supplier)
Multi-partners
Name of supplier/developer
Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR)
Primary Users
Farmers
Digital Solution Development Stage
Commercial stage (broad use use locally)
Number of users or subscribers
20,000 farmers across major crop value chains such as wheat, maize, sugarcane, cotton and rice
Measurable positive impact(s) by Digital Solution (DS) on target users and/or audience
10% - 15% increase in yield due to the right irrigation practices A reduction in the cost of irrigation related expenses
Digital Solution Geographic scope
More than 40 districts all over Pakistan
Name of Digital village(s), districts, communes where DS is used/deployed
On-line resource links (Web-page links, links to videos, links to reports, etc)
DS Links to FAO, UN and other Development agencies projects, initiatives and programmes