International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has launched a customized low-cost combination of phone and tablet computer called ‘GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM’. It is developed by the ICRISAT Centre of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture in collaboration with NUNC Systems, a company based in Hyderabad.
The GreenPHABLET will allow information to be precisely targeted to individual smallholder farmers. This will help farmers purchase inputs at lower price, get a better price for their produce, and link them to markets, thus putting them on the path to prosperity.
The GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM is priced at US$ 299. The GreenSIM had received the prestigious Flame Award 2013 from the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI). The GreenSIM is a special SIM card that can be used with any mobile phone and it was created under partnership between ICRISAT, mobile phone service provider Airtel, and the IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative) Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL).