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With the number of mobile phone subscribers in rural area reaching the 125 mn mark and counting, farmers have emerged as the key target audience for the operators and VAS providers.

The number of rural subscribers is likely to double in the next one year. However, the number of rural population earning livelihood from farming is decreasing. A recent study published shows that only half the rural population is engaged in farming.

Going by most of the VAS offerings for the rural segment, it is obvious that for most of the operators, rural is equivalent to agriculture. However, this is not necessarily so. According to the latest data, the number of rural population earning livelihood from farming is decreasing. A recent data published by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) says that almost 50% of the income in rural areas is coming from non-agriculture sources.

This might pose a problem for the service providers since most of the offerings of the service providers for the rural segment revolving around agriculture or farming.

Reliance Communications has launched an array of services under Grameen VAS platform for the rural India, especially targeting farming class. The service will cater to the specific local needs of rural mobile consumers in over 5,00,000 villages. The services include mandi bhav, agriculture and animal husbandry updates, weather forecast, local info, samachar etc. in multiple Indian languages. These solutions can be categorised broadly under mLearning, mHealth, mCommerce, mUpdates, and GroupSampark (community messaging). Reliance Communications has kept the price of the service at the nominal rate of Rs 15/ month.

Tata Teleservices is also providing food prices of over 3,000 mandis across the country to their farming subscribers on the handphones. Tata Teleservices has joined hands with Impetus Technologies to launch VAS Mandi Bhav for rural market. The new application is available on various platforms like J2ME, BREW, WAP and SMS. The subscription charge will be Rs 30 a month. Farmers can look forward to information on 500 commodities in about nine languages - Hindi, Marathi and English to begin with.

Not only the telecom operators, but global financial news service provider Thomson Reuters has also jumped into fray. Reuters Market Light (RML), a 100% subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, is also providing Indian farmers information via SMS every day, the service with a price tag of Rs 200 for three months. The services include weather updates, crop advisory and mandi bhav. This service is available across Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, UP, Punjab, Haryana and soon will be extended across the country. RML's subscriber base currently stood at 1,25,000 across India. RML has recently tied up with Idea Cellular and Biostadt to further penetrate rural India.

No doubt that these services are innovative and useful. But how relevant it would be for rural population is still a doubt. The biggest challenge against them would be pricing. Almost similar kind of services is available from a price range of Rs 15 per month to around Rs 70 per month. It would be difficult for farmer to choose the service provider.

Between Mandi and farmers around half a dozen middlemen come into picture. So the Mandi bhav would be relevant to the handful of middlemen who sell directly in the Mandi. How real time and precise the service would be is again a question?