A decision-making support tool using modern communications platforms

The Nutrient Manager: online and through mobile phones

The development, evaluation, and dissemination of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) for rice including the development and verification of Web- and mobile phone-based Nutrient Manager decision-making tools, have been made possible by long-term support for the past 14 years from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA), the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and the International Potash Institute (IPI).

Farmers and extension workers in Asia are now increasingly able to obtain field-specific nutrient best management guidelines through Web and mobile phone applications of country-specific decision-making tools.

1. Nutrient Manager for Rice – on the web

New country-specific decision-making tools entitled Nutrient Manager for Rice are now available on the Web to help rice farmers in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Guangdong Province of China to optimize their use of nutrient inputs.

Each Nutrient Manager for Rice consists of a series of questions, easily answered by an extension worker or farmer. Based on responses to the questions, a fertilizer guideline with amounts of fertilizer by crop growth stage is provided for a specific rice field or rice-growing area. The software enables farmers to select the combination of fertilizer sources for their field, it accommodates farmer’s use of organic sources of nutrients, and it has the option to indicate the total cost of the fertilizers in the guideline. An updated Version 2 of Nutrient Manager for Rice in the Philippines was released in 2010 in five Filipino dialects and English. A Web application of Nutrient Manager for Rice in Indonesia was released in early 2011 in Bahasa Indonesia with the name Pemupukan Hara Spesifik Lokasi (PHSL) Padi Sawah. A Web application of Nutrient Manager for Rice in Guangdong Province, China was also released in Chinese in early 2011 for promotion and use in the 2011 cropping seasons. The aim of each Nutrient Manager is to provide a fertilizer management practice capable of boosting the income of poor rice farmers by US$100 per hectare per cropping season.

Nutrient Manager for Rice is based on the principles of SSNM, which arise from nearly 15 years of research involving partnerships of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with organizations across Asia. Within the Philippines, long-standing collaboration of IRRI with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) contributed to the formulation of SSNM principles and to the consolidation of knowledge, which made the development of Nutrient Manager for Rice possible. Nutrient Manager in Indonesia arises from long-standing partnership with the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD). Nutrient Manager in Guangdong, China arises from partnership with the Rice Research Institute of Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDRRI).

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2. Mobile phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) application for crop advice One limitation of the Nutrient Manager on the Web is that many extension workers and most rice farmers do not have Internet connectivity. Nevertheless, small-scale farmers often have mobile phones with SMS (short message service) capability. Text messaging and call centres are options for disseminating information to farmers, but trained staff are necessary in order to provide responses. Another way to reach many farmers with mobile phones is through interactive voice response (IVR). With IVR, a farmer dials a number and accesses a voice recording that presents a menu of questions about the rice field and growing conditions. Each question can be answered by pressing the appropriate number on the keypad.
			A farmer uses his cellular phone to relay messages of a good planting season. Improvement in communication tools significantly helps farmer in trading their yield. Photo credit: Raymond Panaligan / IRRI

Once all questions are answered, the farmer receives a text message with a guideline for the amounts, sources and timings of fertilizer application for that specific rice field.

A mobile phone-based IVR application that sends farmers text messages with a field-specific fertilizer guideline is now operating in the Philippines through a partnership involving the public sector and two private phone companies. A demonstration of this application is available on the web.

See also:

A mobile phone and internet service to help Filipino farmers manage rice crop nutrients

How Philippine rice farmers can use a mobile phone to get information from IRRI

Phone call about fertilizer could be a big help to Philippine rice farmers