– Michael Kremer, a Harvard University professor, was the co-Founder of ‘Precision Agriculture Development’ or PAD
– It advised the Coffee Board to pilot a missed-call enabled service to help coffee farmers in Karnataka
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Bengaluru:
India’s Coffee Board, a state-run body that promotes coffee production and drinking, shares a slice of history with Michael Kremer, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics along with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee.
Kremer, a Harvard University professor, was the co-Founder of ‘Precision Agriculture Development’ or PAD, which advised the Coffee Board to pilot a missed-call enabled service to help coffee farmers in Karnataka. The IVR call service can give precise advise to the grower from scientists at Central Coffee Research Institute.
“Under his guidance and leadership, Team PAD have been working with Coffee Board of India and the coffee ecosystem for more than one year now. Thanks to the stellar efforts of Michael, Shawn, Madhur, Niriksha and Team Coffee Board, we have been able to have a positive impact on the lives of 15000 coffee farmers using a simple missed call service, free of cost to coffee farmers,” said Srivatsa Krishna, Chief Executive Officer of Coffee Board, in a statement to the media.
The service, Coffee Krishi Taranga, gives registered growers a weekly advisory on critical farm operations and daily market statistics through an automated push call when a farmer places a missed call on the helpline (080-37685000) run by the Board. It has helped growers improve productivity, profitability and environmental outlook, and will be expanded to cover 50000 growers shortly, according to the Coffee Board.
The PAD’s journey in India begun as an academic experiment in Gujarat with cotton farmers in 2011, when Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, encouraged testing a similar service in his state called Krishi Tarang, said Srivatsa. “On behalf of the entire Indian coffee ecosystem, the finest shade-grown, hand-picked rainforest Coffees in the world, we congratulate Dr.Kremer and thank Team PAD for their contributions,” said Srivatsa Krishna.
source: http://www.livemint.com /Live Mint / Home> Explore / by Nidheesh M.K. / October 15th, 2019
