Business Focus Story – Driving digital inclusion in agriculture: The game-changing Govi Mithuru initiative

Dialog Axiata is Sri Lanka’s leading telecommunications provider; it services over 16.2 million subscribers across the island. In October 2014, Dialog leveraged its technological expertise and extensive network to launch Govi Mithuru (Farmer’s Friend in English and Uzhavar Thozhan in Tamil), a mobile-based agricultural advisory service for smallholder farmers. One of MDF’s key focus areas in Sri Lanka is improving information and extension services in the agriculture sector. MDF identified Govi Mithuru as a relevant, scalable service that could address some of the existing gaps in sharing information with farmers and partnered with Dialog in 2020 to refine Dialog’s service offer for farmers, demonstrate its value-add to subscribers and improve adoption of the service. Over the past five years, the MDF-Dialog collaboration has led to Govi Mithuru’s expansion. MDF supported Dialog to add new crops, farming guidance and modules on home gardening. A
pivotal outcome of the partnership was the relaunch of the Village Agent model. Combined, these efforts have reduced the churn rate on the service (the rate at which farmers drop off) and increased subscriptions.

In conversation with Tharusha Wanigasekara, Dialog’s Manager — Digital innovation and Inclusion, and the team from Dialog, MDF discussed the success of the Govi Mithuru service and what they aim to achieve through the partnership.