With the Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMRice) phone application, Indonesian farmers can earn more money per hectare each season by following fertiliser advice from a new service they can now access with their mobile phones. The technology has been in use since January 2011 in the Philippines and is being tested in other countries.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in mid-July 2012 estimated that Indonesian farmers could earn an added net income of 100 US dollars (USD) or more per hectare per season. The mobile phone application Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMRice or PHSL as it is known locally) shows that besides the release of modern varieties, cultural practices such as nutrient management can produce a positive impact, especially for smallholder farmers in Indonesia.

Indonesia has had its own Internet-based version of NMRice in Bahasa since 2011, but most farmers have easier access to a mobile phone than they do to a computer with an Internet connection. PHSL Mobile builds on the NMRice Mobile application launched in 2011 in the Philippines, and was developed to enable Indonesian farmers to directly use their mobile phone without the need for an Internet connection. PHSL has recently been field tested in partnership with Assessment Institutes for Agricultural Technology (AIAT) with more than 300 rice farmers across nine provinces — Central Java, East Java, North Sumatra, Riau, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, West Java, and West Nusa Tenggara.

Farmers in all provinces increased their rice yields and their net income when switching from their current fertiliser practice to the practice recommended by PHSL. In most cases, the net increase in income for farmers exceeded USD 100 per hectare per season.
With about 15 million rice farmers in Indonesia, it is estimated that a majority living in Java only cultivate a fraction of a hectare, while those outside Java cultivate on larger portions. If 35,000 rice farmers used the PHSL fertiliser recommendation on one half of a hectare for one growing season, the increased net income for these farmers could correspond to about USD 2 million in Java or about USD 4 million outside of Java.

A farmer with a simple mobile phone can dial 135 to hear a voice recording in a local language. The farmer then follows the voice prompt to answer five simple questions about his/her rice-growing conditions by pressing the appropriate numbers on the phone’s keypad. After all the questions have been answered, the farmer receives a personalised fertiliser guideline as an SMS on the mobile phone. PHSL Mobile in Indonesia is provided through the phone network operator Telkomsel and provided free of charge to farmers by the Ministry of Agriculture.

This innovation arises from years of collaboration in rice research between the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) and IRRI, and was made possible with 15 years of support 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).

NMRice technology could be applied in different regions all over the world in future. Versions of NMRice are under field testing, with priority being given to final refinements and release as web and mobile phone applications in the coming months in Bangladesh, Tamil Nadu in India, and West Africa. A smartphone application is available in the Philippines too, and promotions are underway for a similar application in Indonesia.

(IRRI/ile)