Poynter Online
Go


Top Story

Public TV, Radio Stations to Increase Local Investigative Coverage
Most Recent Articles
Most E-mailed
Recent Comments
Recent Tags
Community Activity

Poynter Training
Poynter Seminars
Small, in-person training experiences.
News University
Today's most popular courses on NewsU, Poynter's e-learning site for journalists.
Webinars
Our online classroom is just a click away. Learn more.
All Webinars

E-Media Tidbits

Home > E-Media Tidbits
Tools: Text Sizeor, Print, RSSRSS, Subscribe via e-mail
Madan Rao
A group weblog about the intersection of news & technology


Philippine Rice Farmers: Texting for Expert Advice
Posted by Madan Rao at 10:50 AM on Jul. 17, 2008
farmers
philrice.gov.ph
Cell phones and text messaging can help Philippine rice farmers solve problems fast.
This week in Manila, I spoke at the annual media summit of AMIC, a Singapore-based media research think tank. This is part of a series of events held in rotation across Asia.

The Philippines is the SMS text messaging capital of the world in terms of density and intensity of usage. Some people here are getting very creative with using text messaging. Charisma Love Gado of the Philippine Rice Research Insititute (PhilRice) gave an interesting presentation on how farmers use mobile phone technology -- especially SMS -- to access information and tap experts.

RELATED RESOURCES
Read more E-Media Tidbits.

Get E-Media Tidbits as an RSS feed:
* Copy this link and add it to your feed reader

Subscribe to receive E-Media Tidbits by e-mail:
*Sent Monday-Friday, 5 p.m.

Farmers can text the Farmers' Call Centre for news and advice. They also can post questions ranging from pesticides to modern farming technologies and practices. Answers to common questions can be immediately retrieved from archives, while more technical queries are forwarded to the agency's scientists and experts. Farmers who have multimedia or camera phones can also take photos of sick plants to speed up the diagnosis process.

Tools:
Comment, e-mail, Permalink, Share
Recent Comments:
Philippine farmers texting? Si! Philippine farmers now are hi-tech. Even in their fields, you... More.
Read All Comments (1 comments)
Username
Password
New User? Signup Now
Poynter Careers
More media jobs