Cellular Extension Service Drives Fifty Percent Reduction in Rice Yield Inefficiency in Bangladesh

Recent research indicates that an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based agricultural intervention, particularly an agricultural call centre initiative, led to a 50 per cent reduction in plot-level inefficiency for Bangladeshi rice farmers. This finding comes from research conducted by professors Aranya Chakraborty and Rahul Rao of the Amrut Mody School of Management at Ahmedabad University.

The economics literature considers agricultural production inefficiencies a primary driver of per capita income disparities between developed and developing nations. Factors such as the slow adoption of new technologies and the continued use of traditional farming methods are often cited as significant contributing factors to the inefficiency. It has been documented that lack of access to information can explain why farmers may be hesitant to adopt modern techniques or face challenges in their implementation. The limited reach and high operational costs of in-person agricultural extension services further aggravate this situation.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Professor Digvijay Singh Negi from Ashoka University, examines the role of an agricultural call centre intervention in reducing the agrarian inefficiency of rural Bangladesh, where rice is a staple crop and a foundation of the rural economy. Although Bangladesh’s geography supports rice cultivation, its productivity remains relatively low compared to other major rice-producing countries. This, combined with widespread small-scale farming, poses a risk to the food and livelihood security of the rural population. To address these challenges, the government launched a phone services-based extension programme, enabling farmers to consult agricultural experts via mobile phones at any stage of crop production. This ICT-based solution aimed to provide timely, personalised, and need-based guidance.

The study leverages variation in access to phone services and the timing of the intervention to assess its impact. Results showed a 50 per cent reduction in the inefficiency of rice production in villages with phone access, driven by the plots reliant on rainfed water supply. No statistically significant impact was found on plots using high-yielding inputs such as tractors. Notably, these findings were found to be driven by the changes the use of inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, and family labour.

The study also examines the influence of social networks defined by geographic proximity. For remote households within serviced villages, inefficiency was found to decrease more substantially after the intervention, along with an increase in actual yields. Additionally, the researchers document significant spillovers via geographic network ties.

The paper makes three key contributions to the literature. First, it provides evidence of the impact of a large-scale, government-led mobile phone-based agricultural intervention in Bangladesh, where linguistic homogeneity may influence the relative effectiveness of such interventions.

Second, to account for the geographical heterogeneity when evaluating agricultural outcomes, the authors introduce a novel inefficiency measure based on the difference between actual and potential yield, adjusted for geography and inputs, that offers more accurate insights than actual yield.

Finally, the paper contributes to research on the roles of remoteness and social networks in agricultural productivity. It finds that ICT interventions can overcome the disadvantages of geographic isolation by improving access to information while benefiting from community-level information diffusion through local social networks.