By Shreya Singh for Neem Tree Agro Solutions

India has an agrarian economy, with agriculture employing over 60% of the workforce (According to a report by FAO,2021). However, the number of farmers that use smartphones in real time is significantly lower but the numbers are growing at a fast pace due to major digitization of India’s economy. So, when it came to deciding whether to utilize emails or phone numbers for the login process for our application Neem Tree- KISAN, we were undecided.

After a lot of research and field visits, we discovered that using phone numbers instead of emails for login is practical. The reason being, when a farmer in a village buys a smartphone, the mobile store owners usually set up the email because the farmers need a properly configured phone. Farmers have no idea how to use emails or even what emails are, let alone how to remember their id and password. Another pertinent issue is the network fluctuations in Rural India due to lack of cell towers, but big time efforts are being made to resolve this issue as our Honorable Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned in the Union Budget 2022-23 about introducing 5G connectivity in India.

According to a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of rural Internet subscribers per 100 people was 37.74 in 2021, which is much lower than the number of urban Internet subscribers but according to a report by Praxis, the number of Internet users in rural India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% by 2025. On the other hand, the total number of rural telecom subscribers in India is roughly 534.54 million and growing, indicating that phone numbers are a big hit in a developing country like India, which prompted us to move forward with our choice. Other advantages include easy-to-remember phone numbers and immediate OTP through messages.

A data point is essential for building a network, and we at Neem Tree Agro Solutions strongly believe in customer retention and over time we’ve realized that farmers are more comfortable in talking to us over a call. So, in order to do that and stay in touch with our customers, phone numbers were the most viable option. As a result, this decision met all of our requirements while also simplifying the app’s use for farmers.

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