A free app on farmer San San Hla’s smartphone is her new weapon in the war against the dreaded stem borer moth that blighted her rice paddy in southern Myanmar for the last two years.
Mobile penetration stood at just seven percent in 2012. By the end of 2017, smartphone penetration had rocketed to 80 percent. A nascent tech hub followed and outside of agriculture, apps were created for everything from healthcare to Myanmar’s parliament. Farmers, many among the country’s poorest, today find themselves with a mobile computer in their hands — a game-changer for the entrepreneurs behind ‘Green Way,’ who launched their app in 2016 and now employ 18 full-time staff. “‘Green way’ is my dream to link farmers and experts,” Yin Yin Phyu told AFP. “The farmers can get help whenever they need.” Some 70,000 farmers have already downloaded the app although she hears far more are accessing it through phone-to-phone sharing.
Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Startup_and_IT/30339171