Reuters Market Light (RML) at the of the tunnel

After having clocked 21 hours of travel time over a cumulative distance of 623 KMs through 3 villages In Maharashtra, I was happy to be back to the capital of the state and my home base, Mumbai. I caught a 3 day break and was ready to plan the next leg of my trip that would cover Bangalore and Chennai in the south of India. Before I got on the 18 hour bus ride from Mumbai to Bangalore (no train tickets for this busy route unless you book 90 days in advance), with guidance from Harsh Vivek, Associate Operations Officer, IFC South Asia, I had managed to set up a discussion over coffee with Premprakash Saboo, the CFO of Reuters Market Light (RML).

Here are some observations from my meeting with Prem.

RML started off from an MBA project paper which gained substantial interest for Thomson Reuters to probe further into developing a prototype in Maharashtra. Thomson Reuters, a global leader in providing financial market data took the bold step of entering an unexplored and untapped market of providing intelligent, actionable and customized farming data via SMS. Since its launch in October 2007 RML has now become a pioneer in this market.

In conversation with Prempalash Saboo, CFO RML

An accountant by qualification, Mr. Saboo made his way through blue chips like Pepsico and Hewlett Packard to find his way to RML as the Chief Financial Officer. The drive and passion to be involved in a high impact business like RML prompted Prem to become part of a relatively new product and market. The rest is history.

Launched in Maharashtra in October 2007 as a business by Sharad Pawar, Union Minister of Agriculture, Government of India, RML has gone from serving few thousand farmers in Maharashtra to 1 million farmers in over 13 states covering 20,000 villages and 250 crops. These numbers continue to increase at an enormous pace.

The core business

RML is the first highly personalized, professional information service for farmers. The decision-enabling content is delivered:

• As per the individual preferences of crops, markets, and location of each farmer
• Through SMS
• In his local language
• Aligned tightly with his daily work schedule
• In a mix of relevant local and international content
• As per the stage of his individual crop cycle
• In a highly simple user-experience for the farmer
• Across all handsets and telecom operators
• Can be easily purchased at an affordable price over the counter in a variety of rural outlets

The cost

RML has been very sensitive to the needs of the farmer and has priced the service at Rs.60 per month which works out to Rs.2 per day and can be compared to the cost of a daily newspaper or a cup of tea.

Impact

It took 4 years for RML to reach 1 million farmers and expand its reach and the impact it has had on the livelihood of farmers subscribed to this service is unbelievable.

Jaswinder Singh, Punjab

I cultivate potatoes and Basmati in my fields and use RML service. After harvesting my potato crop, a local trader wanted to purchase my potatoes at the rate of Rs. 365 per bag. But since I knew the market rates of potatoes sent by RML on my mobile, I sold them at the rate of Rs. 427 per bag. With this I got good rate for 2,500 bags of my potatoes and made a got a profit of Rs. 1,55,000

Ramchandra-Bhutekar, Maharashtra

I wanted to sell my maize produce when the market rate was Rs. 800. RML SMS informed me about the bird flu incidence in West Bengal. Based on this I sold my produce immediately and made a profit of nearly Rs.30,000

Raj Kishore Choudhary, Madhya Pradesh

I cannot resist myself visiting this office as RML messages, more particularly News and Weather Updates helped me earn profit to the tune of Rs.100,000. RML has contributed to my social esteem immensely as I am now considered to be a leader of small group of progressive farmers in my village. They come to me for suggestions and advice on agriculture—subsidies by the government, availability of fertilizers, market intelligence, weather forecast, etc. while earlier I was a laughing stock in the village for referring to RML SMSes.

Fanaji Solanki, Gujarat

After starting RML service, I’ve received information on Potato and Mustard seed. I’ve particularly benefited a lot from the crop advisory sent in March for Potato. I received the message on how to control wilt in potato and through that message I saved my crop from wilt. I’m thankful to RML for saving my crop.

Scale

RML has been a pioneer by creating not only a new product but also changing the status quo in farming to create a new market of providing actionable, relevant, reliable and high impact information to farmers at their fingertips at prices comparable to daily cost of a cup of tea or a newspaper. If you do a quick calculation you find that at current subscriber base of 1million farmers and a monthly subscription fee of Rs 60. You get an annual turnover of $14.4 million ($1 = Rs.50).

There are 120 million farmers in India which means the current turnover reflects 0.83% of the total available market. Given this market size RML has the potential of reaching annual sales of $1.73 billion, which is impressive given that there are other untapped market opportunities like providing market information directly to wholesalers, retailers and consumers. 

RML has launched innovative products like RML Direct Card, much like a prepaid scratch card, which enables the subscriber to easily register and start using the service within hours. RML has also tied up with State Bank of India (the largest bank in the nation) and Airtel (India’s largest telecom service operator).

RML has been widely featured in leading media including the Economist, BBC, and Wall Street Journal and is used as a case study in several leading academic institutes including London Business School, Cambridge University and Harvard Business Review.

RML has the potential to become synonymous with all things farming in the years to come, provided it can deliver all it promises and so far it has. For a nation which still has 70% of its population in villages there is finally a bright light at the end of the tunnel and we have Reuters Market Light to thank for.