Telenor to Provide Info Services to Farmers in Punjab

Telenor Pakistan, in partnership with the Livestock and Dairy Development Department Punjab, will be providing livestock information to farmers in the province.
Through this collaboration, farmers will be able to receive regular information about livestock best practices through mobile phones via SMS, training videos and other IVR services.
Secretary Livestock & Dairy Development Department Punjab Hamed Yaqoob and Vice President Financial Services, Telenor Pakistan Roar Bjaerum signed the MoU at the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore,in the presence of Livestock & Dairy Development Minister Ahmad Ali Aulakh and Vice Chancellor UVAS Dr. Talat Naseer Pasha.
Speaking about the project, the Punjab Livestock & Dairy Development Minister Ahmad Ali Aulakh said, “This project aims to address the need of relevant information in the livestock sector, thus enabling small farmers, living in rural areas to make well informed decisions about livestock planning, trading and rearing.”
Roar Bjaerum, in his comments, highlighted the importance of building communication channels with the Livestock sector. He said, “We consider this MoU an important step towards building channels of communication with the Livestock sector which contributes significantly to the national GDP. Now farmers will be able to receive timely information about livestock rearing and trading through their mobile phones among other channels.At a later stage we will also be introducing mobile branchless banking solutions for farmers that will help them carry out transactions right on their mobile phones through Easypaisa.”
Earlier Secretary Livestock & Dairy Development Department Punjab Hamed Yaqoob delivered the welcome keynote. Introducing the project, he said, “The aim is to bring timely and relevant livestock updates to farmers- especially small farmers – enabling them to raise hardy and healthy livestock.A pilot project will initially be run in Bahawalpur district.