Interview: Total Access Communication (dtac)

Innovative solutions designed for Thai farmers

Praphan Chivaphongse, Vice-President, Innovation Department of Total Access Communication (dtac)

Thai farmers are currently facing more challenges such as changes in landscape, climate, consumer behaviour and supply chains. They need valid information in decision-making. Information technology from the SMS mobile application to more advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data and Machine Learning, therefore, plays a vital role in the development of the agricultural sector.

In this issue, UPDATE interviews Mr. Praphan Chivaphongse, Vice-President, Innovation Department of Total Access Communication (dtac), on the company’s digital technology and innovation that provide solutions, both for small holder farmers and young farmers. Dtac started in 2008 with a call centre and SMS services for a “smart farmer” project in co-operation with the Department of Agricultural Extension and the Ruamduaychuaykan Sam Nuk Rak Ban Kerd Foundation. Recently dtac in partnership with Yara, a Norwegian Fertiliser company, developed a new mobile application, “Kaset Go”. This app combines Yara’s global crop nutrition and digital farming capabilities with dtac’s leading digital connectivity technologies in order to provide farmers with more comprehensive solutions.

What is dtac’s role in supporting innovative agriculture as part of Thailand’s agriculture development plan/Bio-, Circular, Green Economic model?

We are ready to support the government’s plan by providing technology for agriculture through our 700- MHZ mobile network and agricultural solution app that will extend farmers’ access to key knowledge, technology and innovation.

Please share with us dtac’s success stories of the smart farmer projects in Thailand

Our very first smart farming project, “Smart Farmer”, in co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE) and the Ruamduaychuaykan Sam Nuk Rak Ban Kerd Foundation, was aimed at educating farmers in various fields such as rice, cash crops, livestock and aquaculture, and was part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. After its launch in 2008, we formed a call centre and provided SMS services free-of-charge that contained useful information on agriculture to about 200,000 SMS subscribers.

In 2013, the SMS service was replaced by a mobile application providing farmers with useful information on market prices, crops or even rice mortgages. About 2,000 video clips in the app were accessible to support the farmers in generating more income. Since 2008 we also had awarded ten farmers every year who had successfully applied technology or innovation, from about 300 farmers nationwide with the aim of giving them moral support and promoting them as role models to inspire other farmers.

As most of young farmers are familiar with social media such as Facebook and Line, or searching information via google, dtac co-operated with DOAE in 2016 in training smart farmers in online marketing, payment and logistics, among other useful topics. We successfully trained approximately 30,000 farmers and many of them found that their income increased by around 60%-70%. For example, a coconut farmer in Hat Yai was trained how to do business on Facebook. He later created his own brand with a special packaging promoted and marketed through Facebook, and finally got an offer from a local department store to market his coconut products. Previously, he had just sold his commodity to middlemen.

In 2017, dtac also joined hands with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) in implementing precision farming projects in 35 farms selected by DAE. NECTEC invented the sensor system using IoT technology via dtac’s Wi-Fi router and cloud service mobile application. The project empowered farmers with information technology that provides real-time weather and pricing information via their smartphone application. Farmers can access agricultural data available 24 hours and manage their farms with their smart phones such as watering plants.

Farmers who practiced the precision farming method seriously were able to reduce their costs and increase productivity. For example, a melon farmer increased his productivity from 200 melons to 300 melons through this method. However, farmers need to record everything in detail as the system calculates from a huge database. Therefore, precision farming is more likely to be suitable for new-generation or young smart farmers who can select the proper technology for their own benefit.

What other challenges exist for Thailand’s smart farming from dtac’s point of view?

According to Thailand’s Department of Agricultural Extension, in 2018 there were about 13 million people in the agricultural sector, out of 39 million people in the total labour force. However, farmers contribute only 10% to Thailand’s GDP, while the industrial sector and service sector contribute 45% equally.

We can divide farmers into three groups. First, conventional farmers accounting for 10 million people who rely on their own local wisdom and traditional skills. This group have hardly adopted modern technology. The second group comprises professional farmers, totaling about 1 million, who are knowledgeable and willing to utilize new technology in order to create greater value and productivity. Third, young smart farmers who are 18-45 years old, totaling about 300,000 people who know in detail about IoT or cloud technology. As the majority of farmers in Thailand are in the first group that lacks knowledge or access to essential knowledge, one of their key problems is that they are excluded from the value chain and their yields are low in contrast to their high costs. Our challenge is how to reach such farmers who are distributed all over Thailand.

What is the need to develop the Kaset Go application and who are the partners in addition to Yara?

At dtac we believe that technology can be an agent of change for Thailand’s agricultural sector, and that partnership is the key to realising that dream. We met with Yara, which has been supporting the agricultural sector worldwide since 1904. The company has a history of almost five decades in Thailand, and it has a digital hub supporting agricultural development through the sharing of knowledge, and delivering quality products and solutions. Together with a penetration rate of mobile phone usage in Thailand now of 99%, dtac believes that the coverage of farmers can be further expanded and we have transformed our CSR-based smart farming into more commercially-based project with this app.

In the process of developing Kaset Go, we re-surveyed farmers. We found that the surveyed farmers, especially smallholder farmers, were still lacking modern knowledge, access to markets and opportunities to generate higher income. Since 90% of farmers need assistance from agricultural experts, our digital solutions can be the answer. We would like to be the centre of knowledge where farmers can find all the information they need. We also aim to be a one-stop service that meets the needs of farmers as much as possible.

What are the main features of the Kaset Go app and its uniqueness?

The Kaset Go app provides solutions for the Thailand’s agricultural segment. We place importance on content, and the strength of our app is the Q&A in the community. So far, we have about 16 experts, comprising retired experts, volunteers and agricultural research officers from DOAE, officers from NECTEC and experts from Yara, who can respond to all queries from farmers. Our app collects and sorts all Q&A once they are verified by these experts, which serves as a large database that farmers can re-access when needed. We also have a team that specialises in digesting complicated research data and transforming it into easy-to-understand formats such as infographics. Kaset Go can be downloaded into all mobile devices regardless of operators that are not dtac. Since its soft launch in August 2020, Kaset Go has recorded more than 300,000 downloads and now has almost 200,000 users.

As the number of downloads and users is rising exponentially, dtac and Yara Thailand are already planning Kaset Go’s next phase of development, which will include information on 44 additionally crops and key new features such as weather warnings, disease alerts and market price benchmarking. To make it truly a farmers’ companion, dtac also plans to extend the services of the app to include other value-added services such as farm equipment for rent, insurance and finance. We are also open to new partners.

Interview by Chadaphan Maliphan, GTCC Publications and Communications Manager