Reuters Market Light (RML) and Idea Cellular have joined forces to roll out a new service named as ‘Krishi Voucher’, which is targeted at rustic subscribers.

Developed by RML, Krishi Voucher is an agricultural information service, which provides information on crops, market prices, weather updates and other vital information on agriculture through its SMS service.

During the launch, Managing Director of RML, Mr. Amit Mehra said, “We launched RML in 2007 in India as a business dedicated to address the pain points of farmers. In the process rural distribution and marketing remained a challenge. The IDEA-RML Krishi Voucher, among other advantages, will directly help address this challenge.”

The service is already activated in Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. With this tie-up, farmers across 25, 000 villages in Maharashtra will access this service. The company has sold out more than 1, 20,000 service packages to farmers in three states.

While talking to media, Chief Corporate Affairs Officers, Idea Cellular, Mr. Rajat Mukarji said, “Today, two out of every three new subscribers come from rural India. Our deep-rooted network and strong customer connect in rural India makes us as the preferred network to offer value added services to rural consumers. Maharashtra, as the oldest and largest circle of IDEA, with the deepest penetration in rural parts, and a subscriber base of over 8 million becomes a good starting point for the launch of the Krishi Voucher.”