8villages now works with telcos to offer free tips to farmers in Indonesia

8villages is one of those unique startups coming out of Indonesia. It’s a hub to connect farmers and give them information about agricultural topics like crop prices, weather forecasts, and farming tips. The startup announced yesterday that it’s working with local telco XL Axiata and Gajah Mada University’s faculty of agriculture to offer Indonesian farmers free access to that information via SMS.

The program is called Rumah Petani Pintar (meaning “House of Smart Farmers”). Farmers can register for free to the program by texting in “IKUTI (space) RPP” to the number 2000. Once registered, farmers will receive daily tips and tricks, via SMS or a website, to enable them to make the most out of their land, such as achieving higher rice yields. “The information comes straight from UGM and is curated by 8villages,” says Sanny Gaddafi, 8villages co-founder. “As a farmer, you also have an opportunity to ask questions in real-time [to instructors] which can help you fight pests, especially in uncertain and new climate conditions.”

The program aims to reach 6,000 farmers, mostly located in the Yogyakarta and Central Java areas. Going forward, Gaddafi says that they are considering a small fee to farmers want to use additional services.

8villages has seen some changes in the past eight months since it received its last funding round in December. Internally, Mathieu Le Bras has left the CEO position and relocated to Europe for family reasons. He is replaced by Ziv Ragowsky, whom Gaddafi describes as “the first friend and fool to invest in the company.”

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The team has also expanded its operations to aquafarming and micro education projects, with agriculture still as its main core. 8villages also now operates in Myanmar by creating a joint venture partnership with “the largest agricultural distributor”, according to Gaddafi, to create a presence there. Working with a telco, 8villages will launch an app later this month to reach out to farmers in Myanmar, as opposed to the SMS-based platform it has in Indonesia.

8villages has over 10,000 registered users at present. The team is planning to start raising series A funding at the beginning of next year.

8villages is one of those rare startups that’s reaching out to the people living in rural areas. Nokia has a rival service dubbed Nokia Life Tools.