A Hindi voice assistant built for farmers has crossed one million users, its maker Boli Labs said on Wednesday, eighteen months after the Bengaluru startup launched the free app.
Farmers press one button and ask a question the way they would ask a neighbour: what tomatoes are fetching at the nearest mandi, why leaves on a chilli plant are curling, or whether it will rain before the weekend. The app answers aloud in Hindi, in a few sentences.
"Most of our users have never typed a search in their lives," said co-founder Priya Raghavan. "But everyone can talk. We designed the whole product around that one fact."
How it works
- Speech in, speech out. The app understands several Hindi accents and common farm words in local dialects.
- Local data. Prices come from the nearest regulated markets; weather comes from public forecasts for the farmer's block.
- Checked advice. Answers about pesticides and diseases come from a library reviewed by a team of agronomists, and the app tells farmers when to visit a local agriculture officer instead.
The numbers
The company says it now answers about 40,000 questions a day, two-thirds of them about prices and weather. It raised ₹32 crore from investors earlier this year and employs 60 people, a third of them in the field.
Independent researchers say such tools can help, but warn against over-reliance. "A voice app is a good first step, not a replacement for an extension worker who can see the field," said Dr Mohan Kale, who studies rural technology at an agricultural university.
Boli Labs plans to add Marathi and Bhojpuri next year and a feature that lets farmers send a photo of a damaged leaf along with their question.
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