Village Link, a leading digital service company in Myanmar, officially introduces Htwet Toe, an innovative agri-mobile application for the farmers of Myanmar that aims to build a community between the farmers and agricultural professionals on a single platform, the company said in a statement. The company also announces the support of the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) program, which will assist to further develop the application.
Myanmar’s agriculture sector is the backbone of the nation’s economy. It contributes to 38 percent of GDP and employs over 60 percent of the labor force. Compare to other ASEAN nations, Myanmar has more arable land and a wider variety of growing conditions. But due to agricultural challenges as well as lack of technology and information, Myanmar’s farmers have among the lowest agricultural productivity and income in the region.[1] Htwet Toe brings a unique solution for Myanmar farmers to get the information about their land and agricultural advice from professionals through just a few keystrokes on their smartphone.
U Thadoe Hein, Founder and Group CEO of Myanma AWBA Group, one of the shareholders in Village Link, said: “It is our honor to introduce the Htwet Toe application to the farmers in Myanmar. Almost 90 percent of the population currently have access to mobile phones, including 32 million farmers.[2] Since the surge of mobile penetration a few years ago, we have wanted to develop an agro-based data and networking platform for our farmers and agricultural professionals that would help farmers grow, produce better and healthier crops, and achieve more yield from their land. Giving more support and customized agriculture information directly into farmers’ hands – that is the heart and soul of Htwet Toe, which essentially means ‘higher yield’.”
Htwet Toe provides farmers with agricultural information based on the latest research, but also seeks to build a community between farmers and agricultural professionals so that farmers can get the data-driven, timely advice and information they need to utilize their land better. The application also allows smallholder farmers to connect with suppliers and buyers, so that they can access the most lucrative markets, the best agriculture inputs, and have key information they need to make better buying and selling decisions.
For the next phase of the Htwet Toe application, Village Link has been awarded a grant from the Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW) program. Funded by the Dutch government, G4AW is a program executed by Netherlands Space Office and is dedicated to increasing the efficiency of water use and encouraging sustainable food production in developing countries.
 “Myanmar has the largest land area in the mainland Southeast Asia with diverse agro-ecological zones. Despite having favorable and diverse production conditions, Myanmar’s agricultural sector is significantly under-developed compared to its neighbors. Our program, G4AW Facility, is committed to helping countries such as Myanmar to utilize their resources better. We are pleased to be supporting Village Link in their next phase of developments to put the future of agriculture in the hands of Myanmar farmers,” said Mr. Ruud Grim, Senior Advisor at Netherlands Space Office.
U Thadoe Hein echoed the statement and said: “We are very fortunate to have the strong support of the Dutch government, who have awarded us a grant to further develop the functionalities of the Htwet Toe app. We plan to incorporate more cutting-edge technology to the app features to upgrade our farmers’ lifestyle.”
The beta version of the application has been available since December 2017.