19 Feb 2020, Bangkok – dtac and Yara in Thailand are joining efforts to bring together agricultural knowledge and digital connectivity to deliver unparalleled access to agriculture information and resources to empower smallholder farming communities.
This is an exciting first step for both organizations, to leverage their strengths and leading industry positions in Thailand to offer a unique value proposition to millions of smallholder farmers.
The agriculture sector in Thailand is at a pivotal point in its digital transformation with the Thailand 4.0 strategy driving this shift through strategic and enabling government policies that support the advancement of farms with modern technologies, precision agriculture tools, and data-driven smart farming solutions. The collaboration between dtac and Yara has the potential to accelerate agriculture development into the new digital age through a combination of Yara’s global crop nutrition and digital farming capabilities with dtac’s leading digital connectivity technologies to make a real impact on smallholder farmers productivity and livelihoods.
“Telecommunications is a key enabler for innovation in a digital economy, with the emergence of new connectivity technologies such as 5G, IoT and AI, we see massive opportunities to drive transformation across major industry sectors. Agriculture as a key pillar of the Thai economy is particularly close to our hearts, we have over the past 10 years empowered farmers with mobile technology and digital services through our Smart Farmer program. We see a lot of synergies in our strategic collaboration with Yara as it speaks to our commitment and vision as a company – to connect you with what matters most and to empower societies. Together, we look forward to delivering sustainable impact within the agriculture sector,” said Sharad Mehrotra, dtac CEO.
"Yara’s history in Thailand spans over almost five decades of supporting agricultural development through sharing of knowledge and delivering quality products and solutions. In Yara we work directly with farmers and our agronomists meet more than 60,000 farmers every year. We believe that digital technologies can expand our reach and deepen the engagement with each individual farmer. Therefore we are excited about the strategic collaboration with dtac. Together we can contribute to empower smallholder societies through digital solutions, bringing agronomic solutions and knowledge of balanced crop nutrition which help increase productivity, profitability and sustainability for farmers in Thailand,” said Terje Knutsen, EVP Sales & Marketing at Yara.
By working together, dtac and Yara believe that they can contribute towards the future of farming in Thailand, contributing to a growing ecosystem of knowledge and solutions that drive productivity improvements and unlock economic opportunities for farmers.
Haakon Bruaset Kjol, Head of Strategy and Transformation Group at Total Access Communications Plc or dtac together with Terje Knutsen, EVP Sales & Marketing at Yara International ASA signed a collaboration agreement on digital agriculture.
About dtac
dtac is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and we are focusing on goal #10 Reduced Inequalities. This is reflected in our business strategy and our purpose to ‘empower societies’. We aim to help unlock the benefits of the digital revolution and demonstrate how more can be achieved with connectivity. Our internet services have opened up possibilities to interact, learn, participate and grow both socially and economically. farmers are better informed on how to increase their output. Founded in 1989, dtac offers mobile services to its customers through contract and prepaid tariff plans in Thailand with a total number of 20.6 million subscribers. dtac is in strategic partnership with Telenor Group, which is a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics and Asia with 186 million customers and annual sales of around USD 12 billion (2019). www.dtac.co.th
About Yara
Yara grows knowledge to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet, to fulfill our vision of a collaborative society, a world without hunger and a planet respected. To meet these commitments, we have taken the lead in developing digital farming tools for precision farming and work closely with partners throughout the whole food value chain to develop more climate-friendly crop nutrition solutions. In addition, we are committed to working towards sustainable mineral fertilizer production. We foster an open culture of diversity and inclusion that promotes the safety and integrity of our employees, contractors, business partners, and society at large. Founded in 1905 to solve the emerging famine in Europe, Yara has a worldwide presence with about 17,000 employees and operations in over 60 countries. In 2019, Yara reported revenues of USD 12.9 billion. www.yara.com