In Jessore, Bangladesh, 25-year-old Asma Begum is a little worried about the state of her cabbages. "The moths attack them, eating into the core of the vegetable and destroying the crop. They leave a stinking smell," she says.
For rural women like Asma vegetable patches provide a vital source of nutrition and income, and a bit of agricultural know-how can mean the difference between a failed and a healthy crop. Fortunately, help is at hand – in the form of Nargis and Alimun, the local “laptop ladies”.
Every week, as part of a DFID backed scheme, the pair drop by to offer advice about a range of issues. Asma knows that they have plenty of information about crop diseases, including tips on how to fight them.
“We go from village to village and usually cover 10 to 15 households every day,” says Nargis. Currently they serve around 1,000 households, answering the questions mainly of impoverished women.
The answers to their queries can usually be found in the laptops' sizeable information banks. In addition to advice on everyday health issues and agriculture, the laptops cover topics such as education, law, disaster management and rural employment.