To understand the existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture scenario; to analyze agricultural advisory information such as cultivation practices/marketing/Government programmes/inputs availability/ others etc; to identify ICT based training for farmers; to review the challenges in implementing ICT initiatives; to analyze issues related to sustainability of ICT efforts in agriculture.
Título original
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) INITIATIVES IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE
To understand the existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture scenario; to analyze agricultural advisory information such as cultivation practices/marketing/Government programmes/inputs availability/ others etc; to identify ICT based training for farmers; to review the challenges in implementing ICT initiatives; to analyze issues related to sustainability of ICT efforts in agriculture.
To understand the existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture scenario; to analyze agricultural advisory information such as cultivation practices/marketing/Government programmes/inputs availability/ others etc; to identify ICT based training for farmers; to review the challenges in implementing ICT initiatives; to analyze issues related to sustainability of ICT efforts in agriculture.
(As part of partial fulfillment of M. Sc. (ICT-ARD) Program, Session 2009- 2011) Worked at
IITMS Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI), Madras
Guided by Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT,Madras And Dr. Girja Sharan, Professor, M. Sc. (ICT-ARD) Program, DA-IICT, Gandhinagar
Submitted by Anil Kumar Sahu (ID: 200913009)
May 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Sl. No. CONTENTS PAGE No. Acknowledgement 5 Executive Summary 6 1 Introduction 8 2 Objectives 8 3 Research Methodology 8 4 Results and Discussion 9 4.1 Understanding the status of existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture 9 4.1.1 Mobile Phone/Telephone 12 (a) mKRISHI 12 (b) Kisan Call Centres 15 4.1.2 SMS based 16 (a) Reuters Market Light 16 (b) Nokia Life Tool 18 4.1.3 Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) 19 (a) LifeLine India 19 (b) IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) 21 4.1.4 Radio Dial-up and Broadcasts 22 Avaaj Otalo 22 4.1.5 All India Radio (AIR) and Television (TV) 24 Agromet Advisory Services 24 4.1.6 Community FM Radio 26 TNAU Community FM/e-Radio 26 4.1.7 Video-conferencing 27 n-Logue 27 4.1.8 Web 28 (a) Agriculture Knowledge Management in India (AKMINDIA) 28 (b) aAQUA 30 4.1.9 Multimedia 32 (a) Digital Green 32 3
(b) Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCD) 34 4.1.10 Online Video Channel 35 Kissan Information Dissemination and Networking, Kerala (KISSAN-KERALA) 35 4.1.11 Print Media 37 Agriwatch 37 4.1.12 Phone based Information Portal 39 VoiKiosk 39 4.1.13 Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) 41 i-Shakti 41 4.2 Agricultural Advisory Information Systems 42 4.3 ICT based training for farmers 43 4.3.1 Multimedia based ICT Training for Farmers 43 4.3.2 Web based ICT Training for Farmers 45 4.3.3 Multi ICT based Training for Farmers 46 4.3.4 Radio Dial-up and Broadcast based ICT Training for Farmers 46 4.4 Challenges in Implementing ICT based Agri-advisory Systems 46 4.4.1 Challenges in Web based Agri-advisory Systems 46 4.4.2 Challenges in Mobile Phone and Print Media based Agri- advisory Systems 52 4.4.3 Challenges in ICT based Training for Farmers 54 4.4.4 Challenges in Voice based Agri-advisory Systems 54 4.4.5 Challenges in Multi ICT Agri-advisory Systems 55 4.5 Issues Related to Sustainability of ICT Efforts in Agriculture 56 5 Conclusions 57 6 References 57 Annexure 72 4
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO. NAME OF FIGURES PAGE NO. 1 Number of ICT projects implemented by various states in India 9 2 Number of ICT tools/media used for information delivery system 10 3 Number of ICT projects by various organizations 10 4 Number of ICT projects launched in various time periods 11 5 Types of services by ICT projects 11 6 Types of services by government (a) as well as private (b) based ICT organizations 12 7 Number of ICT projects providing various kinds of information 42
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO. NAME OF TABLES PAGE NO. 1 Project wise ICT based training for farmers 43 2 State wise name and number of ICT projects 72 3 Name and number of ICT projects with their mode of information 73 4 Number of ICT projects along with ICT tools/media and its organizations name 74 5 Review of ICT initiatives in Indian agriculture 75
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank all RTBI team for their kind support who made this winter internship project report possible:-
Dr. Ashok Junjhunwala, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Madras, for giving me a great opportunity to work with RTBI as an intern. His kind help and support throughout the project made me a complete understanding of ICTs initiatives for Indian agriculture. His valuable guidance, suggestions and comments helped me in effective making of this project report. Ms. Suma Prashant for regularly evaluating my progress work and guided me in effective making of project report. She always helped me when I faced difficulties. Dr. M. Ganesan who helped me at each moment of four months internship period and he instructed, taught and guided me at each and every stage of the project. He regularly advised me some useful corrections after reading and evaluating my report. He continuously made me understanding in research findings, analysis and finally report documentation preparation.
I would also like to extend our sincere thanks to DA-IICT faculties for giving insight during my project:-
Dr. Girja Sharan, Professor, DA-IICT for his valuable comments and suggestions during my project. Being my colleges project guide, he also helped me in finding conclusion by making mirror copy of objectives of my project. Dr. Ranendu Ghosh, Professor, DA-IICT for his regular support and motivation to me and he always rectified by doubt during my project. He also helped a lot in making effective presentation slides by putting very relevant information.
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Executive Summary
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in communicating scientific and sustainable farming practices to the farming community in time. In order to analyze and synthesize the research findings on the impact of ICT on the farmers, it was determined to collect and review the literature on the existing published results from various sources. The literature review has been designed with the following objectives; to understand the existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture scenario; to analyze agricultural advisory information such as cultivation practices/marketing/Government programmes/inputs availability/ others etc; to identify ICT based training for farmers; to review the challenges in implementing ICT initiatives; to analyze issues related to sustainability of ICT efforts in agriculture. Each objective was thoroughly discussed from the result of the paper published.
The literature review process was targeted particularly on the impact of ICTs in Indian agriculture. The researcher have collected around 334 papers of which about150 papers were selected and reviewed in depth suitable research articles and reports focused on ICT in agriculture. The literature search was from internet source as well as electronic journals and websites. At the end, the collected literatures were arranged, explained and summarized according to objective designed.
From the literature study it was found that there were 64 ICTs initiatives being implemented in India. Following are the ICT tools/media with number of projects; mobile phone/telephone based (16); SMS based (10); Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) based (11); radio dial-up and broadcasts (1); AIR Radio based (1); community FM radio based (3); video-conferencing (4); web based (51); multimedia based (19); television based (2); online video channel based (1); print media based (3); phone base information portal (1) and PDA based (1). The researcher summarized the best one or in some case two ICT projects from each category which has mentioned above. The best ICT projects have been selected on the basis of current studies, award winning and latest innovation. Interestingly, it was observed most of the ICT projects being implemented in Tamil Nadu (17) followed by Andhra Pradesh (14), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (12), Uttar Pradesh (12), Madhya Pradesh (11), 7
Punjab (11), Haryana (11), Kerala (10). These projects have come up with the effort of private companies, government, cooperatives, academic institutions and NGOs.
With regard to agricultural information, these projects are giving following information: weather data, market price, agri-inputs, pest and disease management, soil testing, cultivation practices, fertilizer scheduling and recommendations, agri- credits, e-agri-trading, crop insurance, cold storage availability, agriculture contents, irrigation techniques, bio-fertilizers, vermi-compost, agri-news, animal husbandry, crops tips, farm machinery, pre-and post-harvest etc. The generic information is also giving such as microfinance, health, life insurance, education, Govt. schemes, e- Governance etc.
Apart from agricultural advisory, farmers are also being trained by using suitable ICT tools/media such as multimedia, web based systems and radio dial-up and broadcast. There are various socio-technical challenged has been incurred during implementation of the ICT project. The common challenges were frequent power cut, low bandwidth, poor dial-up connection, poor telephone connectivity, illiteracy and hesitation of farmers, lack of familiarity with computer/OS.
In addition to web, multimedia, radio, TV etc. mobile phone is having the number of facilities and options and that would be great scope of innovations. Therefore several ICT projects are now incorporating mobile phone as one of the ICT tools/media. Intervention of GPS, GPRS, IVRS, GIS, Remote Sensing and wireless network technology have created lot of scope to innovate with unique solution for problems existing in Indian agriculture.
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1. Introduction
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in communicating scientific and sustainable farming practices to the farming community in time. In order to analyze and synthesize the research findings on the impact of ICT on the farmers, it was determined to collect and review the literature on the existing published results from various sources. The findings of review of literature study would help the ICT innovators and scientific communities to tailor cost effective technologies according to the local environment and need of the farmers. Hence the present study has been designed with the following objectives:-
2. Objectives
To understand the status of existing ICT efforts in the Indian agriculture To analyze agricultural advisory information To identify ICT based training for farmers To review the challenges in implementing ICT initiatives To analyze issues related to sustainability of ICT efforts in agriculture
3. Research Methodology
The literature review process was targeted particularly on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Indian agriculture. The researcher has collected around 334 papers/reports that were published between 2000 and 2010. About 150 papers have been selected based on the relevant to the objectives designed in this study and reviewed in depth. The literature search was done using Google engine and browsed papers listed in electronic journals and suitable websites. Finally, the literatures were arranged, explained and summarized according to thematic areas based on types of research conducted (qualitative/quantitative, theoretical frameworks, methodologies), location of research (countries, regions, local/national) and types of research questions (venue operation, usage, impact). The review of literature report is focused on research findings on venue operations, usage and its impact. 9
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Understanding the Status of Existing ICT Efforts in the I ndian Agriculture
From the present review of literature study it was found that there were 64 ICT initiatives being implemented in India between 1998 and 2010.
The mentioned ICT tools/media in Figure 2 are mainly focused on information disseminating related to agricultural practices including market price, crop production and weather data. Interestingly, it was observed that most of the ICT projects are being implemented in Tamil Nadu followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states as indicated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Number of ICT projects implemented by various states in India
It was also found that most of the ICT projects have been implemented on web based followed by multimedia, mobile phone, IVRS, SMS and others as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Number of ICT tools/media used for information delivery system
ICT projects have come up with the effort of Government, Private companies, NGOs, Academic Institutions, Cooperative organizations, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), Private & NGO and Public, Private & Academic Institution. Government has launched most of the ICT projects followed by private, NGOs and others as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Number of ICT projects by various organizations
p r o j e c t s Name of ICT tools/media Number of various ICT tools/media 0 10 20 30 24 17 7 5 4 4 2 1 N o .
o f
I C T
p r o j e c t s Organizations Organizations initiated ICT projects 11
There were various ICT projects that have been launched during successive years. From Figure 4, it indicates that most of the ICT projects were launched in 2000 followed by 2003 and 2008. The researcher found that the total of 64 ICT projects for Indian agriculture has been implemented during the period of 1998 and 2011. Some of the ICT project, researcher could not find the launched year of the four ICT projects and marked as NA in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Number of ICT projects launched in various time periods
There are various ICT initiatives which give services to farmers on paid as well as free mode. It was found that out of 64 ICT projects, 64 percent projects are paid mode, 31 percent are free mode, 2 percent are some free and some paid mode and 3 percent projects have no information on the same as shown in Figure 5.
p r o j e c t s Year Year wise ICT projetcs Free 31% NA 3% Paid 64% Some free & some paid 2% Types of services in ICT projects 12
The main ICT initiative has been launched by Government and Private Organizations. Under Government based ICT projects has shown that 58 percent projects give free services whereas Private based ICT project has shown that 89 percent projects give paid services as figured out in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Types of services by government (a) as well as private (b) based ICT organizations
(a) (b) The researcher summarized the best one or in some case two ICT projects from each category of ICT tools/media which has mentioned in Figure 2. The best ICT projects have been selected on the basis of current studies, award winning and latest innovation. The researcher went through the published articles and brought up the case studies on each category of ICT tools/media and described in the following headings:-
The innovation lab at Tata Consultancy Services located in Mumbai has developed a concept called mKRISHI. It involves various research components such as mobile applications, wireless sensor networks, speech recognition and natural language processing areas. This project was first piloted in Maharashtra state in 2009 and consequently expanded to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh states also based on the outcome in the pilot project. mKRISHI is a mobile and sensor network based agro-advisory Free 11% Paid 89% Services of private ICT initiatives Free 58% Paid 42% Services of government ICT initatives 13
system. The mobile phone is equipped with multiple features like sensors, camera, global positioning system (GPS), and microphones which has enabled farmers to interact with agri-experts. The information from all the sensors gets stored in an integrated disease analysis console which can be remotely accessed by an expert who can advise the sender of the query on further course of action. The application has been designed for various Indian languages and successfully made possible for the farmers to access the information at right time. mKRISHI has also been using an internally developed and patented Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) type platform called Packet Interactive Multimedia Response (PIM2R). It uses the inexpensive data channel for transferring rich content. Mobile Agro Advisory System shows how several stakeholders such as farmers, government, research institutes, agro based industries and content providers can be connected for mutual benefit. TCS partners with wireless operators to allow farmers to download the platform on high-end phones, and TCS has set up "mini-mobile sites" that farmers can visit to have the platform installed on low-end phones. It also facilitates web based services for farmers. It has been reported that m-KRISHI now serves about 500 farmers but TCS believes at least 1,000 farmers benefit via the farmers' social networks. The service cost for a farmer lie between Rs. 46 and Rs. 92 a month. In this project, farmers are allowed to send their queries related to agriculture to agri- experts in their local languages through a mobile phone and receive personalized advice or relevant information in the local language. It also provides warnings to farmers about impending pest attacks, take preventive measures, using the ubiquitous mobile phones. In addition to farming advisory, the Wireless Sensing Network (WSN) collects details of the weather and soil parameters such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, soil moisture, soil temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. These parameters are communicated to the server located remotely through a wireless modem. The existing disease forecasting models are used to compute the disease risk due to environmental factors. The application installed on farmers mobile phone can be triggered from a remote location automatically to collect symptoms of the various diseases affecting the crop. It requires the farmer to answer simple questions about the disease symptoms with simple (Yes/No) inputs. 14
The collection of these inputs also leads to the computation of diagnosis severity and effective decision-making by the expert. The mobile phone sensors help farmers in capturing additional information regarding the diseases present in the farm and microphone can be used to record the voice in order to capture the context in which the images were captured. The GPS can record the exact location in the field where the infection has occurred. These sensors are helpful in rigorous analysis of the disease spread. Farmers can now receive information on microclimate, local mandi (market) price, experts advice and other information relevant to them like government policies, financial institutions, crop insurance, fungicide, pesticide, seeds and cold storage availability on a mobile phone. The mKRISHI application enable farmers to send queries, comprising of text, voice and pictures, specific to their land and crop to agricultural experts, using their mobile phones. The mKRISHI ecosystem provides an integrated view of the farmers profile, farming history and the required farm parameters on a console at a remote location to an expert. Voice based querying system gives freedom to the farmers to ask any query in their local (natural) language. After analysis of the available information, the experts advice on the farmers query is provided on the farmers mobile phone. With the help of developed Rural-Net (R-Net), a mobile phone based social networking environment, rural masses can interact with each other by posting and browsing voice microblogs in any language of their choice. The application also provides news feeds in local language and information about cloud coverage, rainfall and temperature in easy to interpret graphical format. Currently R-Net is available in its two variants Gappa Goshti and Gappa Shappa, for Maharashtra and Punjab respectively. The system helps in establishing farmers trust in the experts advice as it is personalized. With the involvement of more farmers sharing the infrastructure, the overhead cost will become manageable. The solution has rich content and media formats, local language interfaces, voice messaging systems that are accessible to semi-literate users. The technical adaptations and the business model of the Agro Advisory System can be scaled to reach a large underserved population. It provides another channel for stakeholders in the agriculture sector to address the base of the 15
pyramid market. Based on the outcome of mKRISHI project, they have planned to scale up for various crops diseases and for different geographies in India. (b) Kisan Call Centres (Sharma & Rao, 2005; IASP, 2011; DAC, 2010; Chanduka, 2007; IBEF, 2004)
Kisan Call Centre (KCC) was launched all over India by the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India in 2004. The main objectives of KCC are to address the need of the farming community making use of increased tele-density and Information Technology, making professional help and information available to farmers at their doorstep, on a toll free telephone number, putting the farmers directly in contact with Agriculture Experts and making authentic field data available for Agriculture Policy decisions by the authorities. It is on-line phone based expert advice system to all Indian farmers by calling toll-free number 1551. Expert advice has carried out by trained Agriculture Graduate (Level I) in the local language. If complex problem exist then call transferred to State Agriculture University Scientist (Level II), State Department Officials (Level III) and other responsible expert on-line. The service is operational in all working days during 6.0 am to 10.0 pm. Farmers also can call after 10.0 pm to till 6.0 am but during this time call can only recorded on Interactive Voice Recording System (IVRS) and expert will give answer within next three days. During 18 months of operation KCC recorded 10 lakh calls of farmers. As on the year of 2010, 11 Kisan call center locations are operating successfully in the country, which approximately attends 3500 calls per day. Since the inception of the scheme, over 39.65 lakh calls have been received till January 2010 which included 31.22 lakh live calls and 8.43 lakh Interactive Voice Response calls. During the current year, around 6.89 lakh calls have been received up to 31 October 2009. All reports of KCC activities generates and available on internet managing through Kisan Knowledge management System (KKMS). For example: data on replies to farmers, best practices online, quick and easy access to information, quantitative analysis. On an average over 70 percent of the questions from the first level expert get forward to specialists (level II), wherever possible or required, the young graduate simply routes a farmers call to the specialist through a teleconferencing facility. KCC centres are at Mumbai (covers Maharashtra and Gujarat), Kanpur, Bangalore, Kochi, Indore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Chennai. 16
According to latest statistics, KCC gives service in 22 Indian Languages (local) from 14 locations across India. It covers all fields of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Fishery etc. Agriculture information includes market information, weather information and considers local agro-eco factors on free of cost country wide help- line for farmers. Problems of farmers countered firstly by level I (Agriculture Graduates as Call Centers Agents (CCAs), if not then level II (Scientists from various Agriculture Institutes as Level II support), again not then level III (Nodal Agency for the State/ Agriculture Directorate of the State). 4.1.2. SMS based
Reuters Market Light (RML) was promoted by Thomson Reuters. This project was initiated in 2006 following full fledged operations from 2007 in Maharashtra. The aim of this project is to facilitate greater transparency in the Indian agricultural markets allowing individual farmers to increase their productivity and maximize their revenue, and this new distribution channel helps to meet those goals. It provides highly customized and localized agricultural information services via mobile phonebased Short Message Service (SMS) primarily for RML subscribed farmers. Farmers subscription is increasing anywhere from 300 to 2,500 subscriptions every day, depending upon the day of the month or season. They have developed its own voucher card along the lines of a mobile recharge card. RML now has a tieup with mobile service providers and handset manufacturers like Nokia to distribute the service. RML works wherever there is GSM network coverage.
The subscription-based service of RML provides each individual farmer with a choice to receive information about over 150 crop types in more than 1,000 markets via mobile phone messaging services. Since launching in October 2007, nearly 300,000 individual farmers across 15,000 villages have bought subscriptions to RML. RML is planning to extend service throughout most of India by April 2011. RMLs service was initially available in three states of India (Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab) and the company has expanded sales to 13 states by the end of 2009. They are selling its service through agricultural retailers, a model called RML Direct, which was 17
launched in February 2009. Now farmers of Maharashtra can subscribe to RML through 2,500 retail outlets.
RML is providing up-to-date, customized commodities pricing information, weather updates specific to their taluka in the early morning (7:30 am), market prices from three selected mandis and tips as well as best practices of production related to specific crops (chosen by the farmer) in the afternoon and also relevant national and international news in the evening. There are also partnerships with agricultural universities and institutes in Maharashtra and Punjab for crop advisory content such as seed varieties, plant protection and fertilizer application.
Agricultural institutes share data free of cost, and the RMLs content team aggregates, scans, and translates it into local languages. On an average, each farmer receives four messages each day. Farmers can subscribe to services for 3, 6, or 12 month periods at rates that amount to just a few Indian Rupees a day or Rs. 175 for 3 months. These subscriptions can be purchased through a network of distributors, including post offices, banks, seed and fertilizer dealers among others. RML has also developed a voicemail service to serve the needs of illiterate farmers.
RML is having least technology-related challenges and remain easily accessible and affordable. It has developed a partnership with Idea Cellular in Maharashtra and Goa, Nokia for its Life Tools program and BioStadt India Limited. The RML service has helped farmers increase their crop yields and improve productivity. Approximately US$8,000 is the highest reported saving by a farmer according to the information shared by RML. About 70 percent of subscribers have changed their behaviour after using the technology. Their behaviour also got change such as when they harvest and when and where they sell. Farmers gain information and knowledge and as a result get more respect from fellow farmers and agricultural traders. Transport costs saved by avoiding unnecessary trips to markets on days of suboptimal prices or unexpected closure.
The prevention of crop wastage, excess usage of water, as in flood irrigation, and availability of warehouses are other environmental benefits that could result from the use of RML services. They also partners with Aadhar of Future Group, a rural retailer 18
group, oil exploration and extraction company Cairn Energy for better services. In India alone, there are more than 250 million agricultural producers which represent an estimated Rs. 22,450 million potential market opportunity. Although RML is still a start-up enterprise that has yet to break even, sales of the service crossed the Rs. 44.94 million sales mark in 2009. Just a little over two years after launching the new product, RML has reached nearly 300,000 subscribers in 12 states. The company was planned to reach 500,000 subscribers by the end of 2010. RML has been so successful, Thomson Reuters is eager to replicate the initiative in key African markets. Without the support of top management, this project would not have received the initial funding and support needed to make it a success.
(b) Nokia Life Tool (ICTupdate, 2010; Kumar, 2010; Nokia, 2008; Europe Nokia, 2011)
Nokia Life Tool was launched by Nokia India Private Limited in 2009 in Maharashtra then it expanded as a commercial enterprise to provide agricultural information to customers in 18 Indian states. The services are subscription oriented, where one pays a monthly fee and some are chargeable on a per download/request basis. The SMS based service sends basic text messages on an icon-driven interface; the delivery system ensures that the service works wherever mobile phones work. It works wherever there is GSM network coverage. It works across mobile network operators (MNOs) like Airtel, Vodafone, IDEA, Aircel and BSNL.
Service is currently available in various languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, and Punjabi). Charges applied by the operator may vary from operator to operator. The services are offered in two easy to use packages: Basic and Premium. Users can subscribe to either of these packages on a monthly basis. Each includes a number of services. The basic package includes weather and news & tips. The Premium package includes weather, news & tips and market Prices. Farmers in India pay 60 rupees per month and receive automatic updates every day. When a farmer subscribes, which can be done directly from their mobile phone, he or she gives their location, which crops they grow and their preferred language. The user gets a filtered list of crops to choose from up to a maximum of three and then selects from a list of 11languages for customers in India. The service is currently only available on 11 phone models produced by Nokia. Some 19
handsets of Nokia for these services are Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic. The main motto of this project for agriculture is to empower with tailored information delivered in synch with the cropping cycles and to get information on weather, agriculture tips & techniques and market prices and improve productivity and earnings. The information is customized to their location and crops. The information provided by the service is also relevant to the season and to the stage of crop growth. Getting the information at the right time (on how to protect a crop, which crops to grow in that area, how to treat the soil between crop cycles) helps farmers to make the right decisions about what to plant and when, and to reduce losses and optimize income. It also offers an education service, which provides English language learning, general knowledge and exam preparation tips. There is an also entertainment service giving news, astrological reports and sports coverage.
4.1.3 Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)
(a) LifeLine I ndia (Lall & Sahi; 2009)
The LifeLines India was launched in 2006 as an information delivery service at the grassroots-Suchna Se Samadhan (Solutions through Information) by OneWorld International Foundation (OWIF) in collaboration with British Telecom (BT) and CISCO Inc. The main objective of LifeLines India was to increase livelihood and income opportunities for Indian farmers with access to technology and critical information, and take a step forward in the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Other organizations such as TARAhaat, ISAP and Datamation Foundation also have been involved in the field implementation. It was started in 700 villages in north and central India in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, with Haryana joining in later stage and covering around 2,000 villages across 23 districts. The Information delivery is through digital platform, using the telephone as a primary medium for information access and use. The service receives an average of 450 calls daily contributing to the development of a database of more than 180,000 frequently asked questions. Productivity and incomes have grown tremendously ranging from 25 to 150 percent in some cases. 20
The project mainly delivers critical information on mobile phone pertaining to agriculture and animal husbandry to farmer. It is also extended to education. Agricultural information includes insect, pest and disease management; seeds and fertilizers; watershed management and micro-irrigation; livestock and organic farming and available funding and Government schemes on loans and subsidies; banking and insurance; market prices and region specific market information. The farmer called a designated number from a mobile or landline to register his/her agriculture-related queries using an IVRS. The farmer is then given a query ID and prompted to call back 24 hours later for an answer. Answers to the queries are sourced from a panel of agriculture and animal husbandry experts, or from the compilation of earlier responses to similar queries that constitute the systems Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) database. Farmers pay a nominal fee of Rs. 10/- for this service. Revenue earned from call charges is being used to offset part of the operating expenses of the service. Farmers can also avail LifeLines online service by visiting the nearest information kiosks. The web interface enables the farmer to access the database online, listen to audio clips of frequently asked questions, and send digital images of diseased crops for remote diagnosis and advice by experts. The user can also retrieve the answer in text format from his/her village information centre. The LifeLine India project has paid close attention to impacts, and has repeatedly surveyed users as to outcomes. They have consistently found that users report significant productivity and income gains. In 2009, the partnership is exploring how best to assure long-term business sustainability for the service. A survey conducted by TARAhaat among farmers in target districts to gauge satisfaction levels shows an amazing increase in the number of satisfied farmers from an approximate 6 percent in October 2006 to around 69 percent in March 2007. Farmers have accepted the LifeLines India service as a valuable tool for information exchange, and there is substantial evidence of its contribution to improved crop productivity and sustainable farming practices. LifeLines Indias versatile and dynamic application can be customized and adapted locally for information sharing in other sectors, such as health and employment as well. 21
(b) I FFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (Narula et al., 2010; Kumar, 2010; IFFCO, 2010) IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) is a subsidiary unit promoted by IFFCO in 2007. It is mobile phone based communication in far flung rural areas of India. They are tied up with Bharti AirTel to build and offer a platform for the farmers through the cooperative society network. AirTel is to prepare a unique SIM card IFFCO-AirTel Green Card. Marketing of this product is carried out by society and they get income of Rs. 9500 per months through Green SIM Card. The call rates within the CUG (Close User Group) would be just 50 paisa. Through this service, all subscribers are provided five 1-minute voice-based messages free of cost every day. Farmer can also access a toll-free helpline service (534351) at the cost of Re. 1 per minute where they receive farm advisory messages and practical inputs from experts. It is voice based messaging and works wherever there is GSM network coverage. It covers 18 states, 51 zones and involvement of 17 content managers and 57 experts. Since inception 95156 total messages broadcasted, solved 80845 questions on helpline and 4905 feedback got from farmers. There was 4,661,296 subscriber base up to January 2010 and therefore increase of 16-25 percent in terms of yield. There was also improved quality of crops, low input costs, higher produce price and increased in procurement by 30-35 percent of Haryana State Cooperative & Marketing Federation (HAFED). Agri-experts of IKSL in the fields of agronomy, pathology, animal husbandry and entomology help to generate and validate content related to agriculture. Agri-expert guides the farmer on soil testing, fertilizer application techniques, insecticides, pesticides and forewarning on pest/ insect attack, problem solving through the use of help line, getting the optimum value on produce through Mandi rates would certainly fetch him more return then his investment on mobile telephony. The messages to be delivered to the farmer would be in the local language, as per crop and area specific. A specially designed software has been hosted that would enable recording of these voice messages and their dissemination among the local Green Card users in a short interval. IKSL would also create a help line to seek assistance for answering any query. IKSL intends to engage adequate number of consultant to 22
reply to any doubts, any questions or any clarifications. The emphasis of the content to be disseminated to farmers is that it is local specific, dynamic and demand driven so that it would be of local relevance. For IKSL models to be sustainable in long run, new revenue generation sources should be explored so as to achieve the expected scale. The success of these projects requires strong commitment of all stakeholders involved especially the societies. For content generation, the state agricultural marketing boards, local district authorities, extension officials need to work together in co-ordination with local agencies to serve the farmer better. The success of this model depends upon the information sharing by market intermediaries, farmers and kiosk operators and if implemented successfully, these can bring revolution to the Indian farming system as well as improve the life of farmers and then achieve financial viability. The company aims to make this model financially viable by earning revenues through selling information related goods and services. Accessibility, scalability, replicability and sustainability are strengths of mobile based services for rural empowerment. 4.1.4 Radio Dial-up and Broadcasts Avaaj Otalo (Parikh, 2010; Patel et al., 2008; Patel et al., 2009; Patel et al., 2010) Avaaj Otalo (AO) project is a voice-based community forum for small farmers which was built and deployed by IBM Research India Laboratory based in New Delhi partnered with Development Support Center (DSC), an NGO in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The project was designed in 2008 and implemented in 2009 in Gujarat on a pilot basis. Forum would help to the farmers for asking questions and browsing others questions and responses on a range of agricultural topics. AO explores the use of a voice message forum to provide interactive, on-demand access to appropriate and timely agricultural knowledge accessed by using low-cost mobile phones. The project allows farmers to access agricultural information over the mobile phone in Gujarati language. The application is also allowing farmers to receive timely and relevant agricultural information over the phone. A user interacts with the system by navigating a 23
hierarchical menu using isolated-word spoken commands. The announcement board is a list of headline-like informational snippets, uploaded to AO by DSC staff or other agriculture experts several times per week. The radio archive lets the caller listen to archived radio programs produced by DSC on agricultural topics of current interest. Finally, AO allows farmers to record their own questions, for review and response by experts. These are implemented both isolated word speech and Dual-tone Multi- frequency (DTMF) versions of AO. Users could choose to record a question, provide an answer, or browse the existing list of questions and answers. Users were limited to 30 seconds for each question or answer they recorded. Broadcast announcements of general interest, including messages about agriculture, animal husbandry, relevant government programs, market prices and weather through announcement board. The radio archive contained all previously broadcast programs, starting with the most recent. Users browsed the archive by listening to 30 second summary recordings and then choosing to listen to the full 15 minute program or continue browsing. Farmers can record their questions using a toll-free number, which are replied to by other farmers, or by experts working for the NGO. Farmers can also browse prior questions and answers, finding responses to their queries or for general learning. The most popular questions and answers are re-broadcast on a local agricultural radio program for wider dissemination. A total of 610 questions were posted. The most common were related to pests and diseases (39 percent of questions). The system has averaged over 1000 calls per month, with many of the answers being provided by other farmers (as opposed to experts, reducing a significant information bottleneck). One farmer self-reported an increase in income of over Rs. 1,34,475 due to information he obtained through the system. Through this project, farmers learn and train on best agricultural practices, the advice of experts, and the experiences of one another. Result of AO project showed that despite the difference in task completion rate, there was no significant difference in user satisfaction. In both groups (DTMF and Speech input voice user interface), over 80 percent of users reported that they found it easy to access information from the system. Over 75 percent of both groups said they would definitely use such an application if it was made available. The overall task 24
completion rate with DTMF was significantly higher than with speech (74 percent vs. 61 percent; p < 0.05). In terms of difficulty, across all tasks, the percentage of such responses was 49 percent for speech and 30 percent for DTMF (p < 0.05). When specifically users were asked whether they faced any difficulty in providing input to the system, 81 percent of DTMF users answered no or definitely no, compared to 38 percent for speech users (p < 0.01). With speech input, the task completion rate was 42 percent when one or more recognition errors occurred, compared to 67 percent when no errors occurred (p < 0.05). Given the recent emphasis on designing limited vocabulary speech interfaces for semi-literate users, it is notable that the only group who performed better using speech for multiple tasks was the most educated group. This indicates that less educated users may have more difficulty recovering from recognition errors. Many farmers told that the ability to access information at any time would have a significant impact on their farming practices. A few farmers singled out the ability to share their personal experiences with other farmers and with DSC staff as a key benefit of the system. The service was available through a toll-free number, so that callers incurred no airtime costs, which were borne by DSC. Another possibility is to generate revenue through selling advertising to companies who target rural markets. Finally, it could be argued that AO increases agricultural productivity, while being much cheaper to provide then traditional extension, and so the government should subsidize some or all of the costs. 4.1.5 All India Radio (AIR) and Television (TV) Agromet Advisory Services (MES, 2010; Rathore et al., 2009; Abdus Sattar, 2011) Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) are provided by all the state government for issuing weekly/bi-weekly bulletins. Agromet advisories have been regularly issued at the state and district level for the benefit of the farmers. Based on past and anticipated weather conditions and are broadcast by All India Radio (AIR) stations in the respective regions in regional languages and also telecast through TV by Durdarshan (DD) wherever the facilities exist. Central Government of India launched District- level Agro meteorological Advisory Service (DAAS) in June 2008 as one of the flagship programme of Ministry of Earth Sciences. The DAAS aims to generate agro 25
meteorological information (weather forecast and agromet-advisories) and develop suitable dissemination system, to the farming community in order to improve crop/livestock productivity. The DAAS is multidisciplinary and multi-institutional project. It involves all stakeholders such as State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK), Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, State Departments of Agriculture/ Horticulture/ Animal Husbandry/ Forestry (up to District level offices), NGOs, Media Agencies, etc. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has a network of 125 Automatic Weather Station (AWS) and a large number of manual observatories. Agromet Field Units provides district level weather forecast and advisories. These advisory helps in crop protection and growth of crop. Weekly Medium Range Weather Forecast for 630 districts was communicated through Regional Meteorological Centres (RMCs)/Meteorological Centres (MCs) for preparation and dissemination of Agromet Advisory Service bulletins. Weather based agro-advisories are disseminated to the farming community at district level through mass media (Radio, Print and TV). Under AIR station (Darbhanga, Bihar), they are providing daily weather data with advisory and also talked about crop condition, forecast and advisory on weekly basis. This project is being implemented through a five tier structure to set up different components of the service spectrum. It includes meteorological (weather observing and forecasting), agricultural (identifying weather sensitive stress and preparing suitable advisory using weather forecast), extension (two way communication with user) and information dissemination (Media, Information Technology) agencies. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has started issuing quantitative district level (612 districts) weather forecast of up to 5 days from 1st June, 2008. Based on the weather forecast products and the crop information available from districts, the AgroMet Field Unit (AMFU) prepares district-wise agro-advisories. The weather based advisories, generated by 130 AMFUs, are being disseminated to the farmers through mass media dissemination, Internet etc. 26
Agromet Advisory Services are not limited to only radio, print and TV as medium but information is also disseminating with Mobile SMS to the farmers. It has reported that there were received 37 calls from farmers during 9 am to 12.30 pm (February 12, 2011) and also pointed that farmers are preferring telephone call as well as Mobile SMS for mode of accessing weather information and advisory. A study conducted in Bihar and the results showed that 40 percent farmers opined that AAS is very good where as 40 percent farmers responded as good and 15 percent as satisfactorily. 4.1.6 Community FM Radio TNAU Community FM/e-Radio (Vijayaraghavan, 2009; Kalaiselvan, 2009; The Hindu; 2011; Newkerala, 2011; TNAU Agritech Portal, 2010) TNAU FM/e-Radio project was jointly initiated by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Media Lab Asia and World Development Foundation in Tamil Nadu. This project was sanctioned by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The broad objective of this project is to share the local agriculture information among local people through local language (Tamil). The community radio station has popularly known as Velaan Palkalaikkazhaga Vivasayee FM in Tamil (in English it is Agricultural University Farmers FM). It broadcasts farming-related programmes. Functionally, Community Radio means radio broadcasting with the objective of serving the cause of the community in the service area by involving members of the community in the broadcast of their programmes. The TNAU, Community Radio Station which has the coverage of 15 to 20 km radius, has the feature of e component in it and hence the broadcast programme has integrated into the e-Extension network. Handling Community e-Radio is an interesting and creative task. All the three types of intelligence viz., abstract, mechanical and social are judiciously utilized in this ICT tool for making the programmes informative as well as interesting. This creative medium is focusing on topics related to agriculture, health, environment, education and community development. Latest farm technologies, market price of commodities and weather forecasts are being broadcasted regularly. Besides, farmers experiences and success stories, services of NGOs, and other educational programmes 27
are also being a part of the broadcast. Progressive farmers are sharing their experiences through the FM radio that would encourage fellow farmers. It established a social linkage by interfacing with faculty on the preparation of training capsule on community radio as an effective ICT tools/media. They include everything in his programmes such as instant reaction recorded, face to face with scientist with minimum distortion. Under this programme there is effective utilization of human resources. The listeners are asked to raise questions on particular community issue. From this programme resource person himself is trained to operate and listen his programme. There are three top most clients involved in Community Radio Station (CRS). These are identifying information givers; identify information seekers and channelize through CRS. As on February 2011, nearly 300 hrs need based programme has been produced with the active participation of people and scientists. They are planning to use this station for agri-education, research highlights sharing and extension activities and many more purposes in near future. It could be tune at 107.4 MHz from 10.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day for exclusive farm- related information. The FM is expected to benefit nearly 10,000 farmer families in 22 villages. The FM will be used as a grassroots medium to step up the TNAU's potential for sharing information, knowledge and skills. The topics that will be discussed in the radio channel will include agriculture, health, environment, education and community development. The programmes of the radio will be uploaded on TNAU Agritech portal (http://agritech.tnau.ac.in). With this, the voice format of the programmes broadcast could be accessed from any part of the world. 4.1.7 Video-conferencing n-Logue (Jhunjhunwala & Ramachander, 2006; Harris & Rajora, 2006; Jhunjhunwala & Ramachandran, 2004; Paul, 2004; Sharma & Rao, 2005; Sharma, 2008) n-Logue Communications Private Limited which was incubated by Telecommunication and Computer Network (TeNeT) group of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) were providing agriculture information through video conferencing from kiosks located in the villages in Tamil Nadu. This project came up with the multiple partners such as Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI), n-Logue 28
Communication Private Limited, IIT-M, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. This project was launched in April 2000 and expanded in six others states (i.e. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan It covered approx 2000 villages across 30 districts in these states. The major objectives of this project were to research and develop appropriate access devices for rural Internet and telephony, to research and source other supporting technologies such as alternative sources of power, to research and facilitate the development of applications that will be useful to the users of the service in these villages and to provide Internet and voice connectivity to rural India. Apart from video conferencing for agricultural information, the experts were also providing web based services on computer education, adult literacy, agriculture, health, and e-governance. Kiosk operators also provided agriculture portal where farmers can access information on weather, crop prices, and improved farming technique and also they can sell tractors and spare parts. Key factor for success of n-Logue project is an appropriate and enabling technologies, dense network penetration and local franchisee, who were running the enterprise as business. In one case, timely detection and diagnosis of crop disease in Okra remotely by agricultural experts was able to save an entire harvest. n-Logue retains a competitive advantage over its potential competitors because of its proven experience to leverage relationships between its upstream and downstream partners. n-Logue has developed a viable and scalable model for delivering information based services to rural areas. Entrepreneurs involved in this project were earning upto Rs. 3200-6000/- per month on an average in the area close to taluka and Rs, 500-1000 in the interior rural areas. 4.1.8 Web (a) Agriculture Knowledge Management in I ndia (Hugar, 2010; IIITM-K, 2010) As part of Agriculture Knowledge Management in India (AKMINDIA) project, a web based portal was developed in collaborative efforts of Indian Institute of Technology- Bombay (IIT-B), Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala (IITM-K). They also created 29
social networking tool on this web for awareness on ICT in agriculture to universitys faculty members, departments officers, NGOs, progressive farmers. This project was launched in 2009 in Karnataka and Uttarakhand states with the following objectives: to build multi-modal delivery of agricultural information services including online decision support systems based on the learning from KISSAN- Kerala project; building portal based applications like Online Fertilizer Recommendation System (OFRS) for State Agriculture University (SAU) (decision support systems); building Web-GIS based location specific weather information and forecasting system for the selected KVK`s of two SAU partners; providing necessary training and capacity building support for the development of appropriate multimedia video contents, setting up the media lab and production process at each SAU and developing relevant multimedia content for SAU to be used in KVK`s, as extension material. In this project, about 104 crop tips in the form of SMS were disseminated to over 10,000 farmers through mobile technology. It also provided 250 audio crop tips on 27 crops through web based system. There is crop doctor forum where complete cultivation practices of 19 crops are available. In the social networking space, blog, group management, files management, activity management and scheduler have been introduced. Presently, number of crops added in Karnataka and Uttarakhand are 24 and 4 respectively. Number of farmers who used this service is 86 in Karnataka and 19 in Uttarakhand and number of OFRS reports generated are 271 in Karnataka and 56 in Uttarakhand. This project mainly provides crop recommendations in bilingual languages and providing scientific solution to queries within 24 hours in bilingual language by the experts. Farmers can record their questions using a toll-free number, which are replied to by other farmers, or by experts working for the NGO. Farmers can also browse prior questions and answers, finding responses to their queries, or for general learning. The most popular questions and answers are re-broadcast on a local agricultural radio program for wider dissemination. System generates online recommendation of fertilizers for a preferred crop type or variety for a particular location based on the soil condition. The farmers/extension personnel can take Nitrogen: Phosphorous: Potash (NPK) based soil recommendation 30
or soil test analysis based fertilizer recommendation for a preferred crop/location/area of cultivation. The report contain details such as the soil amendments to be made, organic manures to be used, also the quantity as well as frequency of use of mixed/straight fertilizer. Web GIS based Soil Micro nutrient Information System in Dharward district of Karnataka where farmers can access online visualization of soil nutrients. Web GIS based location specific dynamic weather information and forecasting for Karnataka and Uttarakhand states where farmers can access online weather information and forecasting generated report. The positive results have encouraged expanding other areas in near future. (b) aAQUA (Ramamritham et. al., 2005; APDIP, 2006; Ramamritham, 2008; NAIP-ICAR, 2010) aAQUA (Almost All Questions Answered) project is an online multilingual, multimedia agricultural portal. Developmental Informatics Lab at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has developed this concept. Vigyan Ashram and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Baramati took part in the implementation of aAQUA project in Maharastra since 2006. aAQUA was deployed in a network of kiosks covering about 30 villages around the Pabal area of Maharashtra. It is a farmer-expert question and answer (Q&A) database and a user of aAQUA translations collection can choose to view the questions and answers in English, Hindi or Marathi. The offline version of aAQUA is created and can be personalized based on individual or group profiles and access patterns. The offline version can also be searched using the keyword search interface. aAQUA provides a language independent Agri-portal and question-answer forum with textual, graphic and audiovisual elements to provide a simple, yet rich interface accommodating novice users. Currently aAQUA is delivered over kiosk networks, cyber centers and PCs via the Internet and also via handheld devices. aAQUA content is free for use by academia. The objective of this project is to disseminate information to users in a resource constrained environment. Users can access aAQUA using a Web browser or Java- compatible mobile phone to create, view, and manage content. Farmers post and receive answers to questions via email and mobile phone text and search aAQUAs documents via mobile phone, either by providing keywords in a standard search interface or using an organized list of English and Marathi tags in the keyword 31
browser. Early February 2008, the aAQUA portal had received 12,052 posts and 626,015 views and questions have come in from 290 districts out of more than 600 districts in India. Any noncommercial user can browse the forums for free, although users must register on the site before posting a question. aAQUA can also be accessed without being connected to the site for forums, and other pages. Because the content is stored on users computers and thereby avoids network delays users can search and browse quickly. Offline aAQUAs local cache or repository also updates whenever users connect to the Internet. Kiosk operators charge less than 10 rupees per question. The goals of this project are database query optimization and caching, cross-lingual multimedia information storage and retrieval, and human-computer interaction. aAQUA also has been made more substantial by adding SMS-aAQUA and Voice- aAQUA, enabling experts to generate highly focused advisory and send them via SMS and/or over voice. This integration of different techniques of communication has been tried over a large scale (SMS: 17,000 farmers; voice: 26,000 farmers) for the first time in India for agricultural extension purposes. Voice aAQUA was launched in April 2009, was an innovation not originally projected but was built as a supplementary platform. It was tested with farmers in Uttarakhand and Maharashtra during AprilDecember 2009. Total of 990,000 messages were transacted with 26,943 farmers. aAQUA project answers farmers queries based on the location, season, crop and other information provided by farmers. Agricultural content repositories (digital library), agri-price information (bhav puchiye), farmer schemes and various operations support databases (aAQUA-QoS). aAQUA can be configured and customized for expert advice over mobile networks and the internet in education, healthcare and other domains of interest to a developing population. An aAQUA question is posted either by a registered user directly or through a telecenter/kiosk operator who has an account in aAqua. Bhav puchiyes market price information is updated daily. aAQUA questions are replied in 24-36 hours. A local help desk operator follows up with the farmer over a phone, a week after the answer has been given, to check if the answer solved the farmers problem. The user can create a login, store profiles of commodities and locations and create and receive e- 32
mail alerts when prices of certain commodities of interest change in the markets of interest. Crops library consists of collections of crop diseases (Crop Doctor), crop recommendations and translated aAQUA threads. The collections are built centrally using open source software called Greenstone. Some agricultural and veterinary problems are better addressed by photographs or audio and video files which provide details to the expert. aAQUA allows attaching images taken by a digital camera or scanner and experts can zoom to specific portions of the images. The project has actively developed a range of strategic partnerships with relevant institutions to scale up and expand the aAQUA related services across India. Further growth is strengthened by the business revenue models developed by the project. 4.1.9 Multimedia (a) Digital Green (USAID, 2011; Gandhi et. al., 2009; Gandhi et al., 2007; Digital Green, 2010) Microsoft Research Indias Technology for Emerging Markets had been involved in developing a Digital Green (DG) in 2006 and deployed in Karnataka state. Currently DG has been working in four more states of India (Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa). DG has reached over 600 villages and 42,000 farmers and plans to extend its work in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011. About 1306 videos were produced and it was screened for 21216 times with over 45091 farmers involvement. DG seeks to disseminate targeted agricultural information to small and marginal farmers in India using digital video in local language (Kannada in Karnataka). Investments included performance-based honoraria for local facilitators, a shared TV and DVD player in each village, and one digital camcorder and PC shared across the project area. DGs Web site provides functionality to search and browse the video database and the DVDs used by the village facilitators provide a basic navigational menu that lists the titles of the 10 to 15 videos on a single disc. There are unique components of DG as (1) a participatory process for content production (2) a locally generated digital video database (3) a human-mediated instruction model for dissemination and training; and (4) regimented sequencing to initiate new communities. 33
The main function of DG is involved in video repository included field demonstrations led by agri-scientists, testimonials of progressive farmers, interactions among farmers, and market-based opportunities. The videos averaged 10 minutes in length. Video contents belonged to the broad categories of crop management, animal husbandry, indigenous technologies, value-addition activities, bio-fertilizers, Vermi- compost, pest management, composting methods, water management, and entertainment. The video recordings can be grossly classified in the categories of awareness, training, advisory, and entertainment. Recordings has made by teachers of agriculture, scientist, NGO expert, field staff, progressive farmers and other volunteers. DG gives training through digital video in local language. The distribution of videos from the DG database to farming communities is by physically mailing or couriering DVDs. A group of farmers of particular village is provided TV and DVD player by NGO field staff and managed by local farmers to dissemination of agri-information. Most are willing to take only a short diversion from this daily routine between the hours of 7 to 9 pm. The night showings usually involve small groups of about 20 to 30 farmers that are willing to come together at a common place within short distance of their homes. These groups serve as informal farmer training schools in the evenings and are complemented by field programs in daylight hours. The DG implemented in Karnataka has increased the adoption rate of certain agriculture practices seven-fold over a conventional training and extension approach. With regard to cost analysis, it has been reported that DG was shown to be 10 times more effective per dollar spent than a conventional extension system on a cost per adoption basis. The video-based content improves the diffusion of better farming practices and reduces the expert support required for each farmer. The proportion of farmers that actually implemented the practice in their fields varied from 10 percent to 33 percent in any given month. A study sawed that an over seven-fold increase in adoption levels with DG over the conventional model. DG effectively reduced the costs of the entire agricultural extension system by 25 percent on a per-village basis. DG system is able to multiply the value of a NGOs extension agents by a factor of 10 times per Rs. 44.94 ($1) spent. Local participants in video recordings can stimulate 34
greater acceptance and encourage local competition within a community. They charge nominal fee (Rs. 2-4) per farmer per screening for revenue generation. Farmers subscribe to the service as a part of their membership fees to farmer organizations, such as producer companies, cooperatives, and self-help groups (SHGs) federations, where they exist, and partners share upfront and recurring costs. Currently DG depends on outside grants to replicate its model with NGO partners and negotiates cost-sharing agreements with these partner sand the communities that they work with. DG charges fees for technology development and training support services to commercial partners. (b) I nteractive Multimedia Compact Disc (Anandaraja et al., 2007) Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCD) project was sponsored by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi and operated by Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Agricultural College and Research Institute in Madurai of Tamil Nadu state. Project was started in July 2006 and completed in December 2007 (18 months duration). IMCD was a modern electronic gadget which demonstrates complex farm technologies in simpler terms using text, graphics, audio and video. The main objectives of this project were to study and document the technical know- how required by women farmers in different ecosystem through participatory approach, to promote women user groups based on the existing enterprise/commodity, to develop a user-friendly IMCD on identified agricultural technologies and to assess the perception of IMCD as a tool for transfer of technology from technology innovation / generators / disseminators and user systems. Under this project, around nine IMCDs have been developed in the scheme namely System of Rice Intensification (SRI) techniques, Eriophid mite control in coconut, integrated pest and disease management on tomato, vermi compost production, mushroom production, integrated rat control measures, drip based sugarcane cultivation technologies, hybrid maize production and hybrid rice production. IMCD on vermi-compost production was the recently developed IMCD which elaborates various techniques of vermi-compost production, vermi-culture production, inputs required, cost of production, marketing outsource mechanisms and income benefits in 35
a comprehensive, interactive and user friendly manner. Using the IMCDs, latest and updated agricultural technologies were transferred to the farmed women user groups thereby increasing their knowledge and skill in local language (Tamil). 4.1.10 Online Video Channel Kissan I nformation Dissemination and Networking (Ajith, 2010; Stockholm Challenge, 2010; eINDIA, 2009; Business Line, 2009; KK, 2010) Kissan Information Dissemination and Networking, Kerala (KISSAN-KERALA) project came under Kerala IT Mission and project was conceived, developed and managed by Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K). It has taken a time of 6 months duration for deployment and 6 additional months for services development, impact analysis, review, concurrent approval and launch of phase. It is an integrated, multi-modal Agricultural information system. The project was officially launched on 1st November 2003 (Kerala day). The project solves the problem of content gaps by providing the authentic agricultural information though various delivery methods like Television, Internet, Telephone, Mobile and Online Video. The project offers Online Agri advisory service (dynamic, multi-lingual portal based), Kissan Krishideepam (Television program-in local language through Satellite channel), Online Agri-video Channel (countrys first online video channel in Agriculture in collaboration with YouTube), Tele Advisory Services (telephone based), mobile based Agri-Advisory services (text, voice and video based contents) and dedicated online Agri video channel provides video on demand service. The project has answered more than 18000 questions of farmers through online during the last several months from the start of the project using the query management service of the portal. Project has generated 32225 online soil test based fertilizer recommendation advisory in local language for farmers and distributed to the farming community in one year. The project has completed the production and telecast of 348 weekly episodes of television based agricultural program through Satellite channel. The TV program reaches to more than 46 lakhs regular viewers every week. The agriculture program has been aired through Asianet, the leading satellite channel in Kerala. This project also allow to the farmers to listen radio programme on Radio 36
Kuttanadu in English and Malayalam. The project is managed by a team of professionals from agriculture, IT and agri-journalism. Farmers can seek the advisory from the expert scientists through online and get better scientific advisory for their problems. It offers several services like crop advisory, weather forecast, soil test information etc through farmers mobile. Mobile service dedicated in PAN India based. TV based project has produced more than 1000 hours of digital quality video materials on best farming practices, success stories of farmers, women groups, technical information, method demonstration, organic farming etc in Malayalam language. General services are best farming practices, crop management advisory, weather advisory based on GIS, market information, research highlights, information on Govt. schemes/policies, on demand advisory services, fertilizers recommendation system, post question for expert answer, panting material availability, answered queries, fertilizers and pesticides. Kissan Krishideepam provides selective information dissemination of best practices, success stories, departmental news, news on various schemes, market analysis, cultivation methods, analysis of current issues etc. The project produces and telecast a weekly television program (30 minutes duration) and telecast three times over the leading satellite channel (Asianet) in Kerala. Online Agri-Video Channel which becomes a single window access to all the agriculture and allied topics for continuous learning for the farmers at free of cost. Tele Advisory Services provides personalized advisory, dedicated telephone number (0471-2700965) for the farmers. The farmers can ask any questions to the agricultural scientists and seek expert advice for their crops. As part of this service, the project has developed an extensive crop database across the state to provide location specific advisory services. The SMS based agri-advisory services, enable the farmers to get the information on very fast and it helps to provide location specific information and alert services. This project offers a unique kind of service for farmers to see online video channel. There are more than 150 telecast quality full length videos in local language on best practices, method demonstrations, and other scientific inputs for the farmers. There have been around 923,187 upload views to this channel. Personalization of videos happened according to the interest of the farmers. This project has technically 37
collaborated with Google and YouTube for providing online video channel. They also provided crop specific play list and catalog on the internet. Users can also access this video on mobile through General packet radio service (GPRS) / Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Google Application Programmable Interface (Google API). The impact of the project indicates that agricultural production in the state has drastically improved during the last two years. The project has played a very major role in the growth of agricultural production. eINDIA 2009 recognized exemplary and innovative projects which demonstrate the use and application of ICT that have transformed social development opportunities into sustainable social enterprise. The integrated service delivery model is highly scalable. The dynamic portal based services are highly scalable and easily replicable to any other place. The entire applications have been developed using open source technologies and has open architecture for scalable. An impact has been seen by mussel cultivation being done by women Self Help Groups (SHGs) at Padanna village in Kasaragod (1600 ton per year). Under new market opportunity, more than 2 crores rupees market opportunity in Gulf countries arranged through KISSAN. ICAR/CMFRI has granted for Seed technology Support for seed technology through KISSAN. 4.1.11. Print Media Agriwatch (Agriwatch, 2003) Agriwatch.com was started by Indian Agribusiness Systems Private Limited (IASL) and launched in 2000 as a private company with an investment of Rs. 3,14,58,000. They give information via print media, SMS based and web based services to agriculture stakeholders. Agriwatch has a better geographical outreach spread across all the North Indian states. The main focus of IASL is provision of information and knowledge-tailored to meet the specific needs of the target groups, which include the small and marginal farmers, commodity traders, government agencies and NGOs. They provide various products are as follows: Agriwatch Farm Weekly in both Hindi and Marathi Edition launched in April 2000 which gives complete newspaper for the farming community and covers 18 different areas of interest to the farmer with annual subscription fee of Rs. 38
900 and sale has recorded mostly in small towns among farmers. The early adopters were mostly the leader farmers in the area Agriwatch Trade Weekly in Hindi Edition launched in July 2000 for small traders located in upcountry markets and focuses on trade and commercial information of importance to the trading community with annual subscription fee of Rs. 1348 Daily/Weekly/Fortnightly Trade Research reports (on Email)-Trade Research Reports cover several commodities such as Rice, Wheat, Maize etc with priced at Rs. 2696, Rs. 4943 and Rs. 9437 for quarterly, half-yearly and annual subscriptions respectively Agriwatch on Mobile service launched in March 2003 aims at providing timely and valuable trade information such as futures quotes, prices and news to the subscribers by delivering the same on their cellular phones. Commodities covered are Rice, Wheat, Maize, Oil Complex, Sugar, Pulses, etc. For each commodity, the subscribers receive about 4 to 5 messages per day on their cellular phone with price of Rs. 4495 annually Agriwatch Monthly Magazine in both English and Hindi edition covering Indian and International Agribusiness and Trade launched in March 2001. Its main source of revenues was advertisements from the companies/organizations, which was interested in targeting a particular community and was thus priced only at Rs. 135 for an annual subscription Membership of Agribusiness Portal www.AgriWatch.com launched in July 2000 to access a large amount of agribusiness related information covering 25 sub sectors within the Agricultural and Food Industry with charge range from Rs. 1573, Rs. 3146 to Rs. 5617 for quarterly, half-yearly and annual subscriptions respectively. Agriwatch portal covers news and analysis, market prices from important domestic and international markets, links to real time news services, live quotes from major international commodity exchanges, ports and logistics, weather, agri-buyers guide, agri-yellow pages, policy watch, legal watch, agri-links and many other sections and most of the readers for the trade research reports and this service are common. 39
Since the Agriwatch model for service delivery was made commercially viable and these were demand driven services, the probability of emergence of a sustainable system was fairly good. They focused on content development and content selling. On the content side, Agriwatch decided to do something different that distinguished it from other portals in the Indian agribusiness sector. Instead of giving the routine, static content, it decided to provide information that is time sensitive, analyzed and presented in user-friendly format. 4.1.12. Phone based Information Portal VoiKiosk (Agarwal et al., 2009; Manthan Award, 2008, ICTupdate, 2009; IEEE-HTN, 2009) VoiKiosk project is a voice based portal or voice based toll-free interactive information kiosk for a village and this service is available on the Telecom Network and based on World Wide Telecom Web Technology. This project has designed and developed by IBM Research to reach out to masses based on oral communication, which is the forte of country like India. With partnership of Byrraju Foundation, the pilot was deployed for villagers in the Juvvala Palam village in Andhra Pradesh, South India and pilot launched in 2008. They have developed a kiosk template for a group of villages in Andhra Pradesh. This system can be accessed by a phone to provide a cost effective solution that is easy to use by the less-literate people in rural areas particularly in local language (Telugu). It was clear from the on-field interactions that a phone based information portal that enables interaction through voice will be ideal from the end-user perspective. Given the significant cell-phone penetration, a cell-phone based system can be used to fulfill the information needs of these villages. A VoiKiosk is a specific instance of a VoiceSite that can be used by villagers to create and access locally relevant content. A VoiceSite can be thought of as a parallel to a Website, but which can be accessed by dialing a phone number and information can be listened rather than being read or seen. This can enable any illiterate person to create her VoiceSite. Such a system enables easy local-content creation. All information in the VoiceSite is stored as audio messages that are recorded by making a phone call to the system. It can be a central point of access for a community where information relevant to the community can be posted and accessed directly by the 40
users themselves. This solution doesnt rely on Internet connectivity which is most often not available in the rural areas and most importantly, it allows end-users to directly interact with the services, thus removing the dependence on the kiosk operator. A kiosk operator is usually identified for the VoiKiosk. The kiosk operator has permissions to add different categories, and also to add and delete information in any category. The VoiKiosk system is live, 24 hours a day and all seven days of the week for eight months. During this period, the system received a total of 114,782 calls from 6,509 villagers. On an average, while there used to be about 50 calls per day at the start of the pilot, the last week of the pilot has witnessed more than 4,000 calls every day. The toll-free number was accessible from any telephone and required no registration. Under this portal, the expert will be able to post his advice for the farmer on the VoiKiosk, reducing the turn-around time to 4 hours unlike currently method where a picture of the crop is taken and sent to an expert, who then sends a reply back to the farmer through the foundation. During this current method, the turn-around time for this process is 24 hours. VoiKiosk identifies farmers based on their caller IDs. Other services are health, new programmes, local news papers, distant education programmes, and professional services. The system prompt that asked the following from the users: Do you want information on Health or Agriculture or Ashwini Center Schedule or you want to about the people in this village? VoiKiosk expected that people will respond by saying either of Health, Agriculture, Ashwini Center or People. However the users used to answer Yes or No. So VoiKiosk had to change the prompt to Please say Health to know about health related information, or say Agriculture to know about agriculture related information ... The statistical analysis proves the acceptance of the VoiKiosk system by the villagers. The next step is to get usability feedback directly from the users. The system was then deployed live in a village in South India and researcher captured user statistics for 4 months. More than 900 users used the system over a period of four months. Users made about 20000 calls to this VoiKiosk system.
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4.1.13. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) i-Shakti (Lahiri & Majumder, 2011; ARP, 2010; HUL, 2007; Kramer et al., 2009) In the i-Shakti project, PDA has been used for rural information in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh across 50 villages in the year 2000 in partnership with local Self Help Groups and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). The objectives of this project were the changing lives and boosting incomes in rural Bharat, to empower women in remote rural areas and to enable HUL to reach inaccessible areas and thus to land a win-win situation. Under Shakti project there are three initiatives such as Shakti Entrepreneur, Shakti Vani and i-Shakti. i-Shakti is IT-based rural information service was to provide demand driven information and services across a large variety of sectors. In association with the Andhra Pradesh Government's Rajiv Internet Village Programme, it has been set up in 400 villages in Andhra Pradesh and has been functional since August 2003. Apart from Internet based services, Shakti project has extended his services for rural people through PDA. PDA version of i-Shakti system that was capable of disconnected operation and provided many of the services of the main PC based system. This PDA based i-Shakti system was a CompaqiPad2210 PDA running Pocket PC 2003, together with an IBM micro drive expansion card that offered up to 1GB of permanent storage. The process of uploading data captured on the PDA and downloading any new data or changes to the website is fully automated and integrated with the rest of i-Shakti network. The PDA version of i-Shakti provides its customers and users a complete enterprise web application in-a-box. The system uses an on-board database to maintain its business data thereby allowing it to operate in areas where a connected system would fail, for example where mobile communication networks are poor or do not exist. Synchronization of business data and resources between the device and its host computer is fully automated, thereby ensuring that the PDA system is integrated seamlessly with the rest of the i-Shakti system. In this project, users can access information from existing databases on topics including agriculture, health, education, 42
and legal procedures. Farmers post their questions that are subsequently answered by agri-experts. Users can access information through both kiosk as well as PDAs. 4.2 Agricultural Advisory I nformation Systems
The agricultural information with regard to crop cultivation aspects and also generic information have been disseminated by using appropriate ICT tool. The agricultural information are as follows; weather data, market price, availability of agri-inputs, pest and disease management, organic farming aspects, soil testing, cultivation practices, crop nutritional deficiency, weeds, fertilizer scheduling and recommendations, suitable variety in particular regions, agri-credits, e-agri-trading, crop insurance, cold storage availability, agriculture contents, irrigation techniques, bio-fertilizers, vermi- compost, agri-news, animal husbandry, crops tips, farm machinery and equipments, cropping pattern, pre-and post-harvest etc.
The generic information is mainly on microfinance, health, life insurance, education, Govt. schemes, e-Governance, entertainments, employment opportunity etc. It was found that maximum number of ICT project has concentrated on market price followed by crop production, pest & disease and other as in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Number of ICT projects providing various kinds of information
p r o j e c t s Types of informations Information provided by ICT projects 43
4.3 I CT based Training for Farmers
Apart from agricultural advisory systems, farmers are also being trained by using suitable ICT tools/media such as Multimedia, Web based systems, Radio dial-up and Broadcast. The details of ICT based training is given in Table 1.
Table 1: Project wise ICT based training for farmers Sl. No. Name of project ICT tools/media Reference 1 e-Arik Multimedia Raj (2009) 2 e-Krishi Vipanan Multimedia (Video) MAP-IT (2006) 3 Tata Kisan Kendra Multimedia (Films) Talwar et al.(2005) 4 e-Agro Multimedia (Video) Garudachar (2010) 5 Skill development for e- learning in agriculture Web, CD/DVD eINDIA (2010) 6 e-Velanmai Multimedia (Video) Stockholm Challenge (2010) 7 Digital Green Multimedia (Video) Gandhi et al. (2007) 8 e-Krishi Multimedia (Video, CD) Kelkar (2009) 9 Jagriti-e-Seva Web Sandha (2007) 10 Rice Knowledge Management Portal Web RKMP(2011) 11 Knowledge Share Centre Multimedia (Films) Nagasree (2010) 12 Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc Multimedia (CD) Anandaraja et al. (2007) 13 AgriLine Web (audio-visual content) IASP (2011) 14 KISSAN-KERALA Web (Video) Ajith (2010) 15 Avaaj Otalo Radio dial-up and broadcasts Patel et al. (2010)
The ICT based training for farmers has been described in details as follows:- 4.3.1 Multimedia based ICT Training for Farmers: In e-Arik project, farmers are getting training through farm multimedia shows and digital publication such as farm advisory publications, survey report and news letter whereas e-Krishi Vipanan (EKVI) project provides training facility for farmers at all mandis through video on farming methods and also use it as an Agro Clinic when required. Similarly, Tata Kisan Kendra (TKK) trained farmers through screening of films related to agriculture. TKK also organize workshop for farmers in training halls (Raj, 2009; MAP-IT, 2006; Talwar et. al., 2005). 44
Under e-Agro project, it has started agriculture vocational training initiative for small farmers, where videos of agriculture best practices are being showcased to farmers. The agro training provider accesses a library of Best Agro Practice Videos through the internet broadband. These videos are structured as short clips that can be downloaded on demand and shown. After viewing this video farmers interactively post his queries (through the literate training host) and in time will receive feedback from the many agro-experts who are virtually available through the web (Garudachar, 2010). Digital Green (DG) gives training through digital video in local language. Videos are available on the DG Web site (http://www.digitalgreen.org) and the principal means of distributing videos from the DG database to farming communities is by physically mailing or couriering DVDs. A group of farmers of particular village is provided TV and DVD player by NGO field staff and managed by local farmers to dissemination of agri-information. Currently 36251 farmers are involved. Most are willing to take only a short diversion from this daily routine between the hours of 7 to 9 pm. The night showings usually involve small groups of about 20 to 30 farmers that are willing to come together at a common place within short distance of their homes. These groups serve as informal farmer training schools in the evenings and are complemented by field programs in daylight hours (Gandhi et al., 2009; Gandhi et al., 2007). Under e-KRISHI project, farmers are trained though on demand video shows. Farmers can also avail CDs which are covering topics on agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries etc through e-Krishi Kendra (EKC). Further, another project called as Knowledge Share Centre (KSC) trained farmers through Display Announcement Package (DAP). It displays the information with voice input which can serve the needs of illiterate farmers. KSC used to screen the films for farmers that create awareness of the improved technologies. Till March 2010, 2456 films are screened among all the clusters. Similarly, Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCDs) project which gives latest and updated agricultural technologies are being transferred to the farmed women user groups thereby increasing their knowledge and skill in local language (Tamil) (Kelkar, 2009; Nagasree, 2010; Nagasree, 2010 ; Anandaraja et al., 2007). 45
Another ICT project named as e-Velanmai project which run a video film explaining the process of technology transfer, implementation and success stories of agricultural practices running to 8 min in English and Tamil video is uploaded in the website www.evelanmai.com which also briefs about the scheme activities with photographs (Stockholm Challenge, 2010) 4.3.2 Web based ICT Training for Farmers: Warana wired project allowed farmers to use intranet-based e-learning program which is menu driven with a variety of software applications while India AgriLine project provides intensive training offered by EID Parry through high audiovisual content on the internet to make accessible even to illiterate farmers and also helped in the rapid diffusion of the ICT. Farmer also can learn agriculture content in details via e-Learning project of TNAU offers agricultural education to special groups of rural people in general and school dropouts small and marginal farmers and women in particular (Harris & Rajora, 2006; IASP, 2011; Palanisami, 2007). Jagriti-e-Seva project is providing training material about the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) in Punjab. It has been prepared and provided on the Jagriti kiosk network. The material is menu driven, in local language and takes extensive support of pictorial presentation. Each crop also has a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section that is a repository of farmers questions and experts answers. The kiosk software provides for filling up of an online form in case a farmer intends to adopt cultivation of MAPs (Sandha, 2007). KISSAN-KERALA project offers farmers to see online video channel. There are more than 150 telecast quality full length videos in local language on best practices, method demonstrations, and other scientific inputs for the farmers. There have been around 923,187 upload views to this channel. Personalization of videos happened according to the interest of the farmers. This project has technically collaborated with Google and YouTube for providing online video channel. They also provided crop specific play list and catalog on the internet. Users can also access this video on mobile through General packet radio service (GPRS) / Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Google Application Programmable Interface (Google API) (Stockholm Challenge, 2010; Ajith, 2010). 46
Rice Knowledge Management Portal (RKMP) provides e-learning platform with at least 5 courses in Hindi and English. It also provides synchronous on-line training support and asynchronous knowledge support (RKMP, 2011). 4.3.3 Multi ICT based Training for Farmers: Skill development for e-learning in agriculture project developed digital products like multimedia, vocational modules and e-learning in training and education for agriculture stakeholders. Innovative courseware and content for the benefit of large number of users for delivery made through internet and CD/DVD (eINDIA, 2010). 4.3.4 Radio Dial-up and Broadcast: Through Avaaj Otalo project, farmers learn and train on best agricultural practices, the advice of experts, and the experiences of one another through radio dial-up and broadcast (Patel et al., 2010). 4.4 Challenges in I mplementing I CT based Agri-advisory Systems Despite the achievements in the ICT based agricultural projects, there were several socio-technical challenges observed which have been reported in the following headings:
4.4.1. Challenges in Web based Agri-advisory Systems: The web based agricultural advisory system that has been implemented as part of e-Arik project in tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh revealed the electricity was the main issue and frequent power cut & regular telephone out of order and road blockage were also observed during the rainy season in their initiatives (Raj, 2009). The project called Bhoomi which is one of the ICT initiatives in Karnataka state provide online land records to the farmers who can access the information when they required. In this initiative, they faced difficulties in converting the manual copies of land records in to web based system due to number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. The non-uniformity of data structures in those manual records and multiple languages across the state were pointed out as some of challenges. There was huge resistance to change from an exploitative system of land records which had operated for more than 300 years. It was big challenge to change the mindset of 10,000 revenue officials, VAs and RIs, and 1,500 officials from other departments. No exposure of computer technology for the revenue officials was considerable challenge during project implementation. There was also reported that lack of public 47
acceptance of the deliverables of the project (such as trust in the legal validity of the computer printouts) amongst 6.7 million farmers. Finally, no doubt major power cuts (6 to10 hours a day) also hindered the project (Harris & Rajora, 2006). The e-Choupal which is one of the longest ICT projects in India provides agricultural information through web based system faced lot of challenges. Frequent power cut, poor connectivity and low bandwidth were some of the major challenges. During power cuts, e-Choupal operator usually used battery for power supply but due to limitation of battery backup they did not able to complete his job. Imparting skills to the first time internet users in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India were also posed high challenges. It was reported that a big resistance was found from agents and the brokers during initial phase of implementation. It was also reported that when electricity was lost, phones cease to function to connect internet and also no local support staff to maintain or troubleshoot telephone exchanges. It was also observed that transmission speed was so slow that it renders Internet access impractical. Users lack of familiarity with the operating system was led to technical challenge. Another challenge was found that support staff had been the malfunctioning of equipment due to voltage fluctuations. In the initial stage of e-Choupal project, there was hesitation by the farmers, but no direct resistance. Another challenge was to build personalized content, catering to individuals with a wide range of income levels and information needs. Imparting training to the kiosk operators (Sanchalaks) on the use of the computer has also posed some problems and hence it has taken a minimum of two months for them to learn how to use computers. One more challenge was to recruit a suitable person from each village who has leadership qualities and minimum education (ITC e-Choupal, 2011; Kumar, 2005; Annamalai & Rao, 2003; Harris & Rajora, 2006). Most of e-Choupal project challenges were also reported by n-Logue which is one of incubated companies in IIT Madras (Paul, 2004; Jhunjhunwala & Ramachandran, 2004). Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) was implemented by MSSRF in Pondicherry for proving web based information on agriculture and its allied activities. It was found that the fishermen hesitate to learn from the knowledge worker, as they feel skeptical about both their knowledge as well as opt for self-learning software to gather the 48
skills. Insufficient number of mobile phone availability at nominal fee for assessing the market price was also shown the major challenge (Govindaraju & Mabel, 2010). e-Sagu project is a web based application of IIIT, Hyderabad. It advices on pest disease management and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices through agri- expert. The farmers had showed poor response to agri-expert advice due to lack of confidence on them. For example: Farmer had prevailing notion that the application of wettable sulphur will result in flower dropping. Lack of adequate confidence of farmers has been seen in the project in the beginning stages. The adoption rate was quite discouraging in the beginning. A few farmers did not take enrollment in the beginning due to their casual attitude towards the project. It was reported that when the coordinators were visiting the fields for taking the photographs, it was noticed that the single set of batteries were not sufficient and therefore, they are provided with second set later (Reddy et. el., 2005). Samaikya Agritech Private Limited was launched web based application by establishing Agritech Centre in Andhra Pradesh. It provides technical assistance to the registered farmers. It was observed that one centre closed down within three months of opening as no farmers registered for the service. This was due to the pressure placed on them by local marketers, financiers and suppliers of inputs who perceived a threat to their livelihoods from the competing Samaikya Agritech Centres services. It was also reported that farmers were told that any who registered with the centre would not receive credit or essential supplies (Harris et. al., 2003). Warana Wired project was launched by Warana Cooperative Society in Maharashtra. It is a web based application and providing market price, agricultural schemes and crop technology. It was found that the standardization of databases at the sugar cooperative was an initial challenge. Other challenge was that software prepared by NIC was upgraded many times to facilitate smooth functioning of services on the network. The main challenge was kiosks have been managed by government servants which has created a situation where the services were available at the kiosks only on working days between 10 am and 5 pm. As in other ICT based project, here also they found power shortage in rural areas (Harris & Rajora, 2006). In the Gyandoot project which was launched by Govt. of Madhya Pradesh is providing information on agricultural crop prices, online registration of applications 49
for obtaining copies of land records, an online public grievance system and a village auction site. They have reported that slow and unreliable dial-up connectivity and an irregular power supply and had forced additional investments in power backup (Bhatnagar et al., 2003; Harris & Rajora, 2006). In TARAhaat project that was launched by Development Alternative (NGO) in Uttar Pradesh. It provides weather forecasting, procurement services, sales negotiations and other services. It has been reported that the project was faced difficulties as Government departments did not support the NGO initiative as originally expected. There was major challenge that the returns from the rural kiosks were miniscule compared to the investments made by private entrepreneurs. Another challenge was that the project which was also depended heavily on e-commerce activities, which could not be realized in the project area (Harris & Rajora, 2006). In the Uttamkrishi.com project which was started by Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited in seven states of India. It gives information on crops and agronomic practices. It was observed that infrastructure constraints (electricity / power, AMC provider), facilitator required (due to low skill level of farmers), availability of products (as suggested by the experts), revenue model for the facilitator and tangible benefits for the company were some issues related to major challenges (Prasad, 2006). The Community Information Centres (CIC) which was launched by Government of India in Sikkim provides information on agriculture prices and other agricultural market information to farmers. The main challenge was that they faced lot of difficulties because the people in this area were poor knowledge in computer operation. Another challenge was a lack of IT-skilled manpower in these areas has also been a major stumbling block in driving the technology and its impact down to the communities (Harris & Rajora, 2006). e-Velanmai project was launched by Government of Tamil Nadu under public model where the farmers were offered free without any membership fee collection and later it converted in to paid model based on the initial experiences. In this project, they found that there was difficulty in sending large number of photos per day through internet to the project expert team set up at TNAU because of the large file size. The great difficulty to give the training as most of the farmers were aged, illiterate and 50
found it difficult to grasp the knowledge and skill in handling ICT tools/media (Stockholm Challenge, 2010). Krishinet project was launched by Government of Madhya Pradesh. It is providing information on agriculture recommendations, packages of practices, farm management practices, rate, supply and availability of agriculture inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticides, implements and bio-products. The greatest challenge they found was geographical spread of the number of outlets/offices where project has been implemented. The co-ordination and monitoring of progress of different components of project was the key challenge. The existing e-readiness and IT literacy status of departmental officers, employee was another big issue. The general attitude of rejecting and questioning the success of new technology in rural condition has created road blocks during requirement collection and implementation of project (Sharma & Jain, 2009). Infothela project was initiated by Media Lab Asia, IIT-Kanpur. It serves the purpose of education, entertainment and provides agriculture based information, weather information, health care information, government information. It has found that the first model of Infothela project was originally designed for pedal power generation which was inadequate to supply power for computer system. Another challenge it has faced that the layout of the Infothela was not convenient for storing a Genset and other computer accessories. Therefore, a need was felt to make another model to meet the needs of Infothela more efficiently (Media Lab Asia, IIT-K, 2007). I-Kisan is launched by Nagarjuna group of companies in both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states but portal has information for other states too. From users point of view, about 50 percent of the beneficiaries expressed about lack of timely location- specific information on I-kisan portal. A majority of the users (above 60 percent) felt that inadequate infrastructure facilities including electricity and telephone at the village level led to frequent poor internet connectivity in kiosks which hampered access to online information (Adhiguru & Mruthyunjaya, 2004). I-Kisan is a private venture and a bias towards resource-rich and bigger land owners was observed (Meera et al., 2004). aAQUA project was launched by IIT-Bombay in Maharashtra. The challenges during aAQUA project was organizing and harvesting the meta-data from many aAQUA 51
content. It has arised due to the heterogeneous data in aAQUA (both textual and non- textual elements), improper grammar and spelling (requiring corrections) and at times manual choice of metadata. Yet another challenge was the number of variables that makes each farmers question unique even though they may be expressed in similar ways on aAQUA. Another issue was temporal validity of historical answers in the database. The challenge with providing many repositories (although related) was that of organizing and updating the content. One another challenge was that the leased line was the weakest link in the delivery of data from the Internet (Ramamritham et. al., 2005; APDIP, 2006). AGMARKNET was launched by Agriculture Informatics Division of National Informatics Centre (NIC) in all India Constrains have been found in AGMARKNET project are complexities involved in system integration while dealing with different vendors. Many of the markets are located at below district level where, in general, the communication system in the country is not reliable enough to enable implementation of web based data entry applications over dial-up lines. Farmers and other functionaries in the markets are usually familiar with local language only. Due to lack of prior experience with computers, the market personnel would initially require onsite support. Before publishing on the internet, the daily data received from various markets are hosted on intranet of Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI). The doubtful information, if any, is segregated and published only after cross verification with such markets. The identification of markets to be covered under the project is left to the State Marketing Boards/Directorates. Sometimes, unimportant markets may also figure in the priority list due to communication gap. Many of the markets are expected to suffer from poor power supply and voltage fluctuations. State Marketing Boards/Directorates have to ensure timely availability of road permits for ensuring smooth delivery of various hardware and software items at the sites. The project has to be managed with the existing staff. No additional posts can be created for this project (Suri, 2005). e-Krishi project was launched by Kerala State IT Mission in Kerala. It gives information on weather information, market price, soil testing, input services, agri- trade centre (through farmers registration as well as buyer registration), resource library, government forms, IT education at e-Krishi Centre (EKC). It was found that 52
fear of sales and income tax, language (portal only in English), non availability of commodities, lack of storage facility, fear of trading through the net (Not seeing the buyer), inability to honour forward posting due to natural calamities and fluctuation of market rate and menace of middle men (Kelkar, 2009). The e-Village project is giving information on farm agri-advisory services, local market, weather information, village adoption schemes, networking all existing Agricultural Service providers. The challenge has only having Adi tribal dialect and it is hindrance to use Internet based content. Other challenges are electricity (irregular supply of power at village), content (collecting appropriate agricultural technological content was the problem) and Internet (frequent failure of telephone based internet connectivity) (eINDIA, 2010). Lack of e-awareness and distance between villages accessibility of centres to farmers are also an important challenges (Kathiresan, 2010). 4.4.2. Challenges in Mobile Phone and Print Media based Agri-advisory Systems: Warana Unwired project provides agricultural information through mobile phone. It has been reported that the tiny key pads on mobile phones were not the easiest method of input for typing long strings of text, particularly for adults. They have also observed that SMS-based system is entirely dependent on the availability of the server (Veeraraghavan et. al., 2007). In mKRISHI project which is also providing warnings to farmers about impending pest attacks and take preventive measures. It has been reported that developing the image processing algorithms for enabling auto detection of a particular symptom from the received images was one of the major challenges. Forecast the spread of the disease based on early detection and measurement of the winds direction and speed was another challenge (Suresh, 2011; TRI, 2011). Agriwatch project is providing through both print media and mobile phone the timely and valuable trade information such as futures quotes, prices and news to the subscribers by delivering the same on their cellular phones. The major challenge was that to go beyond Hindi and Marathi into the other vernacular languages for providing service. The project was identified 6 languages are critical such as Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, Gujarati, Tamil and Kannada. This challenge was raised due to investment required for 6 languages will be about Rs. 1,46,05,500 (Agriwatch, 2003). 53
The Reuters Market Light (RML) project gives information on providing up-to-date, customized 54 commodities pricing information in 270 mandis (crop wholesale markets), weather updates specific to their taluk in the early morning (7:30 am), market prices from three selected mandis and tips as well as best practices of production related to specific crops (chosen by the farmer) in the afternoon, and also relevant national and international news in the evening. It has faced challenges such as poor infrastructure in rural areas, creation problem of personal distribution (directly contact with farmers) and content networks (Collecting information), illiteracy, lack of knowledge and skills of farmers to use voice activated services. For distribution channel of this services RML involved in direct sales method and the post office channel failed to produce satisfactory results. After initial reluctance and questioning its viability, the farmers were receptive to the idea of RMLs service (Arora & Cummings, 2010; Kumar, 2010). The telephone based agri advisory services in Krishak Help Line Service project provides information on farm-related problems and clarifies their doubts. It has faced difficulty due to the poor telephone infrastructure, low literacy level and weak communication skills also inhibit using this service. A study shown that about 50 percent users opined that this service offers answers to only simple queries of the farmers and provides solutions only to instant problems like recent and suitable varieties, seed rates, date of farmers fairs and farmers trainings. About one quarter of the farmers stated that private telephone booths in the villages did not encourage making calls to this Help Line Service since as it was a toll-free service (Adhiguru & Mruthyunjaya, 2004). The Dynamic Market Information (DMI) project is giving information on daily market prices (both wholesale and retail). The main challenge they found was that they struggled to identify a right kind of person for market analyst. If one market analysts is absent / resigned, the daily data for that particular market is lost. Another challenge is poor rapport with traders. Many traders were not accepting this initiative and reluctant to provide daily rate. Market analysts faced difficult situations to collect the personal information of the traders, like name, kind of commodity which is transacted by them and contact numbers (eINDIA, 2010). 54
4.4.3. Challenges in ICT based Training for Farmers: In the Skill development for e- learning in agriculture project, it has been reported that skill imparting to a domain specialist in agriculture having minimal IT background to develop and manage an e- Learning web site and daunting task too (eINDIA, 2010). Digital Green (DG) was initiated by Microsoft Research Indias Technology for Emerging Markets team. It is multimedia based application and available video contents related to crop management, animal husbandry, indigenous technologies, value-addition activities, bio-fertilizers (Vermi-compost), pest management, composting, water management, and entertainment. They observed that project has faced challenge like some farmers may be hesitant to be perceived as leaders in certain audiences (Gandhi et. al., 2009; Gandhi et. al., 2007). Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCD) serves video content on System of Rice Intensification (SRI) techniques, Eriophid mite control in coconut, integrated pest and disease management on tomato, vermicompost production, mushroom production, integrated rat control measures, drip based sugarcane cultivation technologies, hybrid maize production and hybrid rice production. It has faced challenges of non cooperation of farm women, poor interest of village leaders, male dominancy, selection and promotion of user groups (farm women) and problem in conducting participatory exercises. The farm women were not allowed to assemble in a common place and organizing the user groups for orientation training due to male dominancy. These users habituated of paying incentives for trainings conducted by government and NGOs (Anandaraja et. al., 2007). 4.4.4. Challenges in Voice based Agri-advisory Systems: Tamil Market (TM) project which provides information through voice based mobile phone on weather, market prices for ten crops and rainwater collection techniques to users. It faced several challenges during its implementation. These challenges were illiterate villagers were more reluctant to participate in the pilot study and had greater difficulty restricting their input to recognizable forms, despite explicit prompts, but reported confidence that with training they could operate such a system (Plauche et. al., 2006; Plauche & Prabaker, 2006). Avaaj Otalo (AO) project is a voice based community forum to access relevant and timely agricultural information. The users expressed discomfort speaking single word 55
commands, which was perceived as unnatural. Talking to the computer was an unfamiliar idea. Difficulty has been found in recovering from errors made by either the system (recognition error) or the user (bad or no input). For accurate speech recognition, it needs to be calm, quiet environment and easy dialing (placing the dialpad in front of users). Challenges related with Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) were one difficulty with the DTMF interface which was in transitioning between dialed inputs and speaking and which was required in the final task for recording the users question and personal information. A difficulty across both modalities was navigating command-driven menus and knowing when to provide input. Every spoken prompt was followed by a beep to indicate that input was requested. The prompts did not explicitly mention the beep, and many users either gave input too early or not at all. This system has very limited navigation features. Indexing and search of complete voice transcripts is likely to be infeasible for low-resource languages and there are obvious privacy concerns. Voice communications is traditionally one-to-one or one-to-many but not many-to-many (Parikh, 2010; Patel et al., 2009). 4.4.5. Challenges in Multi ICT Agri-advisory Systems: KISSAN-KERALA project is an integration of all media like web base, mobile phone, multimedia, online video channel, radio, TV. It gives information on crop advisory, weather forecast, soil test information. In this project, they found that most of farmers in rural areas and other remote places still dont have access to internet or computer. Delivering the information services to these farmers to their households in an affordable way was one of the technological challenges of this project. Bringing various stakeholders into a common platform and convince them to work for a common goal were one of the most important challenge. It was another challenge they have faced while setting up the quality standards for the services (authenticity and reliability of information). Maintaining the quality of a media program and meeting the expectations of the viewers are also a considerable challenge. The quality standards and catching visual presentation of Asianet channel has been another important quality challenge. To maintain continuous relationship with the farmers and give them support throughout their activities was another challenge (eINDIA, 2009). The Knowledge Share Centre (KSC) which gives information on crop cultivation practices, agri-inputs, farm mechinary, crop diagnostic kit, market information has 56
faced many challenges. Continuous up gradation and integration of emerging novel simplified communication technologies in e-Extension initiatives. Another main constraint is to convergence of state department, Agricultural University Research and Extension Programmes with KSC (Nagasree, 2010). In the i-shakthi project where they have also incorporated the Personal Digital Assistant with the existing internet based information advisory, it has been reported that there was a data loss in PDA based system due to battery failure which is commonly reported in PDA systems (TTC, 2009). 4.5 I ssues Related to Sustainability of I CT Efforts in Agriculture
In order to sustain the ICT based projects, revenue generation should be considered as one of the important factors. In several ICT initiatives, they charge some nominal fee from the users towards registration as well as advisory purpose. Raj (2009) suggested that ICT project can be financially sustainable after minimum of two years of starting particularly in tribal areas because people in a village and other stakeholders need to understand potential and benefits of ICTs during the course project period. In participation with local self governance called as Panchayati raj systems and various grass root level organizations such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), farmers association that has shown unique solution to attain sustainability (Sharma, 2006).
Some additional services other than agricultural advisory systems such as computer education for children, PCO, daily consumers goods, stationary items, training camps etc. should also be incorporated. e-Krishi Vipanan project generates revenue through advertising in rural needs. The projects should also need Government support in technical and financial aspects until it gets sustainability.
Public Private Partnership (PPP) model is a few workable options to achieve sustainability (Sharma, 2008). Reddy (2005) suggested to develop consortia of different academic institution such as ICRISAT, IARI, IIIT, other State Agricultural Universities (SAUs). Use of free and open source software (FOSS) must be user friendly and easily accessible to low skilled farmers. Recruiting people having diploma or degree holders in agriculture is also important as this would work an interface between ICT platform and farmers for effective delivery of agri-services (Meera et al., 2004). 57
5. Conclusions
From the present review study, it has been found that the penetration of internet in rural area is still low as compared to urban areas. It was also reported that wherever presence of internet that needs great skill to operate computer. This was one of the high challenging tasks in ICT based projects. In view of increasing mobile phone users, it has been suggested that mobile phone could be effectively utilized for farming advisories. With the advent of new technology such as 3G mobile, the number of facilities and options has also increased and that would be great scope for innovations. Therefore several ICT projects are now incorporating mobile phone as one of the ICT tools/media. Intervention of GPS, GPRS, IVRS, GIS, Remote Sensing and wireless network technology have created lot of scope to innovate with unique solution for problems existing in Indian agriculture. Multimedia based system is user-friendly ICT tools/media for training to the farmers in local language. Electricity, poor telecom connectivity and low bandwidth, education level of farmers showed major challenges in ICT projects. Revenue generation is major points for attaining sustainability of ICT projects and this can achieve by giving additional services such as computer training, selling of Fast Moving Consuming Goods (FMCG), stationary items etc. 6. References Sudarshan Reddy, B. Venkateshwar Rao & Gopu Sudhakar. (2005). e-Sagu: Web-basedAgricultural Expert Advice Dissemination System-Final Evaluation Report, Centre for Environmental Studies, Hanamkonda, Andhra Pradesh. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3656920/eSagu-Web-based-Agricultural- Expert-Advice-Dissemination-System-Final-Report Abdus Sattar. (2011). Agromet Advisory Service. http://www.imdagrimet.gov.in/ARM%20Presentation/Pusa,%20Bihar.ppt Accenture Research Report (ARP) (2010). Masters of rural markets: The Hallmarks of High Performance. http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture_Masters _of_RuralMarkets.pdf 58
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http://hortnet.kerala.nic.in/hortnet-brochure.pdf TNAU Agritech Portal. (2010). http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/comm_e_radio.html United State Agency International Development (USAID). (2011). ICT and AG Profile: Digital Green. http://itac.aed.org/Publications/digital-green-3- 11.pdf V. P. Sharma & K. V. Rao. (2005). Bridging the digital divide: Information Kiosks in Rural India-Challenges and Opportunities, 3rd International Conference on Rural India-Achieving Millennium Development Goals and Grassroots Development. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/45247664/Bridging- The-Digital-Divide-Information-Kiosks-in-Rural-India Vivek Talwar, B. Bowonder & Nrupesh Mastakar. (2005). ICT Platform for Enhancing Agricultural Productivity: The case study of Tata Kisan Kendra, International Journal of Services Technology and Management, Vol. VI, No. 3-5 pp. 437 448. William J. Kramer, Steven A. Rochlin, Guy Morgan. (2009). Base of the pyramid 2.0: Bringing sustainable growth to scale at the BOP through Enterprise ICTs, AccountAbility, BT Group, http://www.accountability.org/images/content/1/2/120/AccountAbility_BT_B ASE%20OF%20THE%20PYRAMID%202_0_July09.pdf
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Annexure Table 2: State wise name and number of ICT projects S. No. Name of States Name of ICT projects No. of ICT projects 1 Kerala HORTNET, KISSAN-KERALA, e-KRISHI, DMI, e-Choupal, Akshaya, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 10 2 Karnataka Raita Mitra Kendras, Digital Green, I-Kisan, AKMINDIA, DMI, Bhoomi, e-Choupal, n-Logue, Agri-Kiosk, KMV, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 14 3 Tamil Nadu TNAUAGRITECH portal, m-Velanmai, e-Velanmai, AgriLine, Jfarmindia, e-learning, I-Kisan, Tamil Market, DMI, IMCD, e- Choupal, n-Logue, VKC, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 17 4 Pondicherry AgriLine, VKC, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 5 Andhra Pradesh COW, Skill development for e-learning in agriculture, AVS, VoiKiosk, I-Kisan, e-Choupal, n-Logue, e-Sagu, Jananis AgriServe, Agritech Centre, i-Shakti, IKSL, Agromet, AGMARKNET 14 6 Maharashtr a m-KRISHI, aAQUA, RML, I-Kisan, e-Choupal, n-Logue, AgriFone, Nokia Life Tools, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 12 7 Madhya Pradesh uttamkrishi.com, Digital Green, EKVI, e-Choupal, n-Logue, Gyandoot, LifeLine India, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 11 8 Gujarat uttamkrishi.com, Avaaj Otalo, n-Logue, IKSL, Agri-Kiosk, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 8 9 Rajasthan uttamkrishi.com, e-Choupal, n-Logue, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 7 10 Uttarakhand aAQUA, AKMINDIA, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 11 Uttar Pradesh m-KRISHI, TARAhaat, uttamkrishi.com, I-Kisan, e-Choupal, Agri- Kiosk, TKK, LifeLine India, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 12 12 Arunachal Pradesh e-Arik, e-Village, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 13 Himachal Pradesh Lokmitra, LifeLine India, IKSL, Agromet, AGMARKNET 5 14 Orissa e-Agro, Digital Green, I-Kisan, IKSL, Orissa, Agromet, AGMARKNET 7 15 Chhattisgar h uttamkrishi.com, IKSL, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 16 Bihar Digital Green, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 5 17 Jharkhand Digital Green, IKSL, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 18 Haryana uttamkrishi.com, RML, I-Kisan, e-Choupal, Agri-Kiosk, TKK, LifeLine India, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 11 19 Punjab m-KRISHI, TARAhaat, uttamkrishi.com, RML, I-Kisan, Jagriti-e- Seva, TKK, IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 11 20 Sikkim CIC, Agromet, AGMARKNET 3 21 West Bengal IKSL, Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 4 22 Goa IKSL, Agromet, AGMARKNET 3 23 Assam Agriwatch, Agromet, AGMARKNET 3 73
Table 3: Name and number of ICT projects with their mode of information
Sl. No. Mode of Information Name of ICT projects No. of projects 1 Mobile phone/Telephone based m-Velanmai, e-Velanmai, Agriwatch, m-KRISHI, COW, KCC, aAQUA, KISSAN-KERALA, e-KRISHI, VKC, Jananis AgriServe, Nokia Life Tools, Krishak Help Line Service, Digital Mandi, Infothela, Uttamkrihi.com 16 2 SMS based TNAUAGRITECH, aAQUA, RML, KISSAN-KERALA, AKMINDIA, DMI, AgriFone, Nokia Life Tools, Warana Unwired, Digital Mandi 10 3 Interactive Voice Response System based on mobile phone m-KRISHI, KCC, aAQUA, VoiKiosk, Tamil Market, Avaaj Otalo, AgriFone, IKSL, i-Shakti, LifeLine India, KSC 11 4 Radio dial-up and broadcasts Avaaj Otalo 1 5 AIR Radio based Agromet 1 6 Community FM radio based TNAUAGRITECH, KISSAN-KERALA, VKC 3 7 Video-conferencing TNAUAGRITECH, e-Velanmai, n-Logue, AVS 4 8 Web based e-Arik, TNAUAGRITECH, e-Velanmai, Agriwatch, COW, AgriLine, Jfarmindia, Raita Mitra Kendra, TARAhaat, Uttamkrishi.com, e-Agro, Skill development for e-learning in agriculture, e-learning, CIC, aAQUA, KSK, Krishinet, Infothela, Digital Mandi, AVS, I-Kisan, aAQUA, Jagriti-e-Seva, HORTNET, AGMARKNET, KISSAN-KERALA, RKMP, AKMINDIA, e-KRISHI, KSC, DMI, e-Village, Lokmitra, EKVI, Bhoomi, e-Choupal, n-Logue, Akshaya, Agri-Kiosk, Lokmitra, VKC, e-Sagu, Jananis AgriServe, Agritech Centre, KMV, TKK, Gyandoot, i-Shakti, LifeLine India, Warana Wired, Keltron 51 9 Multimedia based e-Arik, TNAUAGRITECH, m-KRISHI, COW, AgriLine, e-Agro, Skill development for e-learning in agriculture, aAQUA, Digital Green, KISSAN-KERALA, e-KRISHI, IMCD, Agri-Kiosk, e-Sagu, Jananis AgriServe, AgriFone, LifeLine India, KSC,AVS 19 10 Television based Agromet, KISSAN-KERALA 2 11 Online video channel based KISSAN-KERALA 1 12 Print media based Agromet, Agriwatch, e-Arik 3 13 Phone base information portal VoiKiosk 1 14 PDA based i-Shakti 1 74
Table 4: Number of ICT projects along with ICT tools/media and its organizations name Sl. No. Name of ICT tool No. of project Name of the organization 1 Mobile phone/Telephone 16 TNAU, Govt. of TN, Tata Consultancy Services, ViDAL Foundation, Ministry of Agriculture, IIT Bombay, Media Lab Asia (IIT-K), Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, CSAUAT (Kanpur), Kerala IT Mission, MSSRF, Janani group of company, Nokia India Private Limited 2 SMS 10 Indian Agribusiness Systems Pvt. Ltd., IIT Bombay, Media Lab Asia (IIT-K), Thomson Reuters, IIT-Kanpur & IIITM-Kerala, C- DAC (Hyderabad), Nokia India Private Limited, Warana Cooperative Society, VaudioPhone Corp 3 Interactive Voice Response System 11 Tata Consultancy Services, Ministry of Agriculture, IIT Bombay, IBM Research, ICSI & TIER, IBM Research India Laboratory & DSC, CRIDA & I-Kisan, OneWorld International, Hindustan Unilever Limited, IFFCO, VaudioPhone Corp 4 Radio dial-up and broadcasts 1 IBM Research India Laboratory & DSC (Ahmedabad) 5 AIR Radio 1 Ministry of Earth Science (Central Govt.) 6 Community FM radio 3 TNAU, Kerala IT Mission, MSSRF 7 Video-conferencing 4 TNAU, Govt. of TN, n-Logue Communications Private Limited, AVS 8 Web 51 College of Horticulture and Forestry, CAU (HP), TNAU, Govt. of TN, Indian Agribusiness Systems Pvt. Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services, ViDAL Foundation, E.I.D. Parry (India) Limited, Tractor and Farm Equipments India Limited, Dept. of Agriculture (Govt. of Karnataka), Development Alternatives, Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, eKutir Rural Management Services Pvt. Ltd, National Academy of Agriculture Research and Management, Central Govt. of India, IIT Bombay, JAIKISAN, Govt. of MP, Media Lab Asia (IIT-K), Byrraju Foundation, Nagarjuna group of companies, Jagriti-e-Seva, State Horticulture Mission (Kerala), Department of Marketing and Inspection (Govt. of India), Kerala IT Mission, Directorate of Rice Research (Hyderabad), IIT-Kanpur & IIITM-Kerala, CRIDA & I-Kisan, C-DAC (Hyderabad), Govt. of HP, Govt. of MP, ITC Limited, n-Logue Communications Private Limited, IFFCO, MSSRF, IIIT (Hyderabad), Janani group of company, The Samaikya Agritech Private Ltd, Kerala State Electronics Development Co. Ltd, Warana Cooperative Society, OneWorld International, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Chemicals Limited 9 Multimedia 19 TNAU, Tata Consultancy Services, ViDAL Foundation, E.I.D. Parry (India) Limited, eKutir Rural Management Services Pvt. Ltd, National Academy of Agriculture Research and Management, IIT Bombay, Microsoft Research Indias Technology for Emerging Markets, Kerala IT Mission, CRIDA & I-Kisan, Agricultural College and Research Institute (Madurai), IFFCO, IIIT (Hyderabad), Janani group of company, OneWorld International, VaudioPhone Corp, Byrraju Foundation 10 Television 2 Ministry of Earth Science (Central Govt.), Kerala IT Mission 11 Online video channel 1 Kerala IT Mission 12 Print media 3 College of Horticulture and Forestry, CAU (HP), Indian Agribusiness Systems Pvt. Ltd., Ministry of Earth Science, Central Govt. 13 Phone based information portal 1 IBM Research 14 PDA 1 Hindustan Unilever Limited
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Table 5: Review of ICT initiatives in Indian agriculture Name of the projects Types of Information States Mechanisms Organization Name Orgn. Type Launched year Service e-Arik Pest and diseases, farmers crop history, market price, weather, e-governance, health, education Arunachal Pradesh web based, Print Media College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University Govt. 2008 Paid TNAUAGRI TECH portal Crop production, protection, organic farming, market price, weather, soil testing, availability of inputs, SRI, precision farming, news via newspaper clipping, radio, TV, etc. Tamil Nadu web based, mobile phone, audio and video streaming, video conferencing, radio, TV Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Govt. 2009 Free m-Velanmai Soil, crops, weather, pest and disease diagnosis, market price, bank loans, insurance, government schemes. Tamil Nadu Mobile phone TNAU PPP - - e-Velanmai Management of insect pest, disease, nutritional deficiencies, weeds, market intelligence, weather, agricultural operations, varietal selection, fertilizer scheduling Tamil Nadu web based, mobile phone, video conferencing Government of Tamil Nadu Govt. 2006 Paid Agriwatch Spot and futures prices, news and analysis, statistics and trends, weather, crop forecasting, market price, agri buyers guide, agri yellow pages, policy watch, legal watch All North Indian states web based, SMS, print media based Indian Agribusiness Systems Pvt. Ltd. (IASL) Private 2000 Paid m-KRISHI Warning to pest and disease attack, weather, soil, market price, crop insurance, agri-inputs and cold storage availability, news feeds Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab Mobile phone, Wireless Sensing Network (WSN), Multimedia, GPS, web based, IVR, Rural Net, Packet interactive multimedia response Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Private 2009 Paid Agromet district level weather, advisory on crop protection, bulletin, All India Weekly/bi-weekly bulletins, radio, TV Ministry of Earth Science, Central Govt. Govt. 2008 Free COW Pest infestation, weather, soil testing, crop price, agri-credit, health, adult computer education, health exam results Andhra Pradesh Web based, Mobile phone with GPRS, Multimedia ViDAL Foundation NGO 2003 Paid KCC Market price, weather, advisory on best package of practices, All India Mobile phone, IVRS Ministry of Agriculture Govt. 2004 Free AgriLine Market price, weather, crop cultivation practices of sugarcane in particular, farming techniques, crushing details of sugarcane and payments payable to farmers, agri-extension service, loans, e-commerce, insurance, agri-inputs, local news, soil testing, govt. schemes, health, education, e-governance etc. Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry Web based, Multimedia E.I.D. Parry (India) Limited Private 2003 Paid 76
Jfarmindia Soil analysis, finance, crop diagnostics weather updates, pest and disease operations, buying and selling of agri-inputs and address of agri-companies, farm news, use of agri-inputs, NGO list Tamil Nadu Web based Tractor and Farm Equipments India Limited(TAFE) Private 2000 Paid Raita Mitra Kendras Crop production, market prices, soil conditions Karnataka Web based Dept. of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka Govt. 2000 Paid TARAhaat Weather forecasting, services & sales negotiations, e- governance, health, education, entertainment etc. UP, Punjab Web based, Development Alternatives (DA) NGO 2000 Paid uttamkrishi.c om Crops, agronomic advice UP, Haryana, Gujarat,Rajasth an, Punjab, MP, Chhattisgarh, Web based, Telephone based Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd Private 2001 Free e-Agro Agro growth practices, weather update, pest and disease management, soil nutrient status, multiple market price, price-discovery, buy, sell, credit and insurance, vocational education, primary health, microfinance, agri-inputs, logistics etc. Orissa Web based, video based eKutir Rural Management Services Pvt. Ltd Private - Paid Skill development for e-learning e-content for agriculture education, success stories, package of practices Andhra Pradesh Multimedia, web based National Academy of Agriculture Research and Management Govt. 2008 Free e-learning Agriculture education, extension education, Tamil Nadu Web based TNAU Govt. - Free CIC Market price, e-governance, education, employment opportunities Sikkim Web based Govt. of India Govt. 2000 Paid aAQUA Market price, agriculture content (crop doctor), farmer schemes, expert advice, education, healthcare, farmers query, e-mail alert, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Web based, Mobile phone, Multimedia, SMS- aAQUA and Voice- aAQUA (2009, LY) IIT Bombay Govt. 2004 Some Free & Some Paid Digital Green Field demonstration, crop management, animal husbandry, indigenous technologies, value-addition activities, bio-fertilizers (Vermi-compost), pest management, water management, entertainment Karnataka, MP, Orissa, Jharkhand, New Delhi Multimedia Microsoft Research Indias Technology for Emerging Markets NGO 2004 Paid KSK Govt. schemes, market price, new technology crops, implements, irrigation techniques, organic and fertilizer cultivation, pesticide services, microfinance, e-governance Uttarakhand Web based JAIKISAN NGO 2003 Paid Krishinet Agriculture recommendations, packages of practices, farm management practices, market rate, supply and availability of agriculture inputs, bio-products, online soil testing reports, alert on pest incidence, Govt. MP Web based Govt. of MP Govt. 2008 Free 77
schemes, weather through links etc. Infothela Weather, education, health care, govt. schemes, UP Web based, telephone Media Lab Asia,IIT-K Govt. 2004 Free Digital Mandi Trading, market prices, decision support advisory on agri- inputs, plant diseases, improved irrigation techniques UP Web based, Mobile phone, SMS Media Lab Asia, IIT-K Govt. 2004 Free RML Localized weather forecasts, best agri-practices, crop advisory on agri-inputs, plant protection, market data & price, news Maharashtra, Haryana,Punjab SMS Thomson Reuters Private 2007 Paid AVS Advice on agri-inputs, crop-cycle, agri-query, soil health, vermin-compost, organic farming, marketing support, agri-enterprise, virtual education, tele- medicine, virtual aqua-culture, INPM, BCMTS etc. Andhra Pradesh Web based, Video conferencing, Multimedia Byrraju Foundation NGO 2006 Paid VoiKiosk Crops related query, health, local newspaper, distant education, Andhra Pradesh Phone based information portal, voice based IBM Research & Byrraju Foundation Private & NGO 2008 Paid I-Kisan Pest and disease, agri-practices, agri-news, animal husbandry, agri-machinery, agri-credit, agri-insurance, agri-inputs price, weather, market price AP, TN,UP, Punjab,Haryana, Karnataka,Oriss a, Maharashtra Web based Nagarjuna group of companies Private 2000 Paid Krishak Help Line Service Farm practice, farmers query UP Telephone based CSAUAT, Kanpur Govt. 2000 Free Jagriti-e- Seva Judicious use of agri-inputs, organic farming, agri- operations, soil testing, training, agri-inputs applications, LIC, e-governance, market linkage etc. Punjab Web based Mr. J. S. Sandha, entrepreneur Private 2003 Paid HORTNET Crop wise best practices, pest & disease, nutrient, water management, availability of horticulture crops, grower and trader details, project details, horticulture product marketing details, daily market arrivals and prices details through AGMARKNET link. Kerala Web based State Horticulture Mission, Kerala Govt. - Free AGMARKNET Better price realization, market price, markets report daily prices, movement of weekly & monthly prices & arrivals, spot, future, minimum support prices and international commodity prices, weather, DMI schemes All India Web based Department of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) Govt. 2000 Free Tamil Market Weather, market prices, rainwater collection techniques Tamil Nadu Voice based ICSI & TIER Acad 2004 - KISSAN- KERALA Advisory for agri-problems, weather forecast, soil testing, best farming practices, success story, method demonstration, organic farming, market price, Govt. schemes, fertilizer & pesticide recommendation Kerala Web based, Mobile phone based, TV, radio, Multimedia, online video channel, SMS Kerala IT Mission Govt. 2003 Free Avaaj Otalo Agri & animal husbandrys query, market price, weather, listen previous programmes, Govt. schemes Gujarat Voice based, radio dial- up IBM Research India Laboratory & DSC Private & NGO 2009 Free 78
RKMP Package of practice of rice crop, suitability of varieties in particular region, e-contents on rice, pest & disease Rice growing region of India Web based Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad Govt. 2011 Free AKMINDIA agri-information for DSS, OFRS, soil micro-nutrient, weather forecasting, crops tips Karnatak Web based, SMS IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur & IIITM-Kerala Govt. 2009 Free e-KRISHI Advisory on crops, weather, market price, soil testing, inputs services, agri-e-trading, agri-resource library, education, e-Governance, fertilizers calculator, contacts of sellers & buyers, pre & post harvest etc. Kerala Web based, Multimedia, Mobile phone Kerala State IT Mission Govt. 2009 Paid KSC Crop cultivation practices, agri-inputs, agri-queries, farm-machinery, crop diagnostic kit, market price Andhra Pradesh Web base, IVRS, Multimedia CRIDA & I-Kisan PPP 2009 Paid DMI Daily market price TN, Kerala, Karnataka Web based, SMS C-DAC & TNAU Govt. 2008 Free e-Village Farm agri-advisory, local market, weather, village adoption schemes, Arunachal Pradesh Web based C-DAC & College of Horticulture and Forestry Govt. 2008 Paid IMCD SRI techniques, IPDM, vermi-compost, mushrooms production, drip based sugarcane cultivation technique, hybrid maize & rice production, inputs requirement, Tamil Nadu Multimedia Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai Govt. 2006 Free Lokmitra Market rates, e-Governance HP Web based Himachal Pradesh Govt. Govt. 2001 Paid EKVI Market rates, arrival in mandi, educating farmers, weather forecasting, disaster warning MP Web based Madhya Pradesh Govt. PPP 2005 Paid Bhoomi Updated land records Karnataka Web based Karnataka Govt. Govt. 2001 Paid e-Choupal Market price & its trends, crops info, local weather forecast, farm management & its package of practice, soil & water testing, insurance, virtual buying MP,Har,Raj,UP Kar,AP,Raj,TN Maha, Kerala Web based ITC Limited Private 2000 Paid n-Logue detection & diagnosis of crop & animal disease, advice on farming method, computer education, health & e- governance, weather, crops price, buying & selling TN, Maha, Guj, MP, Kar, AP, Raj Web base, Videoconferencing n-Logue Communications Private Limited Private 2001 Paid Akshaya Project Agriculture(contents, cultivation practices), health, education, e-commerce, e-governance Kerala Web based Kerala State IT Mission PPP 2004 Paid Agri-Kiosk Agri-practices, land preparation, fertilizer/seed use, irrigation, plant protection & market, natural resource, fertilizer industry, agro-chemicals & co-operatives, GIS Har, UP, Kar, Gujarat Web based, Multimedia IFFCO Coopera tive 2003 Paid VKC Weather, waves height, market price, crops & animal disease, agri-inputs, seed sowing, news, education, health, e-Governance, Govt. schemes, transport Pondicherry, TN Web based, Mobile phone, Radio, MSSRF NGO 1998 Paid e-Sagu Pest & disease, IPM, personalized advice on agri-query AP Web based, Multimedia IIIT, Hyderabad Acad. 2004 Paid 79
Jananis AgriServe Agri-advisory, agri-marketing, post-harvest, agri-insurance, timely finance, risk mitigation against price and weather fluctuations & quality inputs, health, education, livelihood AP Web based, Multimedia, Mobile phone Janani group of company Private 2003 Paid Agritech Centres Technical assistance with seeds, agri-inputs; machinery rental; tools & spares for sale; soil & water analyses; field mapping; weekly field inspections; weather AP Web based The Samaikya Agritech Private Ltd Private 1999 Paid Keltron Agriculture support, crops and pests, e-Governance Kerala Web based Kerala State Electronics Development Co. Ltd Govt. 2001 Paid Warana Wired Market rate, recent market arrival, agri-schemes, agri- techniques, agri-implements, new crop variety IPM, land record, sugarcane harvest, online selling of milk, daily weather forecast, cropping pattern, soil conservation, education, health, vocational guide, Govt. schemes Maharashtra Web based Warana Cooperative Society Coopera tive 1999 Paid Warana Unwired Sugarcane output for a given farmer, fertilizer usage, status of harvesting permits, schedule for a given harvest, others are same as Warana Wired Maharashtra SMS Warana Cooperative Society Coopera tive 2006 Paid LifeLine India Insect, pest & disease management, agri-inputs, market price, available funding and Govt. schemes on loans & subsidies; banking & insurance; watershed mngt. & micro-irrigation; livestock & organic farming education, agri-expert UP, MP, HP, Haryana Web based, IVRS, Multimedia OneWorld International NGO 2006 Paid i-Shakti agri-advisory, health, education, hygiene, finance, entertainment and legal procedures AP Web based, PDA, Dialogue- interactive technology Hindustan Unilever Limited Private 2003 Free Gyandoot Crop prices, registration of applications for copies of land records, public, grievance system, village auction site MP Web based State Govt. of MP Govt. 2000 Paid TKK Agri-inputs availability, farm equipment leasing, pest attack, agri-advisory, soil analysis by remote sensing satellite mapping & GIS, farmers query, climate, crop suitability, acreage, agri-credit & insurance, training UP, Punjab, Haryana Web based Tata Chemicals Limited Private 1998 Paid KMV Arrivals and prices of important agri-commodities Karnataka Web based Karnataka Govt. Govt. 2002 Free Nokia Life Tools Cropping cycle, agri-advice, weather forecast, agri-tips & techniques, market prices, education and entertainment services (news, astrology, sports) Maharashtra Mobile phone, SMS Nokia India Private Limited Private 2009 Paid IKSL Agri-content, soil testing, expert-advice, agri-inputs application techniques, pest/ insect attack, mandi price, agri-query, practical inputs 18 States of India IVRS, Voice message IFFCO Coopera tive 2007 Paid AgriFone Facilitated community interactions among agri- stakeholders to solve agri-related problems Maharashtra IVRS, Voice message, SMS, Multimedia, GPRS VaudioPhone Corp Private 2010 Paid Note: Govt: Government, Acad: Academic Institutions, PPP: Public Private Partnership
E-Village Project - An Innovative E-Agriculture Initiative For Hill Agriculture Development - Dr. R. Saravanan, Dr. C. Kathiresan and Mrs. Supriya Devi
EFFECT OF ORGANIC MANURES AND BIO-FERTILIZERS ON GROWTH, YIELD, QUALITY AND ECONOMICS OF BROCCOLI (Brassica Oleracea L. Var. Italica PLENCK) Cv. GREEN HEAD UNDER HIGH-HILL CONDITIONS OF UTTARAKHAND