A REVIEW OF LITERATURE STUDY ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES

IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Anil Kumar Sahu

M. Sc. (ICT in Agriculture and Rural Development)

Internship Work at the RTBI, Chennai

May 3, 2011

Introduction

ICT plays a vital role in farming communities

The Review of literature study results would help the ICT innovators and

scientific communities

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

Methodology

Collected around 334 papers/reports using Google engine that were

published between 2000 and 2010

About 150 papers have been selected

The selected papers were arranged, explained and summarized

Key Findings

Sl. No. Name of ICT tool Number of project1 Mobile phone/Telephone 16

2 SMS 10

3 Interactive Voice Response System 11

4 Radio dial-up and broadcasts 1

5 AIR Radio 1

6 Community FM radio 3

7 Video-conferencing 4

8 Web 50

9 Multimedia 18

10 Television 2

11 Online video channel 1

12 Print media based 3

13 Phone base information portal 1

14 PDA 1

1. Mobile phone/Telephone

mKRISHI by TCS - Maharashtra, Punjab and UP since 2009

Mobile phone is equipped with multiple features like sensors, camera, GPS, and microphones

Collect agri-related data through WSN Advisory on pest attack, market price, agri-inputs, Govt. policies etc IVRS platform for farmer to answer simple questions about the disease

symptoms with simple (Yes/No) inputs Synchronization of image of crops infested with farmer’s voice through

microphone Rural-Net (R-Net), a mobile phone based social networking environment Service cost lie between $1 and $2 a month.

2. SMS

Reuters Market Light (RML)- Thomson Reuters in 2006 in Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab

It has own voucher card along the lines of a mobile recharge card. Choice based information on 150 crop types in more than 1,000 markets Nearly 300,000 individual farmers across 15,000 villages have bought

subscriptions to RML from launching year Market prices from three selected mandis and tips as well as best practices

of specific crop as chosen by farmers. On an average, each farmer receives four messages each day 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 ($4.10) for 3 months Approximately US$8,000 is the highest reported saving by a farmer

according to the information shared by RML

3. IVRSIFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) - Promoted by IFFCO in

collaboration with AirTel in 2007 (covers 18 Indian States)

AirTel is to prepare a unique SIM card IFFCO-AirTel Green Card

Subscribers are provided five 1-minute voice-based messages free of

cost every day

Farmer can also access a toll-free helpline service at the cost of Re. 1

per minute where they receive farm advisory messages and practical

inputs from experts

The call rates within the CUG (Close User Group) would be just 50

paisa

Society get income of Rs. 9500 per months through Green SIM Card

Increased of 16-25% in terms of yield

Increased in procurement by 30-35% of HAFED

4. Radio dial-up and broadcasts

Avaaj Otalo (AO) -Gujarat (2009) by IBM & DSC

Helps farmers for asking questions and browsing others’ questions Announcement board is a list of headline related to agri uploaded to AO by

DSC staff or other agri-experts several times per week Radio archive lets the caller listen to archived radio programs produced by

DSC on agricultural topics Farmers are allowed to record their own questions, and response by experts Users browsed the archive by listening to 30 second summary recordings

and then choosing to listen to full 15 minute program or continue browsing Farmers can record their questions using a toll-free number Q & A are re-broadcast on a local agricultural radio program for wider

dissemination Increase in income of over $3,000

5. AIR and TVAgromet Advisory Services (AAS)-Ministry of Earth Science launched in

2008 (All India)

Based on past and anticipated weather conditions and are broadcast by AIR in the respective regions in regional languages and also telecast through TV (also through print media)

E.g. AIR (Darbhanga, Bihar), they are providing daily weather data with advisory and also talked about crop condition, forecast and advisory on weekly basis

IMD has a network of 125 AWS and a large number of manual observatories

Weather based advisories generated by 130 AMFUs Involves all stakeholders such as SAUs, ICAR,KVK, DAC, State

Departments of Agriculture/ Horticulture/ Animal Husbandry/ Forestry (up to District level offices), NGOs, Media Agencies, etc

6. Community FM radio

TNAU Community FM/e-Radio-Velaan Palkalaikkazhaga Vivasayee FM”

Coverage of 15 to 20 km radius (107.4 MHz) from 10.30 am to 1 pm every day

Feature of ‘e’ component through TNAUAGRITECH portal Under agriculture, latest farm technologies, market price of commodities

and weather forecasts Farmers success story, sharing experience of progressive farmers Social linkage by interfacing with faculty on the preparation of training

capsule on community radio as an effective ICT tools Three top clients: identify information givers, identify information seekers

and channelize through CRS As on Feb. 2011,nearly 300 hrs need based programme has been produced

7. Video-conferencing

n-Logue n-Logue Communications Private Limited Launched in 2000 in Tamil Nadu n-Logue partners with experts at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural College and

Research Institute to provide advice On farming methods and solutions to crop and animal diseases via

videoconferencing Timely detection and diagnosis of crop disease in Okra remotely by

agricultural experts was able to save an entire harvest

8. Web Agriculture Knowledge Management in India (AKMINDIA)

Launched by collaborative effort of IIT-B, IIT-K and IITM-K in 2009 in Karnataka and Uttarakhand

Online Fertilizer Recommendation System (OFRS) Web-GIS based location specific weather information and forecasting Appropriate multimedia video contents Web GIS based Soil Micro nutrient Information System in Dharward

where farmers can access online visualization of soil nutrients Social networking space, blog Provided 250 audio crop tips on 27 crops through web based system. Crop doctor forum where complete cultivation practices of 19 crops Providing scientific solution to queries within 24 hours by the experts

9. Multimedia

Digital Green (DG)- Karnataka (2006) by Microsoft Research India’s Technology

Video repository included field demonstrations by agri-scientists,

progressive farmers, interactions among farmers

The videos averaged 10 minutes in length

About 1306 videos were produced and it was screened for 21216

times with over 45091 farmers’ involvement

Adoption rate of agriculture practices 7 fold over a conventional

training/extension

10 times more effective per dollar spent than a conventional

extension system on a cost per adoption basis

They charge nominal fee (INR 2-4) per farmer per screening

10. Online Video Channel

Kissan Information Dissemination and Networking ((KISSAN), Kerala

Launched by Kerala state IT Mission and IIITM-K

Giving authentic agri information through various delivery methods

Country’s first online video channel in collaboration with YouTube and

Google

More than 150 telecast quality full length videos on best practices, and

other scientific inputs

Around 923,187 upload views and also provided crop specific play list and

catalog on the internet.

Users can also access this video on mobile through GPRS/WAP

11. Print MediaAgriwatch-IASL and launched in 2000

Print media, SMS based and web based services Agriwatch Farm Weekly in both Hindi and Marathi for complete

newspaper Agriwatch Trade Weekly in Hindi for small traders Daily/Weekly/Fortnightly Trade Research reports (on Email) covers agri-

commodities (Rice, Wheat, Maize etc.) Valuable trade information on prices and news (about 4-5 messages/day)

through mobile Agriwatch Monthly Magazine in both English and Hindi covering Indian

and International Agribusiness and Trade Membership of Agribusiness Portal www.AgriWatch.com to access a large

amount of agribusiness related information

12. Phone based information portal

VoiKiosk - IBM Research in Andhra Pradesh in 2008

VoiceSite to access content by dialing a phone number and information can be listened rather than being read or seen

VoiKiosk identifies farmers based on their caller IDs. All information in the VoiceSite is stored as audio messages Expert will be able to post his advice for the farmer on VoiKiosk 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 More than 900 users used the system over a period of four months

13. PDA

i-Shakti - Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL)

Capable of disconnected operation and provided many of the services of the main PC based system

Offered up to 1GB of permanent storage Provides its customers and users a complete enterprise web application ‘in-

a-box’ Users can access information from existing databases on Agri and other

topics Farmers post their questions that are subsequently answered by agri-

experts.

ICT based training to farmers

Sl. No. Name of project ICT tools

1 e-Arik Multimedia2 e-Krishi Vipanan Multimedia (Video)3 Tata Kisan Kendra Multimedia (Films)4 e-Agro Multimedia (Video)

5Skill development for e-learning in agriculture

Web, CD/DVD

6 e-Velanmai Multimedia (Video)7 Digital Green Multimedia (Video)8 e-Krishi Multimedia (Video, CD)9 Jagriti-e-Seva Web

10 Rice Knowledge Management Portal Web11 Knowledge Share Centre Multimedia (Films)12 Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc Multimedia (CD)13 AgriLine Web (audio-visual content)14 KISSAN-KERALA Web (Video)15 Avaaj Otalo Radio dial-up and broadcasts

Social Challenges Lack of familiarity with the operating system/computer Telephone was out of order due to poor bad signal during rainy seasons Identifying suitable kiosk operators and LSPs are posed Lack of confidence by the farmers for expert advice Lack of understanding the ICT initiatives due to poor literacy level of

farmers Difficult in providing ICT based training to farmers due to poor education PCO operator did not allow farmers to call toll-free number because they

will not get anything out of the calls made by the farmers Fear of farmers towards online trading due to lack confidence In the initial stage of the project, public showed lack of acceptance In one of the e-choupal projects, Govt. policy did not allow them to

procure the agricultural products Local marketers felt ICT based projects as threat because they perceived it

will affect their livelihoods Through web based, there is need of information mediator because of

farmer’s illiteracy and are unskilled

Technical challenges

Frequent power (electricity) cuts in remote rural areas Poor telecom connectivity and low bandwidth Limited battery backup in digital camera Difficulty in developing local content by service providers The database developed for one location was not suitable for another

locations Converting local specific manual copies of land records into computer

based systems was difficult Mobile phones were not the easiest method of input for typing long text Image processing algorithms for enabling auto detection of a particular

symptom from the received images Organizing and harvesting the agriculture meta-data was posed a challenge

due to high volume of data Difficult in using local dialect/language in tribal area

Sustainability of ICTs in Agri initiatives

Revenue generation by charging some nominal fee from the users Participation with local self governance Additional services Government support in technical and financial aspects PPP model is a few workable options to achieve sustainability Involvement of academic institution such as ICRISAT, IARI, IIIT, SAUs

etc. Use of FOSS must be user friendly Recruiting people having diploma or degree holders in agriculture

Conclusion

Penetration of internet in rural area is still low as compared to urban areas It needs great skill to operate computer by farmers Increasing mobile phone users 3G mobile with number of facilities and options Intervention of GPS, GPRS, IVRS, GIS, Remote Sensing and wireless

network technology Multimedia based system is user-friendly tool Therefore, ICTs offer an opportunity for agriculture development by

reaching to unreached farming communities.

Experiences Gained

Deciding my topic of project work and its finalization Understood ICT initiatives so far operational in Indian Agriculture. Deep insight of knowledge and understanding at RTBI with RTBI

officials Initial few days at Chennai, I faced difficulties Got hostel and took the taste of south Indian dish (Rice, Kurma, Rasam

and Sambhar) that was entirely different taste and flavour from North Indian dish.

I understood first time that how to talk without using word (Tamil) to hostel mess staff (also used translator) and local people

Up to one month after joining hostel, I had difficulty in dinner. I understood the few culture from hostel roomee and from observing

Chennai and also way of life style of people of Chennai Really Chennai is very special and unique city in terms of maintaining

his tradition and culture.

Acknowledgement Prof. Dr. Ashok Junjhunwala

Ms. Suma Prashant

Dr. M. Ganesan

My entire work which includes papers/reports will be handed over to Ms. Suma and Dr. Ganesan

Final report will be made available after Professor’s approval

Thank you