UNIT-IV

ICT Extension approaches-pre-requisites, information and science needs of farming

community. Need integration. Human resource information. Intermediaries. Basic e-
extension training issues. ICT enabled extension pluralism. Emerging issues in ICT.

ICT Extension approaches-pre-requisites, information and science

Most of the ICT Initiatives in India are location specific, isolated and confined to a small area,
providing services for specific aspect of agricultural a development. However, for a full-fledged
strategy to use IT for overall agricultural development at national state regional level efforts have to
be made.

The future investment on harnessing the ICT for agricultural development should meet minimum
criteria of social benefits as promised by ICTs. Hence the strategy should directly benefit agricultural
communities.

An analysis of various isolated ICT initiatives all over the country should be done, the ICT initiatives
in the field in other developing countries need to be studied critically. This will develop insights so as
to design overall strategy of using the ICT in agricultural development.

Sustainability of existing ICTs projects is to be observed, so to enhance the efficiency and as

effectiveness of using the ICTS in agricultural development.

A sound strategy requires human resource especially about the grass root functionaries. The
functionaries of existing ICT projects have to be analysed based on parameters like effectiveness
orientation towards ICT extension, education level training.

The important link in the whole chain of ICT networks and their application are the ultimate
beneficiaries of the integrated ICT projects-are the farmers.

Farmers perception and view about ICT use their information needs goal orientation and overall need
integration are important for a sound strategy. This will enable designing the ways and means for
farmers participation in the future integrated ICT project.

Professionals of development departments and policy makers are the key persons in providing
valuable inputs for designing a sound strategy.

For dissemination of ICT, one needs to look at the grass root level realities like e-readiness parameters
(connectivity, e-leadership, human capital). perception and projection of policy makers and
development professionals play an important role in designing a sound strategy.
Information needs of farmers

Introduction

No one can categorically claim to know all the information needs of farmers especially in an
information dependent sector like agriculture where there are new and rather complex problems
facing farmers every day.

Information needs can be classified according to the "agricultural cycle" or the "agricultural value
chain" Both approaches work through the different phases of decision making that a farmer faces
during a cropping season acquisition of inputs, production planning, cultivation, harvesting, packing
and storing, transportation, and selling. In addition to production-oriented information, off-farm
income-generation options and the implications of changing policies are also important information
needs.

Farmers require information related to:

 Most appropriate technological options

 Management of technologies, including optimal use of inputs Changing farm system options
(mixed farming diversification, animal husbandry, fisheries)
 Sourcing reputable input suppliers
 Collective action with other farmers
 Consumer and market demand for products
 Quality specifications for produce
 Time to buy inputs and sell produce
 Off-farm income-generation options
 Implications of changing policies
 Access to credit and loans
 Agricultural input

Technology
Agriculture
Agricultural credit
Information and Ext. Edu.
science needs of Marketing
farmers Allied Sector

General Sector

Agricultural Technology

Agricultural technology for the small-scale farmer must help minimize the drudgery of farm
operations. It should be labour-saving.

The farmer needs information on production technology that involves cultivating, fertilizing, pest
control, weeding and harvesting.

This sort of information is at the moment being diffused by extension workers, other farmers,
government parastatals and agricultural equipment dealers.

Marketing

A. Information on product planning:

 This is information on what crop and variety to grow at a given season with marketability

of such a crop as an important deciding factor.

B. Information on current prices.

C. Information on forecast of market trends:

 This type of information assists farmers in planning their market products..

D. Information on sales timing:

 This assists farmers in ensuring that they do not cause a market glut.

 It enables them to stagger harvesting and quantity for marketing

E. Information on group marketing:

  This enables small scale farmers to have organised sales of marketable surplus and bulk

transport of produce.

Agricultural Credit –

 Agricultural credit encompasses all loans and advances granted borrowers to finance and

service production activities relating to agriculture, fisheries and forest.

 Because of their low level of literacy farmers are mostly unaware of existing loan facilities. *

Farmers need information relating to sources of loan such as names of lenders, location and

types of existing credit sources.

 Information regarding agricultural credit gets to small scale farmers usually through channels

such as relations, friends, neighbours, government officials, commercial and credit banks.

 Grassroots organs such as village heads and local government officials are used to diffuse

such information because of their personal touch with small scale farmers.

 Extension agents need to intensify their efforts in educating farmers to increase their level of

awareness.

 The general lack of awareness among small scale farmers can be attributed to their high level

of illiteracy.

 This contributes to the low level of adoption of agricultural production technology. It is better

provided by extension workers whose main task is to convey information in a meaningful

form to farmers.

 One of the ways they do this is by training a group of model farmers with the hope that such

farmers come in contact with other farmers.

 Farmers outnumber available extension workers with the present ratio of 1:3000.

Inputs –

 Information on seeds fertilizers, pesticides availability precautions to be taken

 Information on input dosage & fertilizer

  Information on input prices for different crops.

Technical information needs –

 Information on package of practices of food grains horticulture crops

 Information on crop variety that are high yielding pest & disease resistant

 Technical details for setting of agro processing units

 List of technical persons

 Information on training programmes & skill upgradation schemes.

 Information on soil conservation measures

 Information on soil testing pesticide testing fertilizer testing.

 Information on biofertilizers, organic manures preparation & availability

 Information on water resources like irrigation schedules for each crop

 Advice on crop growing period

 Information on onset of monsoon & likely rainfall probability Information on contingency

plan

 Information on scientific method of cultivation

 Information on post-harvest technology

Allied sectors –

 Information on cross breeds in animals, their availability & rearing information.

 Information on various poultry, piggery, Rabbit farms of govt. and private sector

 Information on annual productivity of egg, meat & milk.

 Information on various types of livestock disease prevention and curative measures.

 All aspects of sericulture.

 Information on horticulture crop growing availability of seeds

 Information on processing units of horticultural products.

 Information on self-employment opportunities in rural areas.

General sector –

 Information on health

 Information on food & nutrition

 Information on training

 Information on business and trade

 Information on govt policies & plans

 Local information needs could be met by a well-organized extension system that uses

traditional and modern methods of communication such as television, radio, and mobile

phones.

 The need for global information has to be met through internet connections or through contact

with private firms

 The roles of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and farmer-based organizations (FBOs)

are increasingly being recognized as key for information sharing on specific crops and

cropping system.

 The private sector, which includes the high-value agriculture chains developed through

contract farming and input dealers who promote their agrochemicals, also plays a critical role

in filling the information gaps that may exist in rural areas.

Need Integration

 It means integration of farmers need by use of various ICT tools or various ICT tools using
methods.
 By developing farmers friendly ICT tools on need base of farmers

How to integrate farmers information need:

1) Providing users Access to Communication Facilities:

Phone, internet, email, fax, mobile phone etc.

For getting market prices, information on upcoming pest and locust attacks, information on
weather/ rain patterns.
 2) Providing Interactive Demand Based Agriculture Services:

Government Agriculture Programs and Subsidies, Online application for loan facilities, online
Trading (auction of coffee, tea, rubber), Online Agriculture Extension and Query Redressal,
Information on Cropping Pattern and Fertilizer use.

3) Undertaking Automation of Key Agriculture Functions

Digitization of Land Records, Farm Management, Milk-Fat Measurement, Agriculture

Statistics and Databases.

Basic e-extension training issues:

The problems and obstacles with e – extension training are as follows:

 Use of uniform methods of educational for teaching educational content courses by extension

workers

 Lack of attention to gender extension workers in quality of teaching

 Lack of time-fitness in courses with volume and content offered in courses

 Lack of easy access of farmers to educational content courses

 Lack of time-fitness in courses with time conditions of farmers

 Lack of access to educational content courses in the form of informational means such as

instructional pamphlets and CDs

 Lack of time-fitness in courses with time conditions of farmers

 Content provided in courses accordance with the literacy level of farmers

 Lack of importance of respect for the opinions of farmers in the holding course

 Lack of timely awareness of the holding courses

 Lack of using of incentives such as fertilizer of free at more willingness of farmers to

participate in courses

 Lack of using of local dialects for provide content by extension worker in courses
 Financial Resource of Extension:

Less
Lower pay Poor Poor Poor
availability Very little
to communica transportati housing to
of expenditure
extension tion facility on facility extension
programme per farmer
agents to agents to agents workers
cost

Human Resource of Extension:

Short supply
of extension
agents

Less no. of
Poor ratio
female
of SMS to
extension
agents
agents

Human
Resource of
extension

More area More no. of

to be farmers per
covered by extension
agents workers
Lower level
of
education in
extension
agents

ICT enabled extension pluralism

The agricultural sector continues to be an important sector of Indian economy. The agriculture sector
is gearing itself to make optimal use of the new information and communication technologies. At the
Government of India level, a number of important initiatives have been taken to provide IT Hardware
and connectivity to all organizations involved in Agricultural Education, research, development and
dissemination. ICTs or Information and Communication Technologies are emerging as an important
tool for the development of societies and have driving forces in the economies world-wide.

ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

ICT is one of the pillars of "e-agriculture" and acted as a fulcrum for extension activity. ICT is often
used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT) but is usually a more general term that
stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone
lines and wireless signals). intelligent building management systems and audio-visual systems in
modern information technology. ICT in simple terms can be defined as the basket of technologies,
which assist or support in storage. processing of Data/Information, or in
dissemination/communication of Data/Information, or both. Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes computer hardware and software. digital
broadcast and telecommunications technologies as well. as digital information repositories online or
offline (Selwyn. 2009). and includes contemporary social networking aspects. read/write interfaces on
the web besides file sharing systems online. It represents a broad and continually evolving range of
elements that further includes the television (TV), radio. mobile phones and the policies and laws that
govern thewidespread use of these media and devices. The term is often used here in its plural sense
(ICTS) to mean a range of technologies instead of a single technology.

ICTs in the Context of Extension

From the perspective of agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS), ICTs can be seen as
useful in improving linkages between the research and the extension sub systems. The experience of
rural telecentres in the developing world shows that ICT can help in enabling rural development
workers to gather, store, retrieve, adapt. localise and disseminate a broad range of information needed
by rural families (Davison et al 2005). The ICTs in extension can lead to the emergence of knowledge
workers that will result in the realisation of a bottom-up, demand driven paradigm for technology
generation, assessment, refinement and transfer.

The Need of ICT in Agriculture

Extension agent to farmer ratio in India is estimated at 1:2.000. Public agricultural extension services
were criticized for being technically weak, providing insufficient coverage of and contacts with
farmers. Less than one-third of the technologies generated by Agricultural Universities and ICAR
institutes in India were transferred to the farmer's field dueto the lack of an appropriate extension
model (Katyal. 2001). Direct contact by agricultural experts with all the needed farmer clients cannot
be established practically with. the available technical manpower and budget in India. Hence the
research challenge is to identify an effective means to provide quality and timely technical advice to
all the needed farmers using the available experts and their time efficiently. Developments in ICTS
offer ample opportunities to accomplish this challenge. Given the complex nature of agriculture and
the challenges being faced, the use of multidisciplinary expertise is more appropriate to address
agricultural information needs to empower farming community. Project rationale is that technology
transfer efforts in agriculture sector must harness the huge potentials of ICT to provide better linkage
between agricultural experts and farmers for timely and appropriate technical advice to enhance
agricultural productivity and improve living standards of farmers in the region.

Role of ICT in Agriculture

 ICT has a tremendous potential to improve the reach. credibility and impact of Agricultural
Extension, if used appropriately.
 ICT expands the role of agricultural extension from transfer of technology to -Agricultural
Information sharing and Building Agricultural Knowledge Networks.
 The type of ICT application needed is decided once we understand the context of agricultural
extension i.e. to provide total information and advisory support to farmers on all aspects of
farming, marketing and management.

The areas in which ICT can be deployed are

 On-line services for information on each crop.

 On line interaction facility to interact with nearest KUK. SAU. ICAR research station,
agriculture and allied departments etc. for advice on current schemes, projects. varieties etc.
 Information on all sources of Agricultural credit and crop insurance and their terms and
conditions.
 Information sharing mechanisms among the farmers, extension workers and Scientists of
every district, block and mandal.
 Question Answer service (on the lines of kisan call centre) for each district in the country.
 On-line information on market prices of all commodities at mandal, block, district, state and
major national market level.
 On-line monitoring and information sharing on all Agricultural development projects in the
country.
 On-line sharing of District Agriculture development plans (example- strategic research and
tension plans (SREP's) of different ATMA districts.
 On line information on Market prices of all commodities at mandal, block. district, state and
major national market level.
  Market intelligence on major crops.
 On-line weather forecasting and its impact on major crops, on weekly basis.. including early
warning system and on line service on land records.
 E-commerce for direct linkages between local producers. traders, retailers and farmers.
 Information on availability and rates of agricultural inputs seeds. fertilizers, pesticides,
machinery etc.
 Information on all Government and Non-Government Organizations working directly or
indirectly for the agricultural sector.

Problems of ICT in India

There are several success stories to the credit of this information revolution initiative in rural areas,
but it still lacks the 100% efficacy in implementation and its prime objective of bettering rural lives.
Following are the major problem of ICT in agriculture in India:

 Many times the information provides through the various media is not locations specifics.
therefore. farmers feel trouble to accept it.
 Majority of our farmers are illiterate therefore they are unaware about the latest information
and communication systems.
 Many times messages are complex and untimely therefore farmers could not accept it.
 Poor updating of information & communication technologies.
 Slack broadband or wireless connections in internet.
 Low level of intrusion of telephone lines in rural areas leading to low modem availability.
 Radio and television though have a deep approach in rural areas. but the service providers
have a limited and wanting coverage of issues.
 The economic Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of rural people is low as compared to urban
people.
 Low motivational parameters among the rural people to acquire the new and advanced
information.
 Inadequate and improper training to the extension machinery especially the staff which aids
the functioning of ICTs.

Conclusions

Agriculture Knowledge & information systems have to be implemented on priority for rural
empowerment and improved livelihoods as Economic growth and industrial growth of India are
dependent on productivity in agriculture and allied sectors. Ministry of Agriculture is implementing
various schemes for mainstreaming ICT in Agriculture to improve the Agricultural Productivity with
emphasis on improving the service delivery at the grass-root level. Though this ICT enabled
Extension has made giant strides in the rural development sector but there still lacks the perfect
efficiency in delivering what it is meant to deliver or cater to the rural masses. So, there is still great
scope to push its. mileage to the uppermost limit.