Lab to Land: Role of ICT in agriculture development

Lab to Land: Role of ICT in agriculture development: "ICTs or Information and Communication Technologies are emerging as an important tool for thedevelopment of societies and have driving forces..."

Role of ICT in agriculture development

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. ICTs are no more confined

to assist high-end research and development; the new technologies have made significant improvements

in the life-styles and the efficiency-levels all sectors of economy. The positive impact of ICTs is most visible

in service-sector, where the efficiency levels have gone very high. New businesses like “Business Process

Out-sourcing (BPOs)”, Banking and Insurance, the entertainment industry and other industries and

organizations, are all taking maximum advantage of the ICT revolution.

Changing Agricultural Scenario and Information Needs:

So far, we are adopting the traditional systems such as pamphlets, posters, radios, and

television to disseminate the agricultural information to the farmers. In this system, there is plenty of

time gap in reaching the information to the farmers. The information should be accurate and it

should reach at right time. The rapid growth of the Information Technology and Communications

Systems has changed the world scenario entirely. And, now linking two computers from anywhere in the

world is an easy task. The emergence of Internet and E-mail systems has changed the inter-relations of

personal contact so fast. To reduce the gap between rural and urban people, various ICT projects have

been initiated by the Government, NGOs and private companies. The result was linking of villages with

wired network in many parts of the country.

Trends in Agricultural Information Management

Virtual Community

A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily

interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to

face. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community. Virtual and online

communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know

each other primarily in real life. Many means are used in social software separately or in combination,

including chatrooms and forums that use voice, video and/ or text.

Virtual Information Networks

A number of virtual information networks with the objective of linking agricultural institutions

for facilitating better access to information resources have been initiated successfully. While some of

these network agricultural institutions within a country, link to agricultural institutions around the

globe. Some of these are profiled here.

Electronic Publishing in Agriculture

Electronic Publishing (e-Publishing) is quickly becoming an important part of publishing

mainstream. Recent innovations in this area have made it possible to publish on the information

super highway. E-document can be accessed at the computer. It makes much easier for readers to

search the information. It is very quick and easy for a reader to browse the table of the contents of

previous issues, to jump directly to a particular section of a document or even particular section of an

article.

Advantages of e- Publishing

E-Publishing (EP) difference lies in the new levels of value it provides through features not possible

in traditional media. EP products may differ to an even greater degree than print products. Nevertheless,

there are some common features to distinguish EP from print Publishing in terms of value to end-users.

Institutional Repositories

Institutional Repositories (IRs) are the digital information warehouses of modern academic

institutions. According to Clifford Lynch (2003), the IRs are “a set of services that a university offers to

the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by

the institution and its community members”. The key features of a professionally managed IR are:

Rich digital Content, up to date full-length Institutional Research papers, full participation of all

Research Scientists of the organization, and fully supported by top administration.

Concept of Information Kiosk

The concept of ‘ICT kiosk’ is to provide various services including agricultural information to the

rural people to enhance the accessibility of information at village level. The Kiosk has gained wide

popularity and is being promoted by various governments and private agencies to address the digital

divide, little is known about the critical components required to make such a venture successful.

According to a research conducted by Digital Partners, India is way ahead of other countries

and regions in the development and use of ICT kiosks. The findings are part of the interim research

report titled ‘ICT Kiosks: A Comparative Study’. The report covers India, Latin America and Africa

and attempts to find out the best practices among various models to guide its investments.

Conclusion:

The evolutions and availability of ICT’s hole has been the greatest communications revolution in

recent years. The decreasing cost of hardware, increase in reach of communication network and

availability of the same at district and below district level is open –up huge potential for agricultural

scientists and extension worker to reach the farming community in more focus, precise and specific

manner. For this purpose understanding of concept of hardware, software, ICT indicators and national

and international networks will be a huge value addition to the knowledge base of extension functionaries.

Sreenath Induchoodan

MSc Agricultural extension

Non monetory inputs for sustainable agriculture

The Role of Non monetary Inputs and Low cost technologies in Crop production

Introduction:

                        The world as a whole is thinking and conceiving ideas for sustainable development and the same applies to the agricultural sector in India also. The first green revolution initiated in 1960’s aimed at securing the nation in terms of food reserves. No doubt we have achieved the objective but sacrificed or more correctly compromised in the sustainability of the development. In this new era which throws a no of problems towards us, we are thinking of a second green revolution due to the alarming rate of population growth. It is apt to follow the achievements of those countries that have succeeded in establishing a system for sustainable agriculture development.

Cuban revolution in Organic Agriculture:

                        In 1990 after the fall of Berlin wall, Cuba was isolated and side lined from all streams of development by American political brains. Growing food was the major challenge because America tightened its embargo and newly independent states scrambled for US and were forced to end all trade with Cuba.

                        Then came the real reform in organic agricultural sector through non monetary or low cost technologies from Cuban organic farmers association. They started composting techniques and relied upon locally available materials. The farmers adopted Bio fertilizers through developing strains of organisms suitable. The absence of fuel led to the abandoning of tractors and increased use of Oxen which incorporated farm yard manure into the fields

            In 1999 Swedish parliament awarded the alternate Nobel Prize to the association for the revolution. By 2003 supply of vermicompost became one million tones and by 2006 three million tons of food was produced within the states.

India looking out for second green revolution:

                                                 

                                                  India, looking to launch a second green revolution to boost its food security, has begun looking at distant South America where countries have been able to ramp up food production with new technology and farming methods. And to take lessons first-hand, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar visited Argentina, Brazil and Mexico last days. A revolutionary method is ‘no-till farming’, which is applied in 80 percent of the land cultivated in the Mercosur countries (a trading bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay,). In this kind of farming, land is not ploughed. Instead, the agricultural residue of the last plant is allowed to enrich the soil. The seed is then injected into the soil through special machines.

In Zimbabwe also low cost technology is saving the poor and marginal farmers from alarming price rise for agricultural inputs.

Low cost technology or non monetary inputs.

                                                 These technologies are locally adaptable techniques which can bring down the cost of cultivation to a great extent.  The good agronomic practices and good cultural practices like sanitation are included in this.

Timely sowing is very important practice which can affect the productivity to a great extend. The photoperiod sensitivity and reactions contribute to the above technique.

Optimum plant population is another technique deciding the yield. The tightly populated field will lead to competition between the plants reducing the yield.

RESEARCH WORK IN THE ABOVE topic:

                                                 Field experiment with split plot design was conducted to study the effect of monetary and non-monetary inputs on growth, nutrient uptake, yield and economics of turmeric. Non-monetary inputs viz., two varieties (BSR 1 and BSR 2) and three planting time (15 May, 15 June and 15 July); monetary inputs viz., three spacing (30 cm x 15 cm, 45 cm x 15 cm, 60 cm x 15 cm) and three N levels (125, 150 and 175 kg/ha) formed the treatment combination. Turmeric variety BSR 2 out yielded BSR 1 in terms of growth, nutrient uptake and yield. Planting the turmeric during middle of May (15 May) was superior compared to 15 June and 15 July plantings. Among spacing, 30cm x 15cm recorded significantly higher growth, nutrient uptake and yield than 45 cm x 15 cm and 60 cm x 15 cm. The crop response was better for higher rate of nitrogen (175 kg/ha) than other levels. Economic evaluation indicated that combination of non-monetary inputs viz., planting BSR 2 at 15 May with monetary inputs viz., 30 x 15 cm spacing with 175 kg/ha N would increase the turmeric production and income of the farmers.

Crop rotation and integrated farming systems are also low input technologies suitable for sustainable crop production. Through these the disease and pest infestation and be controlled. Integrated farming systems are best examples since the systems are in an integrated manner and they substitute the inputs between each other.

Some practical low cost technologies:

                                                 The mulching and irrigation in tea is a practical example for low cost technology. The mulching was done with coir pith. Instead of that we started a method of growing mulch crops in the field and then cutting it and incorporating it as mulch and then planting tea. Also the sprinkler irrigation system was also not cost effective and hence we installed Drip irrigation through JAIN.

                                                 The use of Neem leaves for cereal storage is another low cost technology. Sun drying is a common low non monetary input which has got lot of prospects in the processing industry also.

VRIKSHAYURVEDA is a young science to be researched and developed since it carries low cost techniques and non monetary inputs like use of panchagavya. Last but not the least, Kerala has got a huge potential in harnessing these low cost technologies since the ‘know how’ is there from the age old organic practices in cultivation. The concern is how we are going to conceive, extend, administer and practice those techniques.

Conclusion:

                                       From the total population in India 65% are farmers and the majority are small or marginal farmers. The alarming rate of population increase is pointing towards the need of launching a second green revolution. If we are aiming to achieve that there is no other option left leaving behind the small and marginal farmers. For them the thrust should be to extend low cost production technologies which intend to use the inputs in more smart and intelligent ways.

The developed countries, in a race for fuel are converting a major share of their food grains into ethanol which gives them more profit. There is no other choice left other than launching a second green revolution which should address on the sustainable increase of production and productivity using low cost technologies.

The Science in Extension

IT sector is undergoing a boom and the same can be used for developing the Agriculture sector in India, especially in kerala....

All the other sectors like tele communication, Education etc has already harnessed the growth and innovations in the IT sector.

Why cant we use the so called satellite technologies for rennovating the agriculture sector?????

The agriculture as we all mention, is the back bone of Indian economy and is the major contributor to the GDP of our nation.

So I think the extension agents in  Agriculture sector should potentialy harness the innovations of IT sector.........



Sreenath I
MSc Agriculture Extension