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
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