INITIATIVES OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AGRICULTURE EXTENSION PUNJAB PAKISTAN. DR MUHAMMAD ANJUM ALI BUTTAR DIRECTOR GENERAL AGRICULTURE (EXT &AR) PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

1. ICT
in
Agriculture Extension
Dr Muhammad Anjum Ali
DIRECTORATE GENERAL AGRICULTURE
EXTENSION AND ADPTIVE RESERACH

2. ICT FOR PUNJAB AGRICULTURE
Challenges
– Productivity, Profitability
– Soil, Water and Environment degradation
– Seed, Fertilizers, Machinery and Technology
advancements
– Majority small farmers and land fragmentation
– Burgeoning increase in ICT Tools
– Diversification and Value addition
– Appetite for awareness and information
– Reliability, Correctness and Farmers confidence

3. ICT ACTIVTIES IN PUNJAB AGRICULTURE
Agriculture Marketing Information System
Website of Agriculture Department Punjab
Website of Fruit & Vegetable Development Project
Mobile Massaging (Database base of farmers)
Land records-Spatial Data Infrastructure (Mauza Level)
Monitoring Extension Service (AgriSmart)
Facebook Pages of Agriculture Extension Punjab
E-Reporting and Documentation

4. Mapping Soil Fertility at Village Level
Shadbad Dehqan
Zarai Baithak
Fertilizer Calculator
Maintenance records through SAP software
Radio, TV, FM Service
Citizen Contact Center (Agri Helpline)
Revamping Agriculture Extension Services (Rs. 150 Mill)
ICT ACTIVTIES IN PUNJAB AGRICULTURE

5. AGRICULTURE MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
- Dissemination of prices
pertaining to agricultural
commodities
- Data entry interface for 135
market committees
- Repository of market rates
with trend analysis
- Linkages with international
commodity exchange markets
- Mobile App for “Price
Control” on 80024
- Price Lahore/Get Report
Push based daily price intimations to subscribed citizens
See Web

6. WEBSITE OF AGRICULTURE EXTENSION PUNJAB
- Agriculture Extension
- Adaptive Research
- Agriculture Training
Institutes
- Transfer of Technology
packages
- Websites for various
wings of Agriculture
Department
Transfer of Technology through field Extension service and ICT gadgets
See Web

7. WEBSITE OF FRUIT & VEGETABLE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
- Fruit and Vegetable Project
- Capacity Building
- Training of Farmers
- Promotion of new
technologies
- Promotion of Bio-control
agents
- Minimize the use of pesticides
- Reduction in post harvest
losses
- Calendar of activities
Enhancing Fruit and Vegetable Production with value addition
See Web

8. MOBILE MESSAGING-DATA BASE OF FARMERS
- Farmer Registration with
contact details and mauza
level residential address
- More than million farmers
have been registered
- Text message for agronomy,
plant protection, market,
weather and other alerts
- Plants outfitted with this
microchip can send text
messages to a farmer's cell
phone
Advisory services via SMS based on Agriculture Technolgies
See Web

9. LAND RECORDS- SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCRE
- Digitization based on masavi
maps
- Mauza level boundaries of 16
districts in place
- Additional layers of
population census and Agri
census data
Analytics based on mauza level maps yield info
‫گرمالہ‬ ‫موضع‬
See Web

10. MOBILE MONITORING
- Operational in Rajanpur
and Faisalabad
- Field visits pertaining to
crop reporting and pest
warning
- Geographical analysis of
the activities being
carried out
- Expansion of android
phones monitoring to
other districts
2,909 smart phones to be distributed under PPMRP
See Web

11. FACEBOOK PAGES OF AGRICULTURE EXTENSION PUNJAB
- Facebook Page ”Agriculture
Extension Wing Punjab
Pakistan”
- Targeting social media to
reach maximum growers
- Weekly and Fortnightly
advisories
- Latest Development in
Agriculture
- Activities of Agriculture
Extension
Presence in Social Media to reach maximum growers
See Web

12. E-ZARAAT
- Online portal to capture
information
- EDOA to Field Assistants are
provided tablets
- E-reporting from Field
Assistants to EDOA
- Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly,
Monthly, Quarterly,
Biannually and Annual
reports
- Pilot run in one district
(Vehari)
Patronage of PITB on sustainable basis
See Web

13. MAPING SOIL FERTILITY
- Website on Nutrient
availability in Punjab Soils
- Helpful for farmers, extension
agents, researchers etc
- Input use efficiency, reduction
in loss of resources ,
sustainability and profitability
Digitized profile of Punjab soils for better decision making
See Web

14. SHAD BAD DEHQAN
- Economic and site specific
crop production technologies
- Real time dynamic system for
processing of data leading to
development of crop
productions
- Yet to be launched by
University of Agriculture
Coordinated efforts with various ICT tools to reach farmers

15. ZARAI BAITHAK
- Knowledge portal
- Agriculture News
- Discussion forum
- Experts Forum
- Linkages with Institutions
- Quick response
- Expert Opinion
- List of FAQs See Web

16. FERTILIZER CALCULATOR
- Fertilizer prediction Model
- Urea and DAP
recommendation based on
soil sample
- Fertilizer Use Efficiency, Rate,
Quantity according to
production
- Recommendations from bags
to Kilograms
- Fertilizer Use efficiency to increase productivity and profitability
See Web

17. MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
- Improved service delivery
- Integration of stores via
centralized inventory system
- Preventive and breakdown
maintenance of heavy
machinery (bulldozers)
- Fuel consumption statistics of
Agriculture Vehicles
- Automation of records
through this software for all
office
- Initial target is vehicles and
machinery
Data Management of Agriculture Assets

18. RADIO, FM SERVICE
- Daily presence on 7 Radio
stations in Punjab
- Agriculture Talks, Live and
Recorded,
- News Bulletins
- Audio Messages
- Special activities through FM
service
Radio Service is still very important information source in rural life

19. TELEVISION
- Most Important Media
- Presence of experts on
different channels
- TV Messages, TV Talks, TV
shows, Video Productions
- Kashtakaron Ke Naam Ahim
Paigham at prime time
- Maximum reach on terrestrial
network
Television is the most effective medium for training and showcasing

20. HELPLINES/CALL CENTRES
- Two Toll free numbers
- 0800-15000, 0800-29000
- Inbound call gets recorded
which is then responded to
by an expert at later stages
- PITB is working on a call
center
- The number of lines and
accessibility will be increased
Transformation to PITB’s platform of “Citizen Contact Center”

21. OTHER PROJECTS
- Video clips to be placed onto the
portal (Digital Green) ITU
- Projector phones for extension
workers (1,000 sets)(ITU)
- Cinema Van to fortify field
extension services (ITU)
- Coordination with service
providers to auto-load SIMS with
agricultural content (ITU)
- Agriculture Technology apps
Benefits of ICT to reach every farmer

22. REVAMPING AND DIGITIZATION
Project Punjab: Rs 150 Million
1. Provincial Agriculture Extension Hub (ICT)
2. Provision of Short Code Telephone Number
3. District Agriculture Extension ICT center
4. Provision of Internet Connections to Extension sub offices
5. Provision of PTCL Connection to AOs at Markaz level
6. Provision of Android Cell Phone to Agriculture Extension Staff
7. Plant Clinics and digitized monitoring
8. E. Reporting of Agriculture Extension Activities

23. THANKS