This document discusses the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in organic farming. It begins with definitions of ICT and describes how ICT can benefit agriculture sectors through online services, e-commerce, and facilitating interactions. The document then discusses several ways ICT supports organic farming, including increasing access to information, aiding production and management, providing advisory services, enabling marketing and inputs access, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It provides examples of mobile apps, websites, and portals that provide information on organic farming. Finally, it summarizes several research studies that examined the use of ICT in organic farming advisory services and extension in countries like Bangladesh, Zambia, India, and a controlled study comparing ICT and traditional

1. Role of ICT in Organic
Farming
Name: Sowmya B N
Subject: Principles and practices of Organic Farming
1

2. Flow of presentation
1. Introduction
● ICT: Concept and definition
● ICT in Agriculture
1. Role of ICT in OF
● Application of ICT in OF
● Mobile apps and portals
● Websites
1. Research studies
2. Conclusion

3. Introduction
ICT concept and definition
● Information and communication technology
● Broader term for IT
● Refers to any communication device or application,
encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer,
network, hardware and software, satellite systems and so on,
as well as the various services and applications associated
with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.
(Rengeswari and Palaneeswari, 2019)

5. Rengeswari and Palaneeswari, 2019
SERVICES OF ICT IN AGRICULTURE SECTORS
• Online services for information, education and training, monitoring and
consultation, diagnosis, transaction and processing
• E-commerce for direct linkages between local producers, traders, retailers and
suppliers
• The facilitation of interaction among researchers, extension (knowledge) workers,
and farmers
• Up-to-date information, supplied to farmers as early as possible, about subjects
such as packages of practices, market information, weather forecasting, input
supplies, credit availability, etc.

6. Rengeswari and Palaneeswari, 2019
Need for ICT in Organic Agriculture
● Farmers to extension workers ratio= 1000:1
● Although the appointed Village Local Workers (VLWs) disseminate
information, there is lack of accountability.
● These two issues have created an urgency to effectively address the
information needs of poor farmers.
● In addition, the cost involved in face-to-face information dissemination
at the right time and the difficulties of reaching the target audiences
have also created the urgency to introduce ICT for this purpose.
● It is only through the introduction of ICT that information can also be
updated and extended at the lowest cost.

7. Ravikishore et al., 2021
Applications of ICT in Organic farming
● Knowledge Management System
● Implementation of E-learning
● E-commerce Application
● Application of ICT for agricultural resources
● Wireless Technologies Implementation
● Remote Sensing Application
● GPS and GIS Programmes

8. Role of ICTs in Organic Farming
➢ Accessing and sharing of information: Apps, Radio, TV,..etc.
➢ Production and post harvest management: Moisture sensors,
soil mapping.
➢ Advisory services: Mrittika
➢ Marketing and accessing inputs: Apps
➢ Trading and Extension: Projectors, Digital Green
➢ Decreasing GHG emission

9. FAO, 2019
Investing in Information Communication Technologies
(ICTs) pays off for a farmer in North Macedonia
● Suzana Dimitrievska is an organic farmer in North Macedonia.
● Several years ago, she bought a farm management software that
enabled her to better plan and monitor crops, minimize labour costs
and spend less on gas and organic fertilizer, thereby raising her
profits.
● They identified an optical colour sorter machine that would be able to
detect and sort over 123 different types of crops, herbs and
agricultural products by their size, colour and form.

10. FAO, 2019
● “With a loan from the bank, she invested in the optical photo selector.
Even though the price tag was hefty at 75,000 Euros, I am now able
to easily select and pack beans at the same time meeting the quality
standards of my customers,” says Suzana.
● In 2017, due to extraordinarily high
temperatures the apricots, watermelons,
beans, chickpeas and sunflowers were all
affected, and the leaves of grapes even
burned in the heat. She then used ICTs like
soil mapping and aerial imagery.

11. Mobile apps, websites and portals in organic
farming and marketing of organic produce:
1. JaivikKheti (Organic Farming) Portal and Mobile app
2. Rythunestham Organic/Natural Farming
3. Kheti-Badi - Organic Farming
4. AgriApp: Smart Farming App for Indian Agriculture
5. B2AGRI Organic Farming - Agri Business & Marketing
6. Organic KretaVikretaManch
7. Krishi App
8. Organic Farming app
9. Organic Farming by Vasithwam
10.GoFarmz - Know Your Farmer
11.Farmizen Ravikishore et al., 2021

12. Ravikishore et al., 2021
Websites on organic farming (import-export):
● www.agr.ca
● www.allorganiclinks.com
● www.fas.usda.gov./info/agexporter.com
● www.foodcontact.com
● www.gepa.org.go
● www.intracem.org/mds/sectors/organics
● www.linksorganic.com
● www.newscientist.com
● www.nre.vicgov.av
● www.ocia.org
● www.organicpathways.co.nr
● www.organicnewzealand.org

13. Research studies

14. ADVISORY SERVICES ON ORGANIC
FARMING USING ICT’S IN
BANGLADESH
Md. Jashim Uddin and Shaikh Tanveer
Hossain
Place : Bangladesh
Year : 2013

15. ● The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides increased over the years in
Bangladesh. BARC (2001) showed that soil organic matter decrease in
some agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh.
● Subsequently, the average organic matter content of top soils have gone
down, from about 2% to 1% over the last 40 years (BARC, 2001).
● In these aspects, the term Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) has come in the sight to the advisory services of farmers
safeguarding the environment in a cost effective way.
● This paper discusses few innovative technologies using ICTs to deliver
information to farmers, focusing its analysis largely on mobile telephony,
which has become more widespread recently as a means of
disseminating agricultural information to farmers.

16. ● Mrittika (Soil)- a soil nutrient analysis and fertilizer
recommendation tool.
● A joint venture between Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd. and
eKutir Social Business, a social enterprise based on Orissa, India.

18. ● Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ)
is a national organic movement operating in Zambia in the Southern
African Region.
● OPPAZ was established in 1999 by a group of farmers keen to promote
and expand the ideas and opportunities of organic agriculture (Green
Africa Directory, 2011).
● In the recent time, they have successfully introduced ICT’s to increase
efficiency of organic certification processes using smart phones.
● The introduction of ICT has resulted in 30% decrease in costs and time of
national and international certification for participating producers.
● It has also resulted a 20% increase in membership of new producers, now
able to finance the certification processes and gained access to premium
prices in the market for organic products.

19. The following points are sorted out primarily from the on-going ICTs
regarding farmer’s advisory services in Bangladesh:
i) Service delivery processes of different ICT channels are very
smooth. They can provide advisory services to the farmers at quickest
time.
ii) Service delivery channels are versatile from where people get
different types of contemporary services. Fertilizer recommendation
services could be extended with a vision to help the rural farmers,
entrepreneurs and general people to access relevant and required
information.
iii) Service delivery channels and their effectiveness are outstanding.

20. Conclusion
● ICT based advisory services for farmers are becoming popularity
worldwide including Bangladesh.
● As organic sector and movement is very much preliminary stages in
Bangladesh which requires a comprehensive approach to motivate
and make awareness to the all stakeholders such as policy-makers,
consumers, and growers.
● So, it is expecting that the ICT based approach can boost up and
enhance particularly the organic growers for its sustainability and
long term benefits.

21. Information source utilization for organic
waste management with special reference
to digital technologies: A qualitative
study on dairy farmers of district
Ludhiana, Punjab
Amandeep Singh, Rupasi Tiwari, Pratikshya Panda,
Gurpreet Kour and Triveni Dutt
Place : Punjab
Year : 2022

22. ● Sample size: 80 (40 each, small and large) randomly selected
● The research deals with the information channels and
information sources used by the dairy farmers for obtaining
information regarding organic waste management.
● Contrary to vast information sources in the agriculture sector,
only 5 percent of the farm households in India have access to
information on livestock (National Livestock Policy, 2013).

23. ● As far as information on organic waste management (viz.
agricultural, household and dairy waste) is concerned, dairy
farmers usually obtain information from their friends and family,
farm universities, agricultural fairs, line departments of agriculture
and animal husbandry and social media (Singh et al., 2021a).
● All these information sources together make a farmer aware about
a practice to manage organic waste in an eco-friendly manner.
● Out of 143,863 positions in the Department of Agriculture, only
91,288 positions are filled which leads to service delivery of only
6.8 percent (Thakur & Chander, 2018).

24. ● This deficit gives rise to the other domain for information access to
farmers, i.e. mass media, which has a huge audience base with a
very low cost of contact per person (Singh, Sidhu et al., 2016).
● Mobile apps have also been instrumental in providing need-based
information on waste management and other aspects of livestock
farming (Singh et al., 2021a; Sood et al., 2021).
● Singh et al. (2021a) reportedly developed a mobile app named “IVRI-
Waste Management Guide App” which provides information on all the
aspects of organic waste management.

26. Scatter plot
between ICT
usage and
organic waste
utilized; the
upward
trendline
shows the
positive
correlation
between the
variables

27. Conclusion
● In the present study, ICT utilization among farmers was
high, therefore, more ICT tools should be developed for
efficient organic waste management, which will not only
hasten information dissemination but also strengthen
extension delivery in rural areas.

28. Digital Green: Participatory Video and
Mediated Instruction for Agricultural
Extension
Rikin Gandhi,Rajesh Veeraraghavan,Kentaro
Toyama, Vanaja Ramprasad
Place : Karnataka
Year : 2009

31. Methodology
● A controlled study was conducted between April 2007 and April 2008 in 16
villages to evaluate the impact of the DG system.
● The DG system was implemented for a period of 13 months in the eight test
villages, while the other eight control villages received the NGO’s regular
extension services.
● Seven categories of agricultural practices were sequentially promoted in both
the control and DG villages, including seed treatment, kitchen gardening,
azolla cultivation, silage, organic fertilizers, mulching, and vermicomposting.

35. Cost-Benefit Analysis of Extension Systems.
Extension System Cost (USD/Vlg/Yr) Adoption
(%)/vlg/Yr
Cost/Adoption
(US$)
T&V (Control) $840 11% $38.18
Digital Green $630 85% $3.70
Data are normalized for a village population of 200 households.

36. ● The Digital Green (DG) system, uses participatory local video
content as a basis for mediated instruction to amplify the
effectiveness of agriculture extension agents.
● In a 13-month, balanced control study involving 16 villages, we
found that the DG system is able to multiply the value of a NGO’s
extension agents by a factor of 10 times per dollar spent.
Conclusion

37. Conclusion
● Development of linkages between research, technology,
production and market might improve the organic farming in the
country.
● For the efficient and safe use of authentic information
technology, only legal applications, like legal antivirus solutions,
must be used.
● the priority and training should be given to rural youth to initiate,
adopt and implement the organic farming
● We should make use of this ‘Digital India’ opportunities and
should move forward to ‘Green Organic India’.

38. EVERY TIME YOU BUY ORGANIC,
YOU'RE PERSUADING MORE
FARMERS TO GROW ORGANIC.
- Anonymous
…thank you