The document discusses using information and communication technologies (ICT) to address challenges in Sri Lankan agriculture. It outlines existing ICT initiatives including websites, publications, radio/TV programs, and mobile apps. Trends toward precision agriculture using drones and sensors are discussed. The concept of "Agriculture 4.0" is introduced, which utilizes integrated modern technologies like IoT. Future initiatives proposed include precision farming, smart farming/IoT, digitalization, and an e-agriculture strategy to make agriculture more productive, efficient, and environmentally sustainable through information sharing.

1. Reshaping the Future ofAgriculture
through ICT
M.F.M. Rizwan|AssistantDirectorof Agriculture(Development)
NationalAgricultureInformation& Communication Centre(NAICC)| DepartmentofAgriculture
SriLankan Perspective

2. Contents
 Challenges in Agriculture
Sector
 E-agriculture / ICT
Solutions
 Trends in ICT Usage
 Mobile Apps
2

3. Challenges in Agriculture Sector
(Farmer)
3
 Access to advisory services & agriculture
information
 Agriculture Marketing
 Field problems eg. Pest, soil/fertilizer, water/
irrigation
 Food safety & Quality assurance of agriculture
produces
 Farmer welfare, Subsidies & Agriculture
insurance
 Agriculture : Low income business venture
 Poor adoption of modern technologies
 Farmer’s welfare, Subsidies & Agriculture
insurance

4. Agriculture Research & Extension
Services
4
Research Agri.
Extension
Farmer
Research & Development
New Technologies
Dissemination of
New Technologies
ICT for Agriculture / E-agriculture
Solutions as bridging the information gap
of Famers

5. 2003of information from dawn of Civilization to
5 Exabytes

6. every 2 days!
2003of information from dawn of Civilization to
5 Exabytes
Now we produce
that much information

7. Developed with the participation of all the stakeholders in agriculture

8. ICT for Agriculture (E-agriculture)
Source: FAO-ITU E-agriculture Strategy Guide

9. Status of
ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
9

10. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
Printed and Digital
Publications
10

11. Printed Publications on Agriculture
 Agriculture Know How / Technology
 Convenient way of technology dissemination
 Annually 12 Books published
 Local languages – Sinhala, Tamil & English
 Uploaded to DOA website as PDF

12. Interactive Multimedia CDs on
Agriculture
 Digital Books: Multimedia supported learning
material
 Integration Text, photos, illustrations, audio,
video and animations
 Local languages – Sinhalese Tamil & English
 Self learning tool and Training tool
 Total number of IMM CDs published 80

13. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
Websites as Information
Source
13

14. Department of Agriculture –
www.doa.gov.lk
 Simple design and user-friendly website /
e-Services

15. WikiGoviya – www.goviya.lk
 Interactive Website
 Multimedia supported learning material - Self
learning tool
 Integration Text, photos, illustrations, audio, video
and animations
 Local languages – Sinhalese Tamil & English
 E-Swabhimani, Manthan Award South Asia, World
Summit Award
 Consist of
• Agriculture Wikipedia
• E-Learning on crop
technology
• Discussion Forum
• Agriculture classified
• E-Magazine

16. Agriculture Portal – www.krushilanka.lk
 Different institutions
are responsible for
Agriculture
 DOA
 DAPH
 EDOA
 CRI / TRI / SRI
 The Portal provides
single window for
finding those
information

17. Biodiversity for Food & Nutrition
Project
www.bfnsrilanka.org
 securing national food
security through agro-
biodiversity
 Policy establishment and
strengthening regulatory
frameworks
 United Nations
Environment Programme -
UNEP & Food and
Agriculture Organization of

18. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
Radio & TV Programmes
18

19. Agriculture Videos on National TV
 Telecasted weekly / monthly
 Agriculture technology / Farmer success
story
 Uploaded to YouTube , Vimeo to DOA
website

20. Agriculture Radio Programmes
 Broadcasted on daily basis
 Agriculture Community Radio Stations:
 Local language : Sinhalese & Tamil
 Associated with National / Regional Radio
Channels

21. Online Agriculture Radio
 Recorded and real time broadcasting / Web
streaming on www.krushiradio.lk
 Listeners are Linked with SMSs
 Proposed a separate frequency (FM or AM/MW)

22. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
1920 Agriculture Advisory
Service
22

23. 1920 Agriculture Advisory Service (Call
Centre)
 Food Crops, Coconut &
Spice Crops
 20 call agents
 Calls: Recorded in a
database
 Supported during
epidemics
 Skype video calls
 Database for KM

24. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
Use of Social Media
24

25. YouTube Channel for DoA
404 Videos / 12.4K subscribers

26. Krushi TV YouTube Channel
684 Videos / 24.6K subscribers

27. DOA official Facebook page
 Latest updates  45K+ Likes  Many
Discussions

28. 1920 Call Centre - DOA
46K+
Likes

29. Kushi Radio Sinhala Facebook page

30. Kushi Radio Tamil Facebook page

31. Krushi TV : Facebook page
83.5K+
Likes

32. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
Information Systems
32

33. Crop Forecasting InformationSystem
 Progress Monitoring tool of National Food Production Programme
 Provides the cropproduction forecast / harvesting schedule

34. Crop Forecasting InformationSystem
Decision support mechanism through VegetableEarly Warning System

35. Seed& PlantingMaterialInformationSystem
 ManagementInformation Systems for capturing real-time data on seed & planting
material availability
 Funded by : JICA & SL Govt.

36. Crop SuitabilityRecommendation MIS
 Provides the information on recommended/ suitable crops based on Grama Nladari
Division
 Funded by: SL Govt.

37. e-HRM for better Human Resource
Management
 Department of Agriculture
Crop Forecasting
Information System

38. SL-GAP Certification System
 Registration of Commercial
Farmers
 Certification of Good
Agriculture Practices
 Promoting Export oriented
agriculture
 Supported with a Mobile App

39. National Spatial Data Initiative
NSDI Initiative by ICT Agency of Sri Lanka

40. E-Phyto System
 Phytosanitary Certificate issuing system
 Department of Agriculture, Australia
 Supported by GoSL

41. Trends in ICT Usage
41

42. 42

43. 43

44. 44

45. Status of ICT for Agriculture
Initiatives
M-Agriculture Initiatives
45

46. SMS based information dissemination
 Short code 1920
 Three different approach
1.General queries on
agriculture
Any queries sent to 1920 will be
responded by Agri. Advisory
Team
2.Weather information
dissemination
Registered users receive
weather updates
3.Linked with Farm
Broadcasting Service

47. Online Agriculture Radio on Mobile
Phone
 Mobile app available for download with play
store

48. Hela Bojun
Mobile app available for download with
play store

49. Hela Nutrition
Mobile app available for download with
play store

50. Agri Staff Mobile App

51. SL-GAP Mobile App
51

52. Boga Purokathanaya App (Early
Warning)

54. Krushi Advisor App
Available for download with play store

55. 55
Krushi Advisor App…

56. Paddy Fertilizer App
56

57. Paddy Fertilizer App
57

58. 600,000+ Registered farmers
• Customized and timely advice
• Advisory through Outbound Voice calls
• Focus on Crop Security and Productivity
• Health and Nutrition advice from Ministry of Health
• Currently serving 20 crop categories (5 more in the
pipeline in 2019)

59. GoviMithuru
Mobile app

60. Coconut Guru
 Coconut Cultivation Board

61. Govipola.lk

62. Welandapola
 Private

63. ICT Enabled Solutions:
Agriculture 4.0
63

64. In the future it is not
about the
competition of
knowledge,
it’s a
competition of creativity,
competition of
imagination,
competition of learning,
competition of 64
Jack Ma
Alibaba Group

65. Industrial Revolution: Industry 4.0
65

66. Revolution of Agriculture
66
 Early 20th Century
 Labour intensive, low productivity
 Primarily subsistence agriculture
 Requires a vast number of small farms
Agriculture1.0

67. Revolution of Agriculture
67
 Late of 1950, Green Revolution
 Supplemental nitrogen
 Synthetic pesticides & fertilizers
 Specialized machine
Agriculture2.0

68. Revolution of Agriculture
68
 late 1990
 Precision farming
 Military GPS signal available for public
 Mechanization
Agriculture3.0

69. Revolution of Agriculture
69
 A new boost in precision agriculture
(early 2010)
 Cheap sensors and IoT devices
 Low cost micro-processor
 High bandwidth cellular communication
& cloud based ICT
Agriculture4.0

70. What is Agriculture 4.0
70
 The use of modern technologies
 integrated into one system (Inter connected
system)
 to enable farmers and other stakeholders within
the agriculture value chain from land to
consumer
 to improve food & agro-industrial production and
delivery
 Utilizers the power of ICTs where information
flow freely

71. Agriculture 4.0 : Scope
 Precision Agriculture: application of drone, robotic
& artificial intelligent massively in agriculture
 Smart Agro-industry: Optimize the resource
utilization
 Digital Agro-logistic System: reduces the
inefficiencies in agriculture value chain
 Smart E-Commerce System: efficient agriculture
marketing
71

72. Agriculture 4.0 : Why
 More Productive: consistent and use time and
resources more efficiently
 Advantages to Farmers: ensures the highest level
of return on investment
 Enables organizations to share information: across
the traditional boundaries
 Environmental Friendly and Sustainable System:
efficient use of resources and minimizes the
malpractices
72

73. Agriculture 4.0 : Transformative Shift
Traditional Farming
Traditional SMEs
Traditional Services
Unskilled Labourers
Buy Technologies
73
Smart Farming
Start Ups /
Entrepreneurs
High Value Services
Knowledge Workers
Make Technologies

74. Future Initiatives / Agriculture 4.0
74
 Precision Agriculture
 Smart Farming / IoT (Internet of Things)
 ICT enabled Geo Location based Agriculture
Advisory System supported with spatial data
(NSDI)
 Digitalization in Farming
 Smart value chain management
 Agri Nerve Centre
 Sri Lanka E-Agriculture Strategy

75. Precision Agriculture
75

76. Precision Agriculture
76

77. Precision Agriculture
77

78. Farmer Empowerment
78

79. Review Revise Adopt

80. Leadershi
p
& Vision
10,000,0
00
80
Success of an ICT initiative…
Infrastructur
e
Financ
e
PartnershipTechnology
Process
Policie
s
HR

81. M.F.M.Rizwan
Assistant Director ofAgriculture(Development)
NationalAgriculture Information& CommunicationCentre
Department ofAgriculture
Email: rizwan.doa@gmail.com
Thank You

82. Farmer
Soil sample
Laboratory Testing
Alert System
Reports & Recommendations
General / Specific
Centralized Database on
ASC Level Recommendation
Soil Management Information System