What ICT models are available for Agricultural Development

1. ICT Models for Agricultural
Development in India
Dr Surya Rathore
Principal Scientist (Extension Information Systems)
Division of Extension Systems Management, NAARM,
Hyderabad (TS)
suryarathore@naarm.org.in

3. Issues in Indian Agriculture
• Contribution of agriculture to GDP is reduced
to 16% (2017-18)* from 51.9% (1950-51)
• A paradigm shift from traditional agrarian
economy to industry based economy
• The survey of 5,000 farm households across 18
states says that 76 per cent farmers would
prefer to do some work other than farming
(CSDS report 2018)
• Non-availability of Agricultural labour
• *Source: Economic Survey

4. How to attract the farmers towards
agriculture?
• Need for good support services for the farmers
which include good extension and advisory
services with financial solutions to their
agrarian crises.
• As far as the extension services are
concerned, gone are the days when we had
one extension worker for 300 farmers.
• Now, the picture has changed and we are
having one extension worker for 1000 farmers.
• This widening ratio calls for some innovative
extension methodologies

5. ICT is the answer to this

6. What is ICT?
• ICT refers to all communication
technologies, including radio,
Television, the internet, wireless
networks, cell phones, computers,
software, video-conferencing, social
networking and other media
applications and services enabling
users to access, retrieve, store,
transmit, and manipulate information
in a digital form.

7. Indian scenario
• One of the highest populations, more than 18 languages and
scores of dialects
• Second biggest software exporter globally, highest number of
ICT projects implementation across the country, highest
number of diaspora in the silicon valley, destination of one of
the highest number of social entrepreneurs
• Country full of natural resources, knowledge and wisdom, one
of the largest pools of skilled and educated work force, the
highest English speaking population in Asia
• The highest number of information kiosks implemented across
rural sectors
• 45% of the world’s ICT projects implemented in India, one of
the biggest e-government implementations including “digital
voting system”

8. Community Radio (132)

9. ICT tools
• e-mail: This is the most frequently
used tool in cyber extension. It allows
us to send and receive text and picture
messages from others.

10. www
• World Wide Web: The web is the most
powerful place on the internet. World
Wide Web is an organization of
hypertext documents containing text,
images, animation, sound video and
increasingly interactive programmes.
Websites all over the world can be
accessed through World Wide Web.

11. Research findings
• According to an evaluation study conducted in 2010 on
websites of State Agricultural Universities in India, it was found
that majority of the SAUs websites were fair in usability
criteria followed by only two websites that were good in
usability while none fell under Poor category
• For ease of farmers, the need of regional language has been
stressed
• Need for separate link for each type of user and information on
Alumni was suggested
• It was suggested to provide placement news and forms in
website
• Navigation should be stated in as clear and simple way as
possible
• Web pages with “Under construction” notes should be avoided
• University should abide with the copyright laws for uploading
content in the website

12. • www.agmarknet.nic.in
• www.plantauthority.gov.in
• www.actionaid.org
• www.iffcolive.com
• www.indiaagristat.com
• www.isapindia.org
• www.indiancommodities.com
• www.agricoop.nic.in
• www.apeda.com
• www.mofpi.nic.in
• www.upagriculture.org
• www.kissankerela.net
• www.rural.nic.in
• www.agriexcahnge.in

13. Expert systems of extension
An expert system is an intelligent computer
programme that uses knowledge and
inference procedures to solve problems that
are difficult enough to require human
expertise for their solution. The knowledge
necessary to perform at such a level plus
inference procedures used can be thought
of as a model of the expertise of the best
practitioners in the field (Daniel Hunt,
1986)

14. Concept of Expert systems of
extension

15. Experts systems of extension
• IASRI has developed on maize, rice,
jute, mushroom
• IARI has developed expert system on
various crops
• IVRI has developed DSS on various
animals and virtual dog doctor is in
progress

16. Videoconferencing
• Videoconferencing (or video conference) means to
conduct a conference between two or more participants
at different sites by using computer networks to transmit
audio and video data. For example, a point-to-
point (two-person) video conferencing system works
much like a video telephone. Each participant has a
video camera, microphone, and speakers mounted on his
or her computer. As the two participants speak to one
another, their voices are carried over the network and
delivered to the other speakers and whatever images
appear in front of the video camera appear in
a window on the other participant's monitor. Multipoint
videoconferencing allows three or more participants to
sit in a virtual conference room and communicate as if
they were sitting right next to each other

17. Call Centres and Satellite
Communication network
A call centre is a centralized office or facility that is
equipped to handle large amounts of customer telephone
requests for an organization. A call centre facility provides
ample workspace for a large number of employees,
typically referred to as "call agents," to administer
telephone-based communications with customers. Call
centers may also use a call center suite which includes tools
for telephone switch functionality, intelligent routing,
automatic call distribution, interactive voice response
(IVR), outbound dialing, voice mail and other components.
Large organizations may choose to outsource its call centre
services, as a call centre will be able to provide the systems
and trained workforce to provide quality service to
customers.

18. KCC (2004)
• Kisan Call Centre: Toll free 1551,
1800-180-1551
• www.iksl.in (IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd.)
Level I Agriculture graduate
Level II SMS
Level III Experts outside state
Within 72 hrs by post/fax/e-mail

19. News and discussion groups
• "Newsgroups" are the various groups
dedicated to exchanging information
about any given topic. Most if not all
ISP's (Internet Service Provider, such as
Telus) are connected to Usenet. Each
has a news server that connects to one
or more other central news servers
around the world. These servers co-
operate and exchange newsgroup
postings on a very regular basis

20. Webinars
• The service allows real-time point-to-
point communications as well as multicast
communications from one sender to many
receivers. It offers data streams of text-
based messages, voice and video chat to
be shared simultaneously, across
geographically dispersed locations.
Applications for web conferencing include
meetings, training events, lectures, or
short presentations from any computer

21. Methods of ICT
• Providing interaction among research
scientists, extension workers, farmers and
other rural people through e-mail.
• Providing up to date news and information
services
• Question and Answer service involving farmers
and experts
• Creation and maintenance of statistical
database
• Providing status of government programmes
and poverty alleviation schemes

22. Methods……
• Hosting websites of major institutions in
agricultural extension with package of practices
• Provide internet access to village people through
agriculture and rural development offices
• Opening cyber cafes at village level to help
extension workers and educated village people to
access information from www
• Providing video clips of method demonstration and
audio files of local radio station programmes
• Providing online classes for farmers on a group
basis

23. Models of ICT
• I Classification
• E-governmental model: The projects
sponsored and funded by government
are essentially based on e-governance
model. Example; www.kisan.gov.in
• CSR Model

24. Corporate Social Responsibility
The projects initiated by society groups
and the corporate sector fall under the
categories of social work or Corporate
Social Responsibility

25. e-choupal
• ITC Limited has provided computers and
Internet access in rural areas across
several agricultural regions of the
country, where the farmers can directly
negotiate the sale of their produce with
ITC Limited. Online access enables
farmers to obtain information on mandi
prices, and good farming practices, and
to place orders for agricultural inputs like
seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers
improve the quality of their products, and
helps in obtaining a better price.

26. II Classification
• Public cyber extension:
www.agricoop.co.in
• Private: e-choupal
• Public –private initiative: Ap Online
TCS and GoAP

27. III classification of models
• E-governance
• Cyber trading and e-commerce
business model
• Hub and spokes model
• Knowledge platform model
• Moodle platform

28. e-governance
• These types of cyber extension projects provide
the rural people with all information and services
concerning government programmes and schemes
including land records, health services and public
utility services. Eg. The “Bhoomi” project in
Karnataka today serves as an excellent example of
governance in its ideal form, transparent and
accountable. Today 6.7 million farmers of this
southern state in India have access to 20 million
land ownership records available with the
government at the click of a button. Other
examples are e-Shringhla, Drishtee, Gyan Ganga
etc.

29. Bhoomi

30. Dhrishtee
Drishtee has identified 3 core pillars of
sustainability: Livelihood, Services and Basic
infrastructure. Drishtee has worked in the first
phase of its growth on the services pillar. It has
provided education, health, availability of
household products and banking services for the
last 13 years in over 5000 villages. Over the last
2 years, it has started focusing on the livelihood
pillar which is expected to impact the maximum.
It expects to partner with the Government and
other larger stakeholders, to build the
infrastructure pillar

31. • The Village Knowledge Centres Project was
• initiated in 1998 for sustainable food security in the
• region by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation
• (MSSRF), a non-profit organization (NPO) and has
• now become a useful network for rural development.
• The MSSRF, Chennai; the government of the Union
• Territory of Pondicherry, and nine villages in
• Pondicherry have gone into a MOU for setting up the
• Village Knowledge Centres. Based on the successful
• operation of MSSRF VKC and People's acceptance
• and involvement, the Government of Pondicherry
• decided to connect all the villages in the UT using the
• MSSRF model.

32. Cyber trading and e-commerce
model
• e-choupal
A very good example of this model is ITC e-
choupal project which started in 2000 with 23
tele-centres in Hoshangabad district of Madhya
Pradesh and till now set up 4,100 kiosks (e-
choupals) serving 21,000 villages and 2.4 million
farmers in 6 states of India with more than Rs.
7.5 billion annual turnover. Indian Tobacco
Company (ITC) Limited has established this
India’s largest internet-based initiative and
revoultionalised Agricultural Commodity
Marketing in India by adding 7 e-choupals a day

33. Hub and spokes
model
• The model adopted for IVRP (Information Village Research Project)
was a hub and spoke model with Villianur as the hub information
center and all the other knowledge centers being connected to each
other through this hub.
• They bridge the knowledge, gender, and digital divides and
empower the rural community by fostering
participatory communication through lab-land, land-lab, lab-
lab and land-land approaches. The goal of VRC- VKC is to
promote equitable access to information and knowledge among
households from socially and economically marginalized rural
communities to make informed decisions and improve their
livelihoods through effective use of ICT in Tamil Nadu,
Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha, Pudhucherry and Andhra Pradesh.

34. Knowledge platform model
• Here knowledge is provided to the farmer
through expert system or information system.
Ex: Agropedia portal, Srishti gujarat
• KVK VSAT ICAR network provides e-
connectivity to 200 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and
Zonal Project Directorates spread across the
country. KVKs/ZPDs are equipped with
a Server, five desktop PCs, LAN, scanner,
printer, and computer furniture to act as
information hub for storing and disseminating
information on agriculture and also providing
online and offline guidance to the farmers.

35. Moodle platform
• Moodle is the learning management platform
being used which is open and free for all.
Example could be Agrilife Extension of the US.
It can host up to 100 courses for around 5000
users. There is a facility existing for
Communities of Practice to develop and put
online courses, some for direct and some are
teacher assisted. Once a week, they have live
chats, webinars, discussion boards, quizzes
etc. In India, Directorate of Rice Research is
also making efforts but this moodle is
restricted to rice.

36. Example of Agrilife Extension of US
• http://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu

37. Model of Ministry of Agriculture
(IV)
• Websites/ Portals: Meeting information needs
of farmers on Market price, Soil Health Card,
Crop Insurance, Government schemes through
Farmers’Portal, Agmarknet, Soil Health Card
Portal, e-Nam, Crop Insurance etc.
• Mobile Apps: Kisan Suvidha, Pusa Krishi
• Basic mobile telephony: SMS, IVRS etc.
mkisan.gov.in (2 crore)
• Personalized Information through Call Centres
(KCC)
• Data Collection & Monitoring: CCE Agri App
(harvesting to insurance loss estimation)

38. Model of Inclusive value chains (V)
• Pre – production
• Production
• Post –harvest & Marketing
• Financial services (Credit, payment
savings, insurance)
• Gathering & distribution of climate and
other data

39. VI Model by Raj.et.al.(2015)
• Advisory: KCC, mobile apps, Radio, T. V.
• Information Management: Web portals,
knowledge banks, expert systems, AIMS
• Collaboration, sharing & partnerships:
Social media, discussion groups
• Gain Voice: CR, Telecentres, videos,
virtual CoPs & Social media
• Capacity development: ODL, Learning
object repositories, MOOCs, survey &
monitoring tools & applications

41. VII Model by Stratigea (2011)
To
From
Individual/Citizen Business Administration
Individual/
Citizen
C2C: Social networks, e-
communities
C2B: Citizens as
clients- access to
market places or
businesses
C2G: e-governance
Business B2C: e-marketing, e-
commerce, e-banking
B2B: e-commerce,
networking –
virtual enterprise
B2G: Access of
business to public
services
Administration
/Govt.
G2C: e-government –
provision of public
services
G2B: e-
government
G2G:

42. What is Artificial Intelligence?
The theory and development of computer
systems able to perform tasks normally
requiring human intelligence, such as
visual perception, speech recognition,
decision-making, and translation between
languages

43. Six amazing
Artificial
Intelligence
Advances in
Agriculture

44. Sowing the seeds
• High-tech agriculture starts at
the very second that the seed
is first placed in the ground.
Experts in the field are familiar
with “variable rate planting
equipment” that does more
than just planting a seed down
into the soil somewhere.

45. Who's Picking Your Food?
Companies are already producing robotic
harvesting equipment, partially in response
to labor gaps that have left farmers
scrambling to harvest crops like fruits and
berries.
Harvest Croo, which has produced an
autonomous strawberry picking machine,
and Abundant Technologies, where a
vacuum apparatus harvests mature apples
from trees.

46. 46
Strawberry harvesting robot
Source: http://www.lovingthemachine.com/2008/04/farmer-hails-strawberry-picking-robot.html

47. Eye in the Sky
• Drones being outfitted with precision
sensors, in order to run the fields and get
the data that's needed. These airborne
surveillance engines can look for
• Stunted crops
• Signs of pest or weed damage
• Dryness and many other variables that are
part of the difficulty of farming in general

48. Pest and Weed Control
• We know that artificial
intelligence excels at image
processing – computers can now
“see” almost as well as we can.
So by deploying mobile
technologies with AI and
computer vision built in, farmers
can find weeds and eradicate
them, instead of blanket spraying
an entire crop.

49. Hortibot robot for weeding
49Source: http://www.lovingthemachine.com/2008/04/farmer-hails-weeding.html

50. The Farmer’s Alexa
Artificial intelligence personalities like the
smart home helper “Alexa” that are able to
converse with farmers to help them figure
out tough problems

51. Success
Speaks
AI-based sowing advisories lead to 30% higher yields
(ICRISAT, Microsoft)
• AI Sowing App sends sowing advisories to
participating farmers on the optimal date to
sow. The best part – the farmers don’t need
to install any sensors in their fields or incur
any capital expenditure. All they need is a
feature phone capable of receiving text
messages (3000 farmers across AP &
Karnataka increased yield 10-30%)

52. Pest attack prediction (ICRISAT & UPL)
• About 3,000 marginal farmers with less
than five acres of land holding in 50
villages across in Telangana,
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are
receiving automated voice calls for
their cotton crops. The calls indicate
the risk of pest attacks based on
weather conditions and crop stage in
addition to the sowing advisories

53. Price forecasting model for Policy
makers
• Microsoft has developed a multivariate
agricultural commodity price
forecasting model to predict future
commodity arrival and the
corresponding prices. The model uses
remote sensing data from geo-
stationary satellite images to predict
crop yields through every stage of
farming.

54. An enabling atmosphere
• Compared to the West and front
runners of ICT adoption in Asia,
such as China and South Korea,
the culture and infrastructure
needed to develop a base for the
adoption of ICT in mainstream
applications in India is in need of
an impetus.

55. Enabling…..
• Cloud computing infrastructure, which is
capable of storing large amounts of data
and facilitating the huge amount of
computing power essential for AI
applications, is largely located on
servers abroad. Hence, an AI-supportive
cultural environment will require
homegrown infrastructure.

56. Enabling…..
• India will also require ecosystem-
fostering innovation. Fostering a
culture of innovation and research
beyond the organization is common to
global technology giants. To
encourage the same level of
innovation in ICT research efforts in
India, initiatives to hold events and
build user communities in the field of
ICT will go a long way