The document discusses content development for agricultural decision support systems in India. It outlines a framework for developing location and crop-specific content to support the eSagu personalized agricultural advisory system and eAgromet weather advisory system. The framework involves developing detailed chapters on topics like crop varieties, soil types, cultivation practices, pest and nutrient management, etc. specific to different crops and regions. This localized content would help agricultural experts provide better advice to farmers through the advisory systems by improving their understanding of diverse local growing conditions and issues. Developing such comprehensive yet tailored content is challenging but critical for making systems like eSagu and eAgromet more effective.

1. Agriculture Content Development for
Inclusive Development: eSagu and
eAgromet experiences
P. Krishna Reddy
Program Director, ITRA-Agriculture and Food
Professor, IIIT Hyderabad India
E-mail: pkreddy@iiit.ac.in

2. Outline
• About ITRA
• Open access to agricultural
knowledge
• Content development in eSagu
• Content development in eAgromet
• Content development for enhancing
practical agriculture skills
• Conclusions

3. IT for Agriculture and Food Research Program
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
RESEARCH ACADEMY
Media Lab Asia, Department of Electronics and
Information Technology, Govt of India
and
Indian Council of Agricultural Research

4. OBJECTIVE
1 Strengthen the academic institutions
2. Specifically, Enhance Quality and Quantity of
a. IT [Information, Communication,
Electronics] Research and Development
b. IT Applications

5. Ecosystem’s Central Traits
1. Form Large Groups
2. With R&D focused on Societal Challenges
3. By Increasing Societal Sensitivity
4. And Support of Entrepreneurship
5. Enabled by engagement with National and
5
International Experts

6. A Pyramidal Model of Growth
Mentor-Mentees form
Adjacent Layers in a Hierarchy
Example:
Each partner institution
adds
two (or three) partners
every two years
6

7. 1
…
…
5
…
The Binary Growth Case
Number of Institutions
Doubles Every Two Years
Would Triple Every Two Years
For Ternary Mentoring

8. Focus Area Pyramids Selected
1. ITRA-Mobile: Mobile Computing, Networking and
Applications
2. ITRA-Water: IT in Sustainability of Water
Resources
=
Two-Level Pyramids

9. ITRA-Mobile
APPROVED PROJECTS
1. HumanSense: Towards context aware sensing, inference and actuation for
applications in Energy and Healthcare
2. Post-Disaster Situation Analysis and Resource Management Using Delay-
Tolerant Peer-to-Peer Wireless Networks (DISARM)
3. Remote Health: A Framework for Healthcare Services using Mobile and
Sensor-Cloud Technologies
4. De-congesting India's transportation networks using mobile devices
5. CARTS: Communication Assisted Road Transportation Systems
6. Virtual Assistant for Mobile Devices using Voice and Gesture Technologies
7. Mobile Broadband Service Support over Cognitive Radio Networks
8. Uncoordinated, Secure and Energy Aware Access in Distributed Wireless
Networks
9. Micronet - Mobile Infrastructure for Coastal Region Offshore
Communications & Networks

10. ITRA-Water
1. ICT in Water and Pest/Disease Management for Yield
Improvement in Horticulture (Citrus)
2. Improving Groundwater Levels and Quality through
Enhanced Water Use Efficiency in Eastern Indian
Agriculture
3. Integrated Urban Flood Management in India:
Technology-Driven Solutions
4. Measurement to management (M2M): improved
water use efficiency and agricultural productivity
through experimental sensor network
5. Development of effective Wireless Sensor Network
system for water quality and quantity monitoring
(AquaSense)

11. Focus Area in Progress
ITRA-Ag&Food
• SFM held on March 15-16, 2013 Jointly with
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
• Identified several research problems
• Call for concept notes and project proposals
will be issued soon.

12. Main Objective:
Building of Decision Support Systems
• Agricultural production and processing systems are complex due to
the many biological, chemical, physical and envoronmental
processes involved.
• Information technologies can be used to extract and present the
information related to a particular problem in a unified manner and
thus speed up decision making.
• Decision support systems may support agricultural scientists and
agro-meteorologists in providing extension services such as
– expert advice on agronomy,
– pest or decease problems,
– risk management for unpredictable weather conditions,
– efficient marketing of agriculture produce,
– optimal resource distribution
– meeting emergencies.
12

13. IT and Agriculture Categories
Main technologies for
DSS
Agriculture categories
Environment sensing,
location sensing, and
communication
Crop production
Data management Soil, water and weather
Modeling and simulation Agriculture Education and
Extension
Data mining and knowledge
discovery.
Marketing and
agribusiness
Livestock and fisheries
13

14. Examples of DSS
• Pest surveillance systems
• Online disease diagnosis
• Online monitoring of pesticide sales/usage
• Service delivery platform to deliver
personalized advice and customized agriculture
• Location and time specific plant disease
forecasting using Wireless Sensor Network
(WSN) and with farmer’s participation
• Potential fishing zone and weather alert
services to fisherman
• Characterization of soils with Gamma Radiation
detection (Sensor based soil nutrient scanning)
• ICT platform based end-to-end Procurement
Services
• ICT Platform to introduce good global
agriculture practices in Indian agriculture
• Intelligent agriculture ontology tools
• Use of ICT to improve agriculture supply chain
efficiency
• Use of ICT platform to improve efficiency of artificial
insemination operation and, offer veterinary and nutrient
services
• Animal management in the Indian production system
with different breeds of animals, based on the analysis
of data from different animal production systems
• Diseases diagnosis for animals under different
management conditions
• Developing market intelligence systems
• IT-enabled logistics and supply chain management
• DSS to support marketing and production decisions
• Interactive DSS (expert systems) to know the
availability of inputs
• Interactive DSS on source and technical details of
available hybrids, HYV, seed and planting material
• Development of artificially intelligent agricultural
machines, to help reduce drudgery and improve health
and safety. This may attract rural youth to work with
agricultural machines.
14

15. Outline
• About ITRA
• Open access to agricultural
knowledge
• Content development in eSagu
• Content development in eAgromet
• Content development for enhancing
practical agriculture skills
• Conclusions

16. Examples of Open Access
Knowledge/Information and Tools
• Search Engines
– Google
• Social network sites
– Facebook, Twitter
• Journals
– IEEE, ACM, Springer,..,
• Content
– Wikipedia, You tube
• Tools
– Linux, Adroid, MYSQL, OpenOffice, …

17. Agriculture
• Journals and magazines
• MSc/PhD Dissertations
• Booklets
• Simulation tools
– InfoCrop
• Best agriculture practices
• Output of research experiments and projects at
SAUs

18. Stakeholders
• Farmers
• Consumers
• Extension personnel
• NGOs, Trusts, Civil Society Organizations
• Students
• Teachers/Scientists
• Researchers
• Corporate Companies
• Buyers/Exporters

19. Open Access Knowledge
Characteristics
• Relevant to stakeholder
– Focus, modular, cohesive
• Consumable
– Language, text, audio, video
• Computer readable
• Scope for self-sustainability
• Progress
– Updated with latest advances in agriculture
technology

20. My Experience
• Content development in eSagu
• Content development in eAgromet
• Virtual Crop Labs to enhance
practical learning

21. eSagu is a Personal Information
System for farmers
• eSagu is an IT-based Personalized agro-advisory
system
– Personalized
• Provides Personalized agro-advice to farmer’s door-step.
– Timely:
• Provides the advice within 24 to 36 hours
– Regular
• Advice is provided regularly (once in a week)
– Feedback: two way communication
– Query-less: Farmer need not ask a question
– Cost-effective: Can be made sustainable with a nominal
subscription fee
– Powered by IT: Record keeping, availability, reliability
– Scalable and can be developed on the existing infrastructure
• Started in 2004 and the system is evolving

22. eSagu: basic idea
• Extend developments in IT to agriculture
– Agriculture scientist does not visit the
crop.
– Crop photos are brought to agriculture
expert.
• As a result, the agricultural expert
– can utilize the time efficiently
– spends less time to provide the advice
– can work during the night
• Reference
– P.Krishna Reddy and R.Ankaiah, A framework of information technology-based agriculture
information dissemination system to improve crop productivity, Current Science, vol. 88,
Num.12 pp. 1905-1913, June 2005.

23. Operational Procedure
• Farmer registers into the system by supplying soil, water,
capital, crop details.
• Coordinator visits each farm once in a week/two weeks.
• Takes problematic photographs.
• Fills-in observation-cum-feedback form and takes its photograph.
• Upload the data into eSagu portal
• Agriculture scientists prepare the advice based on
photographs and other information.
• The advice is downloaded at the village center and takes the
printout.
• The coordinator delivers the advice to the farmer.

25. Crops
Extra Gain/per acre (2005-06)
Gain in Fertilizer Gain in Pesticide Gain in Yield
Total
Gain
1 2 3 4 5
Cotton 419 1140.6 3349 4908.6
Chilli 751.2 1093.8 6040.1 7885.1
Paddy 315.2 795.3 699.9 1810.4
Red gram 293 451.7 484.8 1229.5
Groundnut 282 70.5 900 1252.5
Castor 218 225 1360 1803
Intended
Crops
425 890 2398 3713
Other Crops 585.1 1117.2 4694.55 6396.85
All Crops 443.6 928.8 2501.6 3874

26. Information Needs of Farmers
• Agricultural expert advice
– Crop protection related information
• Decease and pest problem
– Crop production related information
• Spacing, timing of sowing, planning and so on

27. Issues: Capacity Building Problems
Agriculture Scientists
• In eSagu, AE must have location specific knowledge
and experience
– Has to be expert regarding diverse crop problems that occur in
several agro-climatic situations.
• However, AEs differ in education levels, experience, local
exposure, farm exposure, and know-how regarding agro-climatic
variations.
– New paradigm for agriculture scientists
– The system makes them accountable
• So, new kind of content is required such
that AE can grasp the problem as much as
by going through the content.

28. What should be the nature of new
Content ?
• Relevant, adoptable and actionable.
• Should meet the day-to-day information / operation
requirement of the farmers.
• Due consideration of farmers’ traditional wisdom.
• Should be feedback based for continual improvement.
• Adoptable to the changing needs of the farmers
• In tune with the latest technological developments.
• In close liaison with research institutes, industry and
the farmers.

29. Main Questions ?
Fresh
agricultural
Graduates
Location-specific,
crop
specific
capacity
building and
training
eSagu
Agriculture
Expert
• Main questions:
• Why such content has not been developed ?
• What is the framework of such location-and
crop-specific content ?

30. Why such content is not available
or not developed ?
• The content is not available in the ready-made form.
– because such kind of knowledge was not compulsory to operate traditional
extension systems.
• Existing content
– Mostly consisting of text in generic manner.
– Only few crops are covered.
– Advice is not based on resource potential, biotic and abiotic factors.
– Crop specific but not soil, area and variety specific.
– No updated information with developments in science & technology.
– Farmer’s traditional wisdom is not documented.
– Difficult to compare actual farm situation from the content.
– Developed content is not based on farmer’s feedback.
– No due consideration regarding agro ecosystem analysis.
– Lack of understanding of local demand.

31. eSagu Content Development Framework
Table 1: Chapter titles and Titles of subsections.
(Note: Replace “C” with the “Crop” and “R” with the “Region”).
Chapter Title Subsections or Questions
1. Introduction 1.1 Overview/nature of C;
1.2 Overview/environment of R;
1.3 Rationale for farmers of R for cultivating C
1.4 What is the importance of C for R.
1.5 Why the content on C is different for region R as compared to other regions.
2. Area, Production and
Productivity of C in R
for last one decade,
trends there-in.
2.1 How much area is covered by different types of soils in the R ?
2.2 What is the normal production capability of C in R ?
2.3 What is the potential for productivity of C in different farming situations of R ?
3.Climate and Season 3.1 How is the climate and weather variations in R ?
3.2 How the climate variations in R influences the cultivation of C ?
3.3 Details of seasons and durations for crop C in R ?
3.4 How is mapping of seasons with cultivation of C.
4.Varieties and Hybrids 4.1 Details of varieties/hybrids of C suitable for R
4.2 How the varieties/hybrids of C vary with soils in R
4.3 How the varieties/hybrids of C vary with weather/seasonal variations in R
4.4 How the varieties and hybrids differ in their performance with
respect to yield potential according to profit potential/duration/pests
susceptibility or resistance/extreme weathers etc.
5. Cropping Systems 5.1 Details of cropping systems in practice for different soils/varieties/seasons ?
6 Soils 6.1 Details of soils in R ?
6.2 Soil characteristics and potential corrections ameliorative measures to improve the
productivity of crop C in R.

32. Content Development Framework…
Table 1: Chapter titles and Titles of subsections.
(Note: Replace “C” with the “Crop” and “R” with the “Region”).
Title Subsections or Questions
7. Land
Preparation
7.1. Different land preparation methods recommended based on soil and water
availability, seasonal variations for C in R.
8. Seeds and
Sowing
8.1 How to sow C seed in R by considering soil, weather. seasonal variations ?
9. Crop
establishment and
growth stages
9.1. Cultivation practices for C in R by considering different varieties, weather,
seasonal variations and water availability.
9.2 Different growth stages of C in R and corresponding packages of practices.
10 Nutrient
Management
10.1 Nutrient management recommendations for C in R by considering soil types,
fertility, variety/hybrid and seasonal variations including INM practices.
11 Irrigation
water
Management
11.1 Water management techniques/information to get maximum productivity for
of C in R by considering seasonal, water availability (tank, well, rain-fed and
drought).
12 Weed
management
12.1 What are different kind of popular weeds that affect C yield in R.
12.2 Weed management techniques and information for C in R including IWM.
13 Pest
Management
13.1 What are different kinds of popular pests on C in the R.
13.2 What are the pest management/control measures on C in R by considering
weather and seasonal and soil and crop stage ?
13.3 What are the pesticides and IPM practices which are popular and will be
effective with timing of information.

33. Content Development Framework…
Table 1: Chapter titles and Titles of subsections.
(Note: Replace “C” with the “Crop” and “R” with the “Region”).
Chapter Title Subsections or Questions
14 Harvest and Post-
Harvest Technology
14.1 What are methods of harvesting C ?
14.2 What are the precautions in harvesting C for R by considering weather and season
and labor.
14.3 What are the post-harvesting technologies to process and store the produce of C
?
15 Seed Production 15.1 What are the precautions/methods in producing seeds for C in R
by considering weather, water and seasons in R
16. Specific Problems 16.1 What are the specific problems (crop production and management) regarding
cultivating C in R ?
17. Crop economics 17.1 What are the strategies to economize the production costs for C in R ? (giving
details on cost of cultivation, crop yield, marketing, net profit etc.)
18. Marketing What are the marketing opportunities for C in R ?
19. Export and quality
aspects
19.1 What are the export opportunities for C in R ?
19.2 What are the quality parameters one should consider while producing C with
export quality in R ?
19.2 What is the edge (weather, season, soil) the R is having to produce C
with export quality.
20. References, and
acronyms.
20.1 What are the sources to get more information regarding C in R (seed, pesticide
use, crop management, export information and so on)
21 Annexure 21.1 What are the list of annexure ?

34. Content development challenge ?
• For each country and given a crop we have to
identify agro-eco situations and build content (multi
media) ?
• For example, take rice crop
– At least each state will have 10 agro-eco situations
– So, we have to develop at least 20*10=200 content books.
• For all the crops, it will be a huge task
• Updating and validating will be a huge task.
• But, we need such content to benefit farmers.
• GENERIC information is not sufficient.

35. However to develop the relevant
information ?
• Follow location-specific crop practices and
– If available, suggest location-specific scientific alternatives
for risk management.
– If not available, investigate and develop the relevant
information
• How to follow/understand location-specific crop
practices ?
– Follow eSagu and deliver advices to sample number of
farms of each crop and deliver the advisories for risks
management. See the farmers’ reaction.
– Based on the advice delivery, develop the relevant content.
– Keep updating the information regularly.

36. eAgromet: ICT-enabled Agro-
Meteorological Advisory System

37. Efforts by India Mateorological
Department
• India meteorological department (IMD) is
providing “Integrated Agromet Advisory
Service”.
– IMD is issuing agromet bulletins, which contain
• risk management steps for crop and livestock management,
based on the weather forecast twice in a week (Tuesday and
Friday) up to 5 days.
– About 130 Agro-Mateorological Field Units (AMFUs)
– Extending to block level
• The agromet advisory bulletins are unique and
complements other efforts of improved
agriculture technology transfer methods.

38. Ongoing Process of Preparing
Agromet Bulletin

39. A Sample Weather Forecast

40. A Sample Agromet Bulletin
(only highlights are shown)

41. About eAgromet
• Issues
– The preparation of agromet bulletins is a manual process.
• Problem
– Improve the efficiency of preparation and dissemination of agromet
bulletins
• IMD has initiated a research project of an IT-based agro-meteorological
advisory system, called eAgromet in
collaboration with
– IIIT, Hyderabad, India and
– Agromet Cell, Achraya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad,
• The effort has started in the year 2011.
• A basic model of eAgromet has been developed.

43. Content Development Framework
S.No. Name Nature Scope
1. General
overview of the
crop
Both region and
weather
independent
Contains general
information of the crop.
2. Agro-climatology
of
the crop
Region
independent and
weather
dependent
Contains information
about agro-climatology of
the crop
3. Region specific
agro-climatology
of
the crop
Both region and
weather
dependent
Contains region-specific
agro-climatology of the
crop.
4. Region specific
contingency
crop production
strategies
Both region and
weather
dependent
Contains contingency
measures against
malevolent weather.

44. General Overview of Crop
S.No. Name of the topic Description
1 Common names and
Scientific name
Crop common names and scientific name
2 Introduction Origin and spread across the world, important crop growing regions
in the world and importance of the crop
3 Area, Production
and Productivity of
the crop
Summary of Worldwide production
4 Climate and Season Favorable weather conditions (Temperature, Rainfall, Relative
Humidity, Sunshine hours etc.) for crop growth and development,
cropping seasons, Ecosystems/Crop Ecology, Crop adaptation,
Cropping pattern and Crop rotation
5 Soils Suitable soil types and soil characteristics for crop cultivation,
problematic soils and amelioration
6 Botany of the crop
and crop
improvement
Morphology, growth and development of the crop and crop
improvement
7 Best management
practices (BMPs)
Best management practices followed for higher yield around the
world
8 Post-harvest
technology
Processing, storage and marketing

45. Agro-climatology of Crop
S.No
.
Name of the topic Description
1. Potential crop growing
regions
Agro climatic conditions in the potential crop growing regions in the
world, country/region
2. Optimum climatic conditions Optimum climatic conditions required for better crop growth, yield;
pest and disease, weed suppression in India
3. Effect of weather elements
on crop growth
Individual and combined effect of weather elements on crop growth
and development during different phenophases of crop growth
including land preparation to post harvest handling of the produce
4. Effect of weather elements on
pests
Individual and combined effect of weather elements/parameters on
incidence, virulence/suppression of crop insect pests, diseases and
weeds
5. Crop management practices Crop management practices under various crop growing situations/
regions
6. Pest management practices Pest management practices under various crop growing environments/
regions
7. Agro meteorological services Agro meteorological services available for crop production in the
world

46. Region specific Agro climatology of the
crop
S.No
.
Name of the topic Description
1. Crop name Common names and Scientific name
2. State and agro climatic
zone
Respective region comes under which State and agro climatic
zone
3. Crop statistics Area, Production and Productivity of the crop in the region/state
4. Overview of weather
conditions
Overview of weather conditions experienced in the region
5. Crop growing seasons Main crop growing seasons in the region/state
6. Characteristic features of
weather elements
Characteristic features of weather elements during crop growing
seasons/periods
7. Climatic constraints Region specific climatic constraints and their impact -
Phenophase wise individual and combined effect of weather
parameters on crop growth and development and also incidence,
virulence/suppression of pests (insect pests, diseases and weeds
8. Farming situations Various crop growing situations/environments in the region
9. Farming situation based
advisories
Farming situation based advisories for normal and extreme
weather conditions

47. Region specific contingency crop
production strategies
S.
No
.
Name of the
topic
Description
1. Alternative
crops
Choice of crops and varieties under aberrant rainfall and other
weather situations in main crop growing seasons
2. Contingency
cop
management
practices
Contingency cop management practices to mitigate extreme
aberrant weather situations (to some extent) in a given crop at
different phenophases of crop growth
3. Effects of
extreme
weather
events
Effects of extreme weather events like delayed onset of
monsoon, prolonged dry spells, early recession of monsoons;
severe droughts; floods; water logging; heat wave; cold wave;
cyclones; typhoons; tsunami; hail storms etc at different
phenophases of crop

48. Steps to identify weather events and developing the
content for a given crop
Input: Thirty years of daily weather data of a given region, labels for each weather
variable
Output: Weather events and crop- and location specific content for crops.
1. Collect last 30 years of weather data (Tmin, Tmax, RF, RH1, RH2, CC, WS, WD)
and assign the labels for each day.
2. Find the normal weather values for each day and assign the labels.
3. Compute the weather statistics for each week
4. Identify normal events: Identify 53 weekly normal events. You will get one event
for each week.
5. Identify deviation events: Compare each year weather data with the normal data.
Identify, how much each weather variable deviated from the normal. Generate
event for each jump from the normal.
6. For each event, prepare the agromet advice for each crop of that AMFU.

49. A Model of Virtual Crop Labs as a Cloud
Computing Application for Enhancing
Practical Agricultural Education

50. Importance of Practical Education
• The agriculture graduates should posses
expertise and confidence to give the agro-advice
to the farmer for curing the aliment in
the cropped field.
• Making the correct decision at field level is
much more difficult for fresh graduates who
have least practical field exposure.

51. Depiction of Ongoing Learning Process by the
Student
• Mutual re-enforcement between A to B.
– During BSc(agriculture) program, the students spend first three years for
learning basic knowledge in the classrooms and dedicated labs.
– As a part of special course or course assignment, the students visit the selected
college farms carry out the assignments and gain practical knowledge.
– To expose the student to real field problems, he/she has to completeRAWEP
during the first semester of the fourth year. The students are expected to stay in
the village and attached to the host farmer.

52. Proposed Approach:
Basic Idea
• It is possible to improve the practical knowledge of
students, if we systematically expose them to well
organized, indexed and summarized digital data (text,
photos and video) of diverse farm situations.
– The crop growth situation under different agro-climatic
situations is captured from seed-to-seed throughout crop growing
season at regular intervals covering all the crop husbandry
activities.
– The captured situations are labelled and described by subject-matter
specialists (agriculture scientists).
– The labelled content is exposed to the students of under-graduate
programs as a part of learning framework.
– As a result, a student gets an opportunity to examine the
thousands of crop production problem dynamics of each crop
and learn the practical knowledge.

53. Virtual Crop Labs
• The virtual crop lab constitutes
– Each lab constitutes virtual crop
lab of zones (VCLZ).
• each VCLZ constitutes several
virtual farm sagas (VFS).
– each VFS constitutes virtual farm
items.

54. Virtual Farm Item
• Suppose a particular crop (c) is cultivated in the farm (f). We capture the crop
situation or activity carried out in the farm at particular instant (or stage) through
virtual farm item (VFI).
• VFI: < f, c, d, t, td, p, v, s, q/a, i >.
– f: indicates the details of farm; c: indicates the details of crop
– d: indicates the date of sowing of crop c; t: indicates the time (day) of VFI.
– td: indicates description of crop status through text.
– p: indicates the set of photographs
– v: indicates the set of video clips through which the crop status is captured.
– s: indicates the summary text written by subject matter specialists for the given VFI. It
contains the detailed description of the corresponding problem or activity by referring
individual photographs or videos. By reading the description, the student or professor can
understand the problem or activity captured through VFI.
– q/a: indicates questions & answers. The subject matter specialist prepares the questions
related to VFI based on the field problems at t and provides the answers. These questions
are prepared to help the student to get more insights about field problems.
– i: indicates the index terms. The index terms will help the information retrieval engine to
retrieve the corresponding VFI.

55. More about VFI
• The VFI captures enough information so that the agriculture student/
professor can understand the farm situation or farm activity by going
through it in a virtual manner (without visiting the crop field).
• Photographs/video clips:
– The situation can be understood through text photograhs/video clips.
Based on the crop details and farm location, the student can grasp the
problem.
• Text written by scientist
– To enhance the understanding of crop situation, the student can go
through the text written by scientist.
• Q/A:
– The questions (and answers) should be such that it should enable the
student/teacher to understand the background and other influencing
factors for that farm situation.
– Questions are aimed to understand what, how and why aspects of
situation/activity, such as the reasons for the given farm situation or
importance of such activity.

56. Virtual Farm Saga
• For the given farm, the VFS is the collection of virtual farm items
which are being captured at the regular intervals from pre-sowing to
post-harvesting covering all crop-husbandry activities.
• The structure of VFS <f, c, d, Set of VFIs, Summary of VFS, q/a,
i>.
– Set of VFIs:
• Collection VFIs captured at regular intervals from sowing to post-harvesting
by covering the crop cycle.
– Summary of VFS:
• The summary is written by considering overall farm situation by considering
the corresponding VFIs throughout crop life cycle, i.e., from pre-sowing to
post-harvesting. Reasons for the problems should be mentioned. Best
agriculture practices should be highlighted. The negative aspects of crop
production practices carried out should be explained. Mistakes identified
should be described. Missed opportunities for a better crop growth, if any,
should be given.
– q/a:
• The subject matter specialist should form appropriate questions and give
answers regarding dynamics of VFS.
– Questions can be about the factors about the crop growth, linking activities the problems
occurred to the crop to the activities carried out at different stages, weather situation, soil,
farm practices, etc.

57. More About VFS
• The VFS captures enough information so that the agriculture student/
professor can understand the growth of the given farm in a virtual manner
without visiting the crop field.
• Set of VFI
– The student can go through each VFI and understand the crop growth.
• Summary:
– Overall farm growth phenomena
• Q/A
– The questions (and answers) enable the student/teacher to understand
the background and other influencing factors for that crop growth.
– Questions are aimed to understand what influenced the crop growth and
corresponding corrective factors that would have been taken, if any.

58. Virtual Crop Lab of a Zone
(VCLZ)
• The VCLZ captures the crop dynamics for a given micro agro-climatic zone.
• Let crop c is cultivated in n number of sample farms (in different farming
situations) in a given micro agro-climatic zone.
– The value of n is chosen such that all farming situations of the zone for a given crop are
captured.
• The collection of VFS of n farms (in different farming situations) constitute VCLZ.
• The elements of VCLZ are as follows: <c, Set of VFSs, Summary of VCLZ, q/a, i >.
– c, i: the meaning of these notations is similar as in VFI.
– Set of VFSs:
• Indicates a collection of VFSs on n number of sample farms of crop c. For a given agro-climatic zone,
the number of sample farms will be selected to capture all the variability (soil, variety, water source and
so on) of the crop c.
– Summary of VCLZ:
• The summary for VCLZ is written by considering overall situation of farms in VCLZ. The summary
includes reasons for the success of some farms including best agriculture practices, and failure of some
other farms which should be mentioned linking to the agro-climatic conditions, good/bad farm
practices, crop protection measures, untimely application of inputs, soil type and so on.
– q/a:
• The questions and answers are formed by subject matter specialists by considering the VFSs of all
sample farms. So, there is a scope for several innovative questions and answers which can be given by
providing the references to corresponding VFSs and VFIs.
• Questions can be framed following the processes of contrasting VFSs and VFIs, comparing VFSs and
VFIs by identifying unique/special VFSs and VFIs with reference to soil, variety, weather and so on.
Questions can also be about the reasons for success of some farms and failure of some other farms
linking to seed variety, soil, date of sowing, weather factors and farming practices.

59. More About VCLZ
• The VCLZ captures enough information so that the
agriculture student/ professor can understand the growth of
crop dynamics in a virtual manner in the zone under
different farming situations.
• Set of VFS
– The students compare VFS of several farms and understand the
differences in the crop performance under various soils and
practices.
• Summary of VCLZ
– By going through the summary of VCLZ, the student gets the
new insights about the influence of various factors on different
types of farms of the same crop in the given zone.
• Q/A
– The questions (and answers) helps the student to explore the
issues in different dimensions.

60. Virtual Crop Lab
• The virtual crop lab captures all the problems and activities of the crop for
all agro-climatic zones of the country. Let crop c is cultivated in m micro
agro-climatic zones in the country. The collection of VCLZs of m zones
constitute VCL. The elements of VCL is as follows: < c, Set of VCLZ,
Summary of VCL, q/a, i >.
– Set of VCLZs:
• Indicates VCLZs on m agro-climatic zones.
– Summary of VCL:
• The summary of VCL of a country is written by comparing and contrasting crop
growth/farm practices based on the VCLZ of several zones of a country. Reasons
for the difference in crop practices by linking to weather and soil should be
highlighted.
– q/a:
• The questions and answers are formed by subject matter specialists by considering the VCLZs
of several zones.
• Questions can be formed following the processes of contrasting VCLZs, VFSs and VFIs,
comparing VCLZs, VFSs and VFIs by identifying unique/special VCLZs, VFSs and VFIs with
reference to soil, variety, weather and so on.
• Questions can also be framed about the reasons for the differences in farming practices, crop
problems, and protection measures.

61. More About VCL
• The VCL captures enough information so that the agriculture student can
understand the growth of crop dynamics in different agro-climatic zones in
the country without visiting the fields (virtual manner).
– The students understand the differences in the crop performance under different
agroclimatic zones.
• Summary of VCL
– the student could get the new insights about how crop growth is carried
out in different agro-climatic zones, differences in the best agriculture
practices in each zone, farming situations in each zone, varietal
differences, differences in agronomic practices, dominance of pest and
deceases and so on.
• The questions (and answers) helps the student to explore the crop growth
issues in different agro-climatic farming environments.

62. Relationship among VFI, VFS, VCLZ, VCL.

63. Role of Virtual Crop Labs in
Practical Agricultural Education
(i) Existing: Mutual reinforcement between A and B and vice versa
(ii)New
• Mutual reinforcement between A and C and vice versa
•Mutual reinforcement between B to C and vice versa

64. Issues of Open Access to
Agricultural Knowledge
• Creation of different agricultural knowledge
repositories/tools relevant to stakeholders.
– Standard formats/services
• How to enable open access in a sustainable manner ?
• Impact of such knowledge depends on the services
which depends on the data relevant to stakeholders,
including poor and marginal farmers.
• Examples: eSagu, eAgromet, Virtual Crop Labs,
InfoCrop