Farming IT

Guided by the principle of an informed farmer is an empowered farmer, the
Madhya Pradesh farmer welfare and agriculture development department took the
initiative of bringing the benefits of ICT to the farming community in Madhya
Pradesh. In an agriculture dominant economy like India, the objective of
www.mpkrishi.org was to provide an easy and flowing platform to the farming
community. The portal helps farmers in accessing need based information and
avail departmental advisory and extension services in a simple and transparent
manner at their doorsteps.

Kamal Jain, assistant director, farmer welfare and agriculture development,
Madhya Pradesh Government points out, The idea was to develop an integrated,
easy and at the same time, low-cost delivery mechanism for servicing the farming
community. This will help them in availing extension and advisory services, all
at their doorsteps for enhancing their income from agricultural enterprise.

His department, which is engaged in agriculture development, introduced
various schemes for the farming community. And the quantum of schemes can be
gauged from the fact that the department currently employs around 14,000
employees directly or indirectly related to agriculture. However, managing the
huge infrastructure of the department along with monitoring of schemes and the
workforce was a huge task in itself. Therefore to facilitate better functioning,
MIS was required, says Jain.

The project, therefore, included development of a web-based Application
Software Monitoring and Management Information Decision Support System (MIDSS).
Costing Rs 7.8 crore the project included setting up the requisite
infrastructure, undertaking training of the department staff, and creating
backlog of data entry of previous years data.

www.mpkrishi.org

The web based portal presently offers three types of servicesgovernment to
consumer (in this case consumer is the farmer); government to business (includes
agencies associated with agriculture processing industries like fertilizer and
pesticide companies; banks and credit institutions, etc which essentially
require agriculture data); and government to government (including internal MIS
and communication within the agriculture department employees).

In the government to consumer G2C segment, static information is provided on
the portal on different aspects of agriculture like package practices of
different crops, farm management practices including crop management technology,
water and soil conservation technology, pesticides disease management
technology, etc. Besides, farmers can also access information on the weather,
rainfall, temperature and natural calamities through respective links and
possible warnings of probable effects and advices accordingly.

Since the farmer would not be aware of the website for accessing weather
related information, on the portal itself we have provided links of the IMD
department on the portal itself, Jain adds. In a similar vein, the portal also
provides latest information related to the mandi rates by providing links of the
respective mandis on the portal enabling real-time updation on changes in the
rates of farm produce at the mandis.

The portal also displays department related information on various programs
and schemes. This includes different components of schemes, such as eligibility
criteria as well as contact details of department functionaries right from the
block level up to the state level. This enables farmers to contact officials
directly in case of any grievances.

Another useful feature of the portal, says Jain is the Interactive service
segment wherein the farmers can interact with the portal directly. The Ask for
Advice or salah se samadhan section wherein the farmer can post his query
online is a much used one. There is also a public grievance redressal section
wherein once the complaint is filed, it gets raised to the next level, if not
resolved within one week at the district level and one month at the state level.

Apart from providing agri-related data to the farming community, the portal
is also used for internal department related activities like sending and
receiving emails from other staff members. The portal is also used to access
human resource related information of the agriculture department ie, displaying
the gradation list which will enable any employee posted in the remotest block
to see when is he due for promotion, his seniority list, his cadre, etc.

Roadblocks

Similar to any other e-governance initiative, lack of awareness both at the
user end and the provider end continues to be a major hindrance in this project
as well. The problems were more complicated in this case since most farmers
havent even heard of IT, leave alone operating a PC. The problem of getting
the farmers comfortable with a PC can only be addressed suitably once the CSCs
are rolled out across all the districts of the state, Jain answers.

And till the time CSCs are rolled out, factors like availability of
infrastructure coupled with lack of basic computer operating skills in the
farming community will hinder growth of such projects.

In order to provide ready access to the Internet at the block level, the
department rolled out Kisan Gyan Soochna Kendras in 313 blocksthese are the
lowest level executive offices. The objective of these kendras was to provide
free service delivery to the farmers ie, the farmer could come into the kendras
and access the portal, take printouts of relevant informationall free of cost.
Around Rs 20,000 was allocated for setting up these kendras including a PC with
Internet connectivity, printer, UPS, informs Jain. A total of Rs 780.61 lakh
has been approved by the central government with the state government sharing
the responsibility of providing the required infrastructure and manpower.

While understandably farmers were lacking PC operating skills, the attitude
and hence aroud 4,000 people were trained.

However, the project seemed to be on a roll since its launch in September
2007. The portal had an average 8-14 lakh hits per month and around 1,400
farmers having availed the Ask for Advice services.

However, with Internet availability continuing to be a sore issue till the
time CSCs are not rolled out fully, Internet based delivery model will not take
off. Perhaps, to counter this problem Kisan Call Center was established in
September 2008 with a toll free number, whereinfarmers could dial in and get
information from subject matter experts on agri-related queries. The call
center currently has around 30 SMEs on horticulture, veterinarians etc, says
Jain. Since the launch, the call center has handled around 1,20,000 calls. The
call center has been integrated with Krishinet to provide information
available on portal through KCC. And vice versa data collected at the KCC
provides directions to add and update information on portal.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in