The e-Arik Initiative: Weaving ICT into Farming

Keeping in mind the grim scenario in Indias tribal regions, few like-minded brains got together and proposed to experiment an e-agriculture initiative in the hilly terrains of Northeast India. The proposal was approved by the Technology Information Facilitation Program (TIFP) of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in 2007.

The Prelude

In June 2007, after approval of the project, when the team visited Yagrung village of Arunachal Pradesh to know how the villagers feel about the idea, this is what they first heard. These days, I am hearing a lot about computers in Radio. They say, we can do so many things by using a computer. At least before I die, I want to see a computer. You have come with a good news, and the project will surely be good for the villagers, says Tapang Jamoh, Guonbura of the village (the village tribal chief). The words of that 75-year-old man gave me enough encouragement to try e-initiatives in the tribal villages. Most of the villagers readily accepted the idea and almost all were co-operative and positive about the project, says Dr R Saravanan, principal investigator of the project.

Arik means Agriculture in the Adi tribal dialect of Arunachal Pradesh. So the project was rightfully named e-Arik. It started during 2007 with funding from DSIR to facilitate agricultural advisory services to the socio-economically disadvantaged tribal farmers, by using ICTs in the backward tribal villages of Arunachal Pradesh. The core team comprised of Dr R Saravanan, principal investigator, and Dr P Raja, co-principal investigator, who is also a plant pathologist. There were committed researchers in the team like T Indra Devi (electronics engineer), Supriya Devi (agricultural), John Pathari (biological science), and 4 farmer facilitators from the villagesTajong Tabing, Taum Tamuk, Tasing Siram, Nung Tabing. In addition, there were 2 project review committee members, Narmi Darang, an economist and K Kamaraj, from the JN College of Pasighat. The team started small, but their dreams were always big!

Initial Objectives: The project, which is now at its final stage, was initiated with 3 main objectives: First, to assess the information needs of the tribal farmers. Second, to experiment ICT in agricultural extension services provision. Third, to assess the impact of the project on behavioral change (knowledge, attitude, skill, acceptance, adoption of agricultural innovations), socio-economic impact (income and empowerment), and clientle satisfaction on agricultural information services. A review meeting has been planned to be conducted during the third week of February this year, which will also include focused group discussions and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), along with individual household survey to assess the impact of the project among the tribal farmers during March-April 2011.

Its Expanse

E-arik was initiated in the Yagrung village of the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, and covered 12 remote tribal villages. Five hundred small and marginal tribal farmers were selected, based on their willingness in receiving agricultural advisory services from the e-Arik project, who in turn could educate fellow farmers with what they learnt. Along with farmers, tribal children, rural youth, and school teachers also enrolled for computer education in the e-Arik Village Knowledge Center at Yagrung village. Further, the project created an awareness on ICT potential in agricultural development among the scientists, farm and rural development administrators, policymakers, and others in the North East India. Apart from agriculture, e-Arik team also facilitated awareness programs on natural resource management, child care, nutrition, malaria eradication, and information related to e-governance, rural development, education, etc. Since 2009, more than 300 village school going tribal children, rural youth, and others are being imparted regular computer education at the e-Arik village knowledge center.

In these remote tribal regions, where people had not seen a computer till recently and only a few heard the word, the e-Arik project helped to create general agricultural and rural development awareness among the tribal farmers, facilitated eco-friendly and sustainable farm technology, developed vocational efficiency among the farmers, formed farmers groups for self help, developed local knowledge managers, facilitated use of local resources, helped to make timely decisions by the farmers themselves, suggested alternative ways to solve farming and other rural problems, and facilitated e-literacy among the villagers.

What Have they Achieved?

Kasang Talohs paddy crops got regularly infested with diseases, till the e-Arik team demonstrated Seed Treatment technology to him and now he regularly follows it. As a result, the disease drastically reduced in his 5 acres of paddy field. In another instance, Tabings paddy field was infested with Brown Leaf Hopper. But with recommendations from the e-Arik team to drain the water from the paddy field at proper time, he saved his crops spread over 4 acres land. Many other farmers received valuable advice from videos and adopted the IPM measures to contain the pest menace. Siram practiced vermi-compost by seeing multimedia CD at e-Arik center and many Khasi mandarin growing farmers adopted biological and mechanical control measures of citrus trunk borer and fruit fly. Since 2007, the project has seen many such successful case studies!

Innovative Initiatives: Large number of tribal dialects are spoken in Arunachal Pradesh. So, to overcome language barrier, Farmer-to-Farmer Communication has been introduced. Further, e-Arik tried to integrate village knowledge center concept along with all possible ICTs like computer with Internet, telephone, mobile, radio, television, multimedia CDs, and traditional extension approaches. Considering frequent outages of power and Internet, to minimize farmers disappointment and add value to their waiting time at an e-Arik center, Village Library has been initiated with farm related publications. The Farmer Participatory Video at the e-Arik center regularly reinforces their learning, and the display of Organic Farm Input has been able to create lot of interest and awareness among the tribal farmers.

A recent study indicated that 73 out of 300 e-Arik registered farmers, who were growing Khasi mandarin had an average increase of `5,252 in their income. Also, an average of `1,611 increase was seen in the income of 258 paddy farmers of the region.

Challenges Faced

Circumstances are not that favorable up there. Regular power outages, Internet connectivity problems, and telephone lines becoming frequently out-of-orderall these hurdles create trouble in sustaining continuous service. As scientific resources for agriculture in Arunachal Pradesh are limited, facilitating ICT based knowledge dissemination and integration with the local farming situation becomes very difficult. Besides, tribal farmers generally understand and communicate in local tribal dialect, making it extremely difficult for the visiting trainers to train them.

One-size fits for all policy may not be relevant to North East India, as situations and circumstances here are quite different from South or North India. Large number of dialects, very limited infrastructure, natural calamities, and security issues, all require location specific e-initiatives. Infrastructure, capacity building, and content creation are matters of primary concern. Hence, instead of common e-initiatives like Kissan Call Centers and CSCs, variety of e-initiatives need to be encouraged with already established institutions and departments.

The Sustainability Issue: Though most people and policymakers talk about sustainability issue, the remote and less developed North Eastern states may not likely address the sustainability issues even in near future. Making the farmers and locals realize the potential and benefits of the e-initiatives, and creating the required infrastructure becomes primary concern; sustainability issue becomes secondary. Similarly, most tribal farmers are financially very backward and may not support the idea of user-payment to the advisory services. Many tribal farmers feel that while these e-agriculture initiatives are very useful for the villagers and need to be scaled-up, it should continue with the government support for few more years.

Recognitions Despite Bottlenecks

Even though situations are tough in the region, the e-Arik project managed to achieve many goals and aptly gained recognition too. In 2007-08, it was awarded Best e-Governed Project by the Computer Society of India (CSI) and Nihilent. The project was listed as one of the best practices for discussion during World Information Technology Forum, 2009 at Hanoi, Vietnam. It was also presented in the 13th World Congress of the Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) at Montpellier, France in 2010, and is also listed in the World Wireless Community Summit at Vienna, Austria. And thats not allthe project finds mention in the KIT portal, Royal Tropical Institute, the Netherlands on Rural Innovation Systems.

The Road Ahead

After the success of e-Arik project, another e-initiative called Model e-Villages in Northeast India was initiated collaboratively with the C-DAC, Hyderabad and Central Agricultural University in Arunachal Pradesh. The project covers entire East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh (which has 132 villages) with 10 e-village centers. Efforts are being made to extend the project to the other North Eastern states. If and when that happens, the plan is to integrate the e-Arik methodology with the other partners like our CAUs constituent colleges, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), and NGOs in 8 states of North East India.

Yet another innovative e-agriculture initiative, sponsored by the NABARD waits to be rolled out during April-May, 2011. The project called e-agrikiosk (touch screen kiosk) proposes to install touch screen kiosks in remote villages with Adi tribal dialect audio integrated with mobile SMS advisory services, to the tribal farmers of Arunachal Pradesh. The project also proposes to host dynamic web portal with tribal farmers database, socio-economic condition, decision support systems, FAQs, farm multimedia gallery, weather, and market information.

Initiatives such as these will not just create awareness and equip the disadvantaged tribal farmers of our country with technology today, but will help them independently move ahead with the fast pace of the technologically driven urban India. After all, If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

Drishti D Manoah
drishtim@cybermedia.co.in