Vol. V No. 9
September 2007
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
Reviving indigenous paddy cultivation Practical Action, Sri Lanka
Information for development
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
Technology enabled farm women Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCD)
Story telling for knowledge sharing - iConnect series
ISSN 0972 - 804X
e-Agriculture
Emerging technologies in African and Latin American countries
knowledge for change
www.e-Agriculture.in Notification
Coming soon! An exclusive magazine on e-Agriculture
.in
CSDMS Publications
Be updated and informed on ICT in agriculture Get connected with the community
The range of commodities include those from verticals such as...
Contents
Vol. V No. 9
September 2007
Mail box
Features of agriculture in India 6 State Losing Grounds Shambhu Ghatak
8
11
13
Practical Action, Sri Lanka Dhanushi Senanayake, Hemantha Abeywardane, Varuna Rathanbaharathie
Columns
Technology enabled farm women
42
Bytes for All
44
Book received
45
What’s on
46
In Fact
Grid based market for agro-produce Agro Marketing Grid Sanjay Chaudhary, Ashok Patel
39
18 News
Reviving indigenous paddy cultivation
Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc (IMCD) Dr. N. Anandaraja, G. Sujhi, G. Gayathri, T. Rathakrishnan, M. Ramasubramanian
ICTs - connecting the communities
Grameen Bank’s story
e-Agriculture analysis
CCRC, India Bijay Kumar Nanda
Interview with e-Krishi 16 Interface K Anvar Sadath 41
Exploring MCX Dr. V Shunmugam
35 ICTD project
Rendezvous 22
e-Agriculture India 2007
33
Launch of the Big Tech Programme
Enabling agriculture
Technology assistance for NGOs
newsletter i4donline.net News Search ICT4D news by date in the sectors of governance, health, education, agriculture and so on. E-mail Subscribe to daily, weekly, monthly newsletters online or send request to info@i4donline.net Research e-Learning projects from India www.i4d.csdms.in/elearn.asp Learn more about FLOSS www.i4d.csdms.in/floss/introduction.asp
28
Story telling for knowledge sharing Emerging technologies in African and Latin American countries Stories by: Ramata Soré, Anavela Herrera, Filifing Diakite, Edris Kisambira, Henry Kabwe
et
online.n
info@i4d
Print edition The past issues of the magazine are available online www.i4d.csdms.in/archive/archive.htm New! Knowledge bank of books on ICT4d www.i4d.csdms.in/floss/introduction.asp
The high profile i4d Award 2007 presented in the Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi was really commendable. CSDMS and i4d team deserve all praise for this endeavour. I was one of the recipient of i4d Award 2007 for SCORE Project in Bihar and received this prestigious award on 3rd August 2007. This accomplishment I owe to my office too. Inspired by the i4d award 2007,recently I have prepared another paper with incorporation of recent development with special emphasis on the HOHB model of implementation vis-a-vis BOOT model which are operational at Maharashtra, Karnataka etc. for property registration. I wish to contribute on the same for publication in the i4d Monthly Magazine. Nirmal Kishor Prasad PSA and Project Leader, ‘SCORE Project Bihar’, NIC Bihar State Centre, Patna, India nk.prasad@nic.in I have been very regularly getting i4d issues. Thanks for the efforts put by i4d team. I got an invitation to write an article in the magazine International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). They have made a mention that they are writing to me after reading my artcile on Network community services in rural india in i4d. Thanks for introducing me to the network!!! Dr. N.S. Vasanthi Professor and Head, Department of Biotechnology, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India, vasanthiuk@yahoo.com info@i4donline.net www.i4donline.net/feedback.asp
Cover images credit: http://www.mckerracher.net/images/farmers.jpg, http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/student_work/global_programme/vv2003/culture/gochu/ploughing1.jpg, http://home.uchicago.edu/~rts1/wfrice1.jpg
Subscription Form
EDITORIAL GUIDELINES i4d contains articles and features on the theme of ‘ICT for development’ and related issues. Authors are requested to follow the guidelines while sending their articles to i4d. Please also consult the editorial calendar to choose the theme of your interest. We also accept soft or hard copy submissions of your contributions. We encourage you to share your original research with our readers.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
Information for development www.i4donline.net
Duration
Issues
(Year)
News stand
Subscription
Price Rs.
Rs.
1
12
2400
2160
2
24
4800
3
36
7200
The Editor’s decision to select, accept, modify or adjust your write-ups due to space constraints will be final.
Vol. V No. 5
May 2007
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
Vol. V No. 6
4080
15% (Rs. 720)
US$ 320
5040
30% (Rs. 2160)
US$ 400
Vol. V No. 7
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
July 2007
Information for development
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
Vol. V No. 8
August 2007
Extention of ICTs to youth in Vietnam
Mobile opportunities
ICTs- a viable solution for SMEs ICT and SMEs in Egypt: A case study
Technology integration into enterprising projects
US$ US$ 200
Bottom of pyramid mobile access
eLearning in African and Latin American countries
Subscription
10% (Rs. 240)
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
June 2007
Story telling for knowledge sharing - iConnect series
Information for development
www.i4donline.net
Saving
Telecentre tales
Creating livehood opportunities Information for development
Internet governance
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
e-Publishing Ongoing revolution in e-Publishing
Indian Telecentre Forum, 2007
Rural livelihoods
Information for development
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
Differential scenarios in employment
i4d Awards 2007 A galaxy of luminaries
Beyond the mainstream...
Employment in IT sector, India
ICTs in SMEs, Mexico
The first monthly magazine on ICT4D
A journey through three states CSC programme review, NeGP, India
Youth livelihood
Capacity building in Asian countries
i4d Film Festival India 2007
Wealth creation in India by KPOS Knowledge process outsourcing
All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor-in-chief, i4d G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India Tel +91-120-2502180 to 85 Fax +91-120-2500060 Email info@i4donline.net
I/We would like to subscribe for (circle as applicable)
1
2
Nocw ribe
Government investments in ICT4D knowledge for change
3
ISSN 0972 - 804X
knowledge for change
ISSN 0972 - 804X
knowledge for change
ICTs for livelihoods
Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Technologies ISSN 0972 - 804X
ISSN 0972 - 804X
Promoting innovations, role of ICTs in SMEs
Editorial guidelines are available at http://www.i4donline.net/Editorial/Editorial_ Guidelines.asp
Left to Right: H.E. Mohammed Al Amer, Preseident CIO, Govt. of Bahrain; Niranjan Meegammana, E-Fusion Pvt. Ltd., Sri Lanka; Ms. Bela Diwan, Computer Teacher, Springdales School, New Delhi; Santosh Choubey, Director, AISECT; Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS; Ms. Simmi Kher, Head, Computer Dept., Springdales School; William D Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, India; Dr. M.P. Narayanan, President, CSDMS; Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed Eisa, Chairman, GDCO, Sudan; Subhash Kuntia, Joint Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development. Govt. of India; Saurabh Gupta, State Informatics Officer, NIC Bihar, India; K. Anvar Sadath, Head, e-Krishi.
knowledge for change
subs ne! onli
years.
First name............................................................................................ Last name .......................................................................... Designation/profession ........................................................................ Organisation ...................................................................... Mailing address ................................................................................... City .................................................................................... State ................................................... Country ................................ Postal code ......................................................................... Tel (o) ................................................... Tel (r)................................................................. Fax .......................................................... Email ................................................... Website ............................................................................................................................. Payments for mailed subscriptions are only accepted via cheque or demand draft. Cash payments may be made in person. (tick one and fill as applicable) Please find enclosed my/our cheque/demand draft numbered dated ......................... for Rs......................................... in favour of CSDMS a/c payable at New Delhi. I am submitting this form in person and paying by cash Please use photocopies of this form as required.
The CSDMS team
i4d, G-4 Sector 39, Noida 201 301, India Tel +91 120 250 2180 to 85 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net
i4d news The first daily news service on ICT4D
Subscribe at www.i4donline.net 4
i4d Editorial Calendar 2007 Month
Theme
January
Malaysian ICT for Development
February
eAsia Conference curtain raiser special + Communities of Practice in Telecentres
March
Human Rights and eAsia conference report special
April
Community Radio and Gender special
May
Promoting innovations, role of ICTs in SMEs
June
Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Technologies
July
ICTs for livelihoods
August
Government investments in ICT4D + eINDIA2007 conference special
September
e-Agriculture
October
Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging Markets
November
Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging People in ICT4D
December
New Media for Development i4d | September 2007
Editorial Information for development
w w w. i 4 d o n l i n e . n e t
ICTs for an ailing Agriculture Sector
ADVISORY BOARD M P Narayanan, Chairman, i4d Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Karl Harmsen United Nations University Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Nagy Hanna e-Leadership Academy, University of Maryland, USA Richard Fuchs IDRC, Canada Rinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership, Malaysia Walter Fust Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France EDITORIAL BOARD Akhtar Badshah, Frederick Noronha GROUP DIRECTORS Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr. Research Associates Prashant Gupta, Shambhu Ghatak, Ritu Srivastava Research Associate Ajitha Saravanan Designers Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur Web Programmer Zia Salahuddin i4d G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India Phone +91 120 250 2181-85 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net Web www.i4donline.net Printed at Yashi Media Works Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India i4d is a monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and Commnication Technologies for development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. i4d does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in this magazine are those of the contributors. i4d is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.
Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, 2006 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
i4d is supported by:
The agricultural sector in India has seen an unprecedented crisis in recent times. Although the economic reforms initiated in India during 1991 have helped the economy to achieve an impressive growth trajectory, the picture does not remain optimistic if one observes the sectoral composition of this growth. Growth in agriculture does not match upto the growth in the services or the industrial sectors, and the rate has deaccelerated from the mid1990s. According to the XIth Plan approach paper, agricultural growth rate has fallen from 3.2 per cent during 1980 and 1996-97 to a trend average of 1.5 per cent subsequently. During the period 1999-00 to 2004-05, while agricultural GDP had grown at 1.7 per cent, the trend rate of growth of non-agricultural GDP exceeded 7 per cent. The period since the early 1990s has been the worst in comparison to any other period since independence, especially when compared to the preceding decade. In 1980s, the annual rate of growth of agricultural output (all crops) was 3.19 per cent; and this declined to 1.58 per cent, in the 90s, and the yield growth rate was reduced to almost one-third. There is an urgent need to address the issues of the agriculture sector, from various fronts. There are the obvious requirements of augmenting investments, ensure irrigation, promote technological inputs, improve power supply, ensure delivery of quality inputs, improve the terms of trade for agriculture, and provide mechanisms for risk mitigation. ICTs can be used alongside these interventions in a variety of ways. There is an urgent need to evolve a network for dissemination of Agriculture related knowledge and information to the farmer. ICTs can play a significant role in this regard. The knowledge about modern farming practices, optimum resource utilisation, and indigenous practices, can be disseminated using a host of ICTs. This will require, an extensive capacity building programme to enable the farmers to jump from illiteracy to e-literacy. ICTs can facilitate extension and advisory services on a real time basis, which will enable the farmer to plan his/her production, post-harvest management and marketing in an efficient manner. On the other hand there is also a concurrent requirement to network the various universities, research bodies, and agriculture experts to create a reservoir of knowledge. This knowledge can be made to flow from the network to the the farming community. ICTs also find extensive application in ‘Agriculture Marketing’ by facilitating price discovery mechanisms, transfering information about availability of inputs etc. IT based agriculture marketing systems are to be developed for markets around the country. ICTs also find implementation in aiding the provision of microfinance services to the farmers. Finally, advanced technolgoies like GIS, and remote sensing, can be instrumental in resource management, dispute handling, crop and region wise production estimates, disaster management, calamity management etc. e-Agriculture is an emerging subject, and realising the immense potential of ICT applications for agriculture, it is important to collate energies and minds in this endeavour to map the potentialities, and do the bit to alleviate the agrarian slowdown.
Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
5
LOSING GROUNDS
State of agriculture in India Introduction Agricultural development is vital in a developing country since a vast majority of the workforce derive their livelihood from it. During the Tenth Five Year Plan, the gross domestic product (GDP) emanating from agriculture and allied activities in India registered a growth rate of 2.3 percent, which was lower than the growth rate observed in the industrial sector (8.0 percent) and services sector (9.5 percent). Growth in agriculture and allied activities averaged 2.3 percent during the 10th Plan period, lower than 3.2 percent during the 1990s and 4.4 percent during the 1980s. Hence, it is felt that a big push to the ‘agricultural sector’ is urgently required via the second green revolution, by implementing the National Agricultural Innovation Project. When one is talking about agricultural development, one cannot neglect food security, nutrition security and livelihood security, since these are related concepts. It is important to point out that per capita foodgrains production has come down to the 1970s level since per capita production of cereals has declined from 192 kg in 1991/1995 to only 174 kg in 2004/2007. Net production of foodgrain has declined from 183.6 million tonnes in the year 2000 to 173.6 million tonnes in the year 2005. However, production of milk has increased from 84.4 million tonnes in 2001-02 to 97.1 million tonnes in 200506 as per the Economic Survey 2006-07. Production of eggs has increased from 38,729 millions in 2001-02 to 46,231 millions in 2005-06. Production of fish has increased from 5,956 thousand tonnes in 2001-02 to 6,510 thousand tonnes in 2005-06. It can be recalled that the growth rate in real gross domestic product (7.6 percent) at factor cost has far exceeded the
6
growth rate in agriculture (2.3 percent), during the Tenth Five Year Plan. The revised estimates of the CSO (Central Statistical Organisation) too show that real gross domestic product (GDP) emanating from agricultural and allied activities decelerated from 6.0 percent in 2005-06 to 2.7 percent in 2006-07. During the South-West Monsoon (1, June 2006 to 30, September 2006), India received 886.6 mm of rainfall against the normal rainfall of 892.2 mm, with a deviation of (–)1 per cent. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh faced drought/droughtlike situation of varying magnitude during 2006-07. Such a pathetic and dismal situation in agriculture is believed to have led to not only the miserable plight of the farmers but also inflationary pressures in the economy. As a result of the higher order of increase in food prices, various
The growth rate in real gross domestic product (7.6 percent) at factor cost has far exceeded the growth rate in agriculture (2.3 percent) during the Tenth Five Year Plan.
measures of CPI inflation rose from 4.95.3 percent in March, 2006 to an intrayear peak of 7.6-9.8 percent in February, 2007, before coming down to 6.7-9.5 percent in March, 2007. Inflation mainly happened in wheat, pulses, milk, oilseeds and raw cotton during 2006-07. After improving steadily from 1980 to 1997, the terms of trade turned against agriculture between 1999 and 2004, and reduced profitability of farming. Public investment in agriculture too has declined from 3.4 percent of agriculture GDP in 1976-1980 to 1.9 percent in 2001-03. Although budgetary subsidies to agriculture have risen from around 3 percent of agriculture GDP in 1976-1980 to about 7 percent in 2001-03, the agricultural scenario does not look positive. Food subsidy as percentage of GDP (new series based on 1999-00) too has risen from 0.48 percent in 1999-00 to 0.66 percent in 2005-06. India’s total exports of agricultural and allied products including plantations at US$ 10.5 billion in 2005-06 constitute 10.2 per cent of its export share. Developed country markets have continued to account for nearly 35 per cent of India’s agri-exports. As a result of the total farm power availability is estimated to have increased from 0.295 kw/ha in the year 1971-72 to 1.502 kw/ha in the year 2005-06. As a result of the joint efforts made by the Government and the private sector, the level of mechanisation has been increasing steadily over the years. Tractor sales increased from 2,54,825 in 2000-01 to 2,63,146 units in 2006-07. Power tillers sales have increased from 16,018 in 200001 to 13,375 in 2006-07.
Policies and programmes for agriculture Some of the institutions/ authorities that have been newly created are: National i4d | September 2007
Rainfed Area Authority, Mini MissionII of Jute Technology Mission, scheme on micro-irrigation, National Bamboo Mission, Forecasting Agricultural Output Using Space, Agri-Meteorology and Landbased Observation (FASAL), Terminal Markets under the National Horticultural Mission, National Bee Board Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Central Institute of Horticulture (Nagaland). The National Water Development Project in rain fed areas (NWDPRA) is being implemented in 28 states and 2 Union Territories. Under the Watershed Development Fund, the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation and NABARD have contributed equally to establish a corpus fund of the amount INR 200 crore at NABARD. The Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan has undertaken the following strategies to raise agricultural output: (a) doubling the rate of growth of irrigated area; (b) improving water management, rainwater harvesting and watershed development; (c) reclaiming degraded land and focusing on soil quality; (d) bridging the knowledge gap through effective extension; (e) diversifying into high-valued outputs, fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and spices, medicinal plants, bamboo, bio-diesel, but with adequate measures to ensure food security; (f ) promoting animal husbandry and fishery; (g) providing easy access to credit at affordable rates; (g) improving the incentive structure and functioning of markets; and (h) refocusing on land reforms issues. Emphasis has also been promised on research and development (R&D) in agriculture. A National Strategic Research Fund has been created within the Agricultural Research System (NARS) so as to see the adverse impact of climate change. Various schemes that have been implemented under Technology Mission on Oilseeds and Pulses (TMOP) are: (a) Oilseeds Production Programme (OPP); (b) National Pulses Development Project (NPDP); (c) Accelerated Maize Development Programme (AMDP); (d) Post Harvest Technology (PHT); (e) Oil Palm Development Programme (OPDP); (f ) National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development (NOVOD) Board; and (g) UNDP Sub-Programme on Maize based Cropping System for Food Security in India. September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Agricultural projects aided by the World Bank (International Co-operation) Serial No.
Projects/ states covered
Effective date of operation
Closing date of operation
IDA credit (in million SDRs)
World Bank assistance already utilized/ availed upto September, 2006 (in million SDRs) IDA credit
1.
Assam Agricultural Competitive Project
14.01.2005
31.10.2010
105.00
9.063 (8.63)*
2.
Uttaranchal Decentralized Watershed Development Project
30.7.2004
31.03.2012
47.40
4.533 (9.56)*
3.
Uttar Pradesh Sodic Land Reclamation Project phase II
4.2.1999
30.09.2007
141.70
136.532 (96.35)*
4.
Karnataka Watershed Development Project
26.7.2001
31.03.2007
65.736
30.728 (46.74)*
5
Himachal Pradesh Mid Himalayan Watershed Development Project
19.01.2006
31.03.2013
41.40
4.532 (10.95)*
401.236
185.388 (46.20)*
Total (1 to 5)
Abbreviation: SDR=Special Drawing Rights; IDA=International Development Agency *Percentage utlisation vis-a-vis credit amount Source: 2006-07 Annual Report, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI
Under the resolution on agriculture undertaken by the National Development Council (NDC), there have been plans to amend the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act apart from more allocation of resources for the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP). There have been talk on the use of biofertilizers, organic manure and micronutrients, to enhance soil health. The Government of India is also promoting soil test-based, balanced and judicious use of chemical fertilisers, in conjunction with bio-fertilisers and organic manures to maintain soil health and its productivity, under the programme of Integrated Nutrient Management through various schemes. The NDC has also given a thought on launching a Food Security Mission. Although the Government of India has undertaken several steps to ensure agricultural development, but it is essential to cross-check how the projects are running at the ground-level. Groundlevel credit flow for agriculture and allied activities has increased from the level of INR 1,25,309.00 crore in 2004-05, to the level of INR 1,67,775.00 crore in 2005-06. As against the credit flow target of INR 1,75,000.00 crore during 200607, INR 1,49,343.16 crore was achieved up to December 2006, thereby forming 85.34 per cent of the target. The Kisan Credit Card Scheme has been extended
to the borrowers of long-term cooperative credit. A rehabilitation package of INR 16,978.69 crore has been announced for 31 suicide-prone districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala (India).
Conclusion India hopes that the policies and programmes that have been undertaken are going to produce the desired results. But the issues related to the trade-related distortions, access to international markets, and tariff and non-tariff related barriers need to be mitigated at the right forum with the right kind of spirit. India should also ensure right to food, apart from striving for agricultural development. Shambhu Ghatak, shambhu@csdms.in
References: • • • • • •
Reserve Bank of India, Annual Report 2006-07 Economic Survey, Ministry of Finance, 2006-07 Agriculture Strategy for Eleventh Plan, Planning Commission Recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers Resolution of the National Development Council of the Prime Minister of India 2006-07 Annual Report of Ministry of Agriculture, GoI
7
PRACTICAL ACTION, SRI LANKA
Reviving indigenous paddy cultivation Indigenous knowledge is available within the sector of paddy farming, that can be revived using ICT based tools.
Introduction Currently there are many interventions to promote new communication technologies in Sri Lanka. Governments and donor agencies are directing massive amounts of funds to promote Information Communication Technologies which are highly dependant on the use of Internet. Development organisations too extensively use ICTs for development. But apart from that there is very little awareness about the potential of ICTs among other sectors. One such sector that can be benefited by the use of ICT based tools is paddy farming in Sri Lanka. Indigenous knowledge available within this sector, that can be revived using ICT based tools. Paddy is a sub sector that was seriously affected by the tsunami. Practical Action under its ‘Rebuilding livelihoods affected by Tsunami’ programme planned to provide diverse production and marketing options to affected paddy farmers through introduction of high demand organic paddy production and improved marketing options. For this purpose ‘Practical Action’ invited The National Farmer Federation for Conservation of Traditional Seeds and Agricultural Resources (NFCTSAR) to work as a partner to provide inputs for improving the livelihoods of farmers.
Practical actions Dhanushi Senanayake Coordinator Publicity, Dhanushi.Senanayake@practicalaction.org.lk Hemantha Abeywardane Project Officer-Organic Farming riceslt@yahoo.com Varuna Rathanbaharathie Project Manager- Organic Farming Varuna.rathnabharathie@practicalaction.org.lk Practical Action, Sri Lanka
8
Practical Action is an organisation that demonstrates answers to the problems of poor and marginalised communities through appropriate technologies and approaches. The definition of appropriate technology includes not only the physical infrastructure and machinery but also the knowledge, skills and the capacity to organise them. Further, appropriate technology also builds on local knowledge while adding on new knowledge to adapt
it to suit to the prevailing conditions. Practical Action also has a wealth of knowledge and experience in working with small scale agricultural processors in Sri Lanka. NFCTSAR consists of small scale paddy, spices and vegetable growing farmers of twenty districts in the country. The main purpose of this organisation is to promote cultivation of traditional varieties of paddy using organic cultivation methods and thereby conserve indigenous traditional paddy varieties. The task for the project was to test and promote suitable options on paddy cultivation which address the problems of specific and particular locations, set up support systems that increase market opportunities, and reduce constraints of small-scale paddy producers in tsunami affected areas. In a previous study that Practical Action has embarked on, indigenous seed varieties revealed that certain paddy seed varieties are resistant to saline conditions. A major problem faced by many paddy cultivators in tsunami affected areas was intrusion of saline water to paddy lands. Therefore, the aims of NFCTSAR and Practical Action are promoting indigenous paddy seed varieties, and rebuilding livelihoods of tsunami affected paddy farmers seemed to be the most appropriate answer. Further, governmental organisations too requested Practical Action to revive paddy cultivation in abandoned, and fallow paddy lands upon learning about the findings of the study on indigenous rice varieties. NFCTSAR and Practical Action have the task of mobilising and providing training to farmers on cultivation of traditional paddy suitable for their locality - in collaboration with Agriculture Department and sharing of information related to organic paddy production. i4d | September 2007
http://ashycook.topcities.com/images3/wallpaper/rice-paddy.jpg
Methodology The project team used the methodologies generally employed by any development organisation to communicate to communities. To initiate the work the project team had to attend to number of things, from identifying the problems and needs of small scale paddy farmers to creating awareness about the indigenous cultivation practices. Several meetings and discussions with communities and other service providers such as the Agriculture Department were held. In order to communicate with small-scale farmers, the meetings were held with farmers and subsequently a consensus with the farmer communities was reached about NFCTSARs approach. A recent initiative of the project team has been employing ICT based communication strategies to reach small scale farmers. These ICT based communication strategies involved the production of two videos. One video is a compilation of stories from field visits done by NFCTSAR and Practical Action staff to locations, where indigenous varieties are being cultivated, and with interviews where farmers relate their experiences. The second video has all the relevant technical information to sufficed the needs of farmers who want to start cultivating indigenous rice varieties. The information in the second video consists of components on soil fertilization, two cultivation methods, traditional technologies, pest management, indigenous spiritual customs etc. In this project too, like any other organisation which is involved in rural development, meetings and discussions with farmers had to be conducted in the village temple or the community hall. While having the initial discussion and creating awareness, the video that has a compilation of the small scale paddy farmers’ experiences in growing indigenous varieties, is shown to the community members. Watching farmer communities actually cultivating indigenous varieties and benefiting from it helps to create an interest among the audience of farmers gathered. Further, while raising awareness on indigenous rice varieties, this video raises the image of the organisations facilitating the process. A definite question that is often asked subsequent to this video show is “We need to know technical information about cultivating indigenous rice varieties?” To make knowledge on indigenous paddy cultivation methodologies, technologies available in a format, which are more appealing and attractive to the users, NFCTSAR produced a video with inputs from professional video producers. This video contains information on soil fertilisation technologies, Sri and Kekulama cultivation methods, traditional technologies, pest management techniques, indigenous spiritual customs etc. Both these videos
10
have been fantastic tools to create awareness and generate interest among farmers which otherwise took considerably a long time. The process employed previously by the project team in the awareness creation methods were to distribute among participants newspaper clippings that had featured the work carried out by NFCTSAR by introducing and promoting indigenous paddy cultivation methods. Generally, meetings with farmers to create awareness were held in places like the village temple or the community hall where it is convenient for communities to gather. When we distributed paper cuttings that featured farmers who had adopted indigenous paddy cultivation practices one of the problems we faced was that a few members in the audience could not get the opportunity to read and some of them not being able to read and understand. The other issue was the lack of appealing quality in the newspapers distributed. Further, this process takes a lot of time.
Building confidence Although, people are convinced of our capacity, they do not feel that they themselves can do it. In order to address this gap, we thought we should use multi media, although the process is not easy in remote locations that do not have the necessary infrastructure. We showed them the video which is a compilation of paddy farmers growing indigenous rice varieties. When given this opportunity, community members in the audience started questioning about the process. “They ask about the variety, how long does the plant takes to mature etc” said Hemantha Abeywardane reflecting on his experiences of working with the paddy farmers to promote indigenous cultivation methodologies. Hemantha works as a project officer for Practical Actions project on Organic paddy cultivation. Explaining further about the process, Hemantha stated that “the number of questions generated from this session helped them to realise the importance of having a video that could answer some of the technical information needs of cultivating indigenous paddy”. Therefore, subsequently a professional video producer was commissioned to come up with a product on the information and inhouse experiences. While a good foundation has been made about the importance of indigenous paddy cultivation methods from the discussions and by the video, the next step involves detailed presentation of the technologies. Subsequent to this, farmer societies who had gathered for the meetings, after discussing among themselves, submit a list of farmers who would like to grow traditional paddy to the NFCTSAR and Practical Action representatives. Explaining futher, Hemantha stated that “although telecast was used, it could not have the same impact with the audience as the multi media”. However, using multi media in many locations becomes a problem, when a particular location does not have access to electricity. There have been various efforts by the government and number of other organisations to introduce and promote ICTs to villages. Further, there are a number of centres too which are well equipped with ICT facilities but are of hardly any use to the villages except for providing telecommunication and photocopying facilities. Since majority of the rural population depends on paddy cultivation as their main livelihood, linking these types of interventions with ICT centres can make the centres relevant to communities in rural locations. i4d | September 2007
INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA COMPACT DISC (IMCD)
Technology enabled farm women Introduction Women are now playing a pivotal role in all fields, including agriculture, as managers, decision makers and skilled farm workers. It is estimated that women are responsible for 70 percent of actual farm work and constitute up to 60 percent of the farming population. They are considered to be ‘agripreneurs’ as they supervise, organise, and assure responsibilities for running both their farm and households. In spite of all these efforts, it is most unfortunate to note that involvement and participation of farm women in Transfer of Technology (ToT) has been neglected so far. Hence it is the need of the hour to empower farm women in technology dissemination programmes to achieve a holistic empowerment of society. The main reason behind recommending the use of computer based multimedia system for farmers is to facilitate comprehensive information and better understanding between individual learners and the subject matter. IMCD’s prime aim is to transfer advanced and complex technologies to the farmers in a simple presentation. User friendly IMCD is a device encompassing labelled instructions helping the user to learn the contents, structure and information using the mouse without depending on the help of a facilitator to learn about its contents. Even an illiterate farmer could have a chance to assess the module without the help from peers. Moreover, it is interactive through an inbuilt questionnaire and the interaction is asynchronous because both sender and receiver do not have to be in touch at exactly the same time in order to communicate. IMCD is increasingly attracting the attention of farmers including farm women, extension functionaries and educationists as a way of Setptember 2007 | www.i4donline.net
IMCD has been recently recognised as one of the ToT tools, to educate and impart knowledge on innovative agricultural technologies to farm women, who are now considered as prospective agricultural extension clienteles. much-needed speedy ToT in agriculture. It is fast becoming the most successful tool for technology transfer and imparting education in agriculture.
Paradigm shift in agricultural extension The paradigm shift has become essential in ToT methodology and conventional extension services to meet the challenges of the 21st century and to bring food, nutritional and environmental security, and for serving all sections of the rural
community including farmers, farm women and farm youth. Some of the paradigm changes in the agricultural extension are as follows: • Group approach for agricultural technology dissemination • Involvement of community-based organisations for technology transfer • Formation of self help groups and extension through them • Rural location-specific knowledge centres for providing instant information to farmers
11
• •
Need based problem-solving, skill based training for selfemployment of rural youth Harnessing the use of electronic media and digital revolution
Integrated multimedia approach Multimedia tools are ideally suited to demonstrate complex and dynamic processes that cannot be explained easily with conventional media and methods. It has two other important functions, the ability to present this media in an integrated way, and in an interactive way. Hence, for every slide/page of the IMCD, background voice was given. Varieties of pictures related to respective topics were inserted while preparing the IMCD. Edited short video clippings were inserted in the IMCD where skill oriented aspects are to be taught to farm women. Finally, all the interested text, pictures, photos; video clippings are hyper linked with the different action buttons for better usability with interactivity. The speedy diffusion of novel agricultural technologies could only be achieved through active involvement and participation of farm women with the help of IMCD. IMCD goes a step further in providing information to the individuals/farm women round the clock in local language using audio and video clipping. In fact, it is a motivational cum inspirational tool playing a significant role in sweeping changes in socio-economic development in the era of globalisation. In the light of the above factors, research work on developing a farmer friendly IMCD as an effective tool of technology transfer for farm women is under progress in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, India.
Orientations A National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA) has been set up in the Ministry of Agriculture as a focal point for the convergence of all issues related to women in agriculture. In this connection, a unique step has been initiated by the Department of Agricultural Extension, Agricultural College and Research Institute; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, which is operating a
12
scheme entitled ‘Diffusion of Farm technologies to Farm Women through user-friendly Interactive Multimedia Compact Disc’. The scheme aims at empowering farm women as potential extension clients with the help of user friendly Interactive Multimedia Compact Discs. The scheme has envisaged selecting two villages under different eco-systems followed with identifying the felt technological needs of the farmers through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Focused Group Discussions (FDGs). The identified and prioritised technological farm needs are being developed into user-friendly IMCDs. In this regard, around fifteen IMCDs have been developed in the scheme, some of which are• System of Rice Intensification (SRI) techniques • Eriophid mite control in Coconut • Integrated Pest and Disease Management on Tomato, Brinjal, Chillies, Bhendi, Onion, Paddy and Cotton • Vermicompost production • Mushroom production • Integrated rat control measures • Drip based Sugarcane Cultivation Technologies • Hybrid Maize Production and • Hybrid Rice Production The IMCD on Vermicompost Production has been recently developed, which elaborates various techniques of Vermicompost production, Vermiculture production, Inputs required, Cost of production, Marketing outsource mechanisms and Income benefits, in a comprehensive, interactive and user-friendly manner. This has been developed as it is felt that it is the most viable entrepreneurial activity for farm women. Moreover, it has been prepared in the local language (Tamil) with the main intention of overcoming the language barrier, so that even the illiterate farm women can easily access it. It has also a significant advantage of being able to exist in any regional and international language for wider usage across the globe. Using the IMCDs, latest and updated agricultural technologies are being transferred to the women user groups, increasing their knowledge and skill.
Dr. N. Anandaraja Assistant Professor anandaraja_n@rediffmail.com
T. Rathakrishnan Professor and Head extensionradha@rediffmail.com
G. Sujhi sujhi2k@yahoo.co.in Senior Research Fellow
M. Ramasubramanian Assistant Professor ramasubbuextn@yahoo.co.in
G. Gayathri Senior Research Fellow
Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
i4d | September 2007
AGRO MARKETING GRID
Grid based market for agro-produce Sanjay Chaudhary Associate Professor Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gujarat, India sanjay_chaudhary@daiict.ac.in Ashok Patel Director SAMETI and SNO, ATMA, Gujarat, India aapatel57@rediffmail.com
Agro-marketing system Marketing of agricultural produce is a complex task involving various stake holders, products, and business scenarios. In a developing country like India, this activity is influenced by local, socioeconomic, and cultural characteristics. Evaluating the business processes at the regional or national scale reveals diversity in products, terminology and processes involved to perform complete business activities. While other complex but welldefined business processes are experiencing benefits of services driven e-Business; the ‘marketing of agricultural produce’ has remained untouched by this revolution. The government of India is now planning to introduce agricultural marketing reforms to streamline trading processes involved in all markets throughout the nation using proper IT infrastructure.
Problem definition The software and hardware infrastructure at this scale cannot be expected to be homogeneous throughout. Proposed standards and specifications to develop an information system based on ServiceSetptember 2007 | www.i4donline.net
oriented Architecture, are conflicting and immature. The consequence of this scenario introduces many difficult challenges. Resources for sellers and buyers located all over the country, are to be created. The main challenge is in creating a market service which matches seller and buyer preferences and instantiates trade between them. ‘Grid based Agro-Produce Marketing System’ will be able to interconnect sellers and buyers located all over country to support various business transactions in the form of grid services. The proposed system can be developed based on the principles of Grid Computing and Service-Oriented Architecture.
System design The Grid computing utilises the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to meet requirements of the Grid Business Process. The goal of SOA is to achieve loosely coupled interoperable integration among scattered and heterogeneous services and clients. Principles of SOA influence the business logic of services by encouraging modular design and component reuse
The Grid computing utilises the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to meet requirements of the Grid Business Process.
through dynamic discovery of existing services. Web services have been established as a popular technology for design and implementing SOA based business processes. A web service has five essential attributes: it can be described using a standard service description language, Web Service Description Language (WSDL); it can be published to a registry of services, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry; it can be discovered by searching the service registry; it can be invoked, usually remotely, through a declared API; and, it can be composed with other Web services. The trade starts with the intention of the trader to sell a particular agricultural produce. The price is set by the auction or any other transparent system as defined in the Act. Once the agreed upon price is received, it is published for the traders.
Components The case study is designed following the service-oriented grid architecture to provide state, notification, execution and monitoring, and scalability. The role of the targeted system is to automate the business process with interoperable integration of scattered services. The design is upon various WS (www.oasis-open.org) specifications, specifically the set of WSRF and WS-Notification (WSN) specifications to achieve required compliance. The distributed architecture implemented in the use case comprises of various components and resources; some of the role of these resources and components of the system are as follows: Grid manager: The ser vice is an implementation of the Factory/Instance Collection Pattern. It initiates different type of resources i.e. Seller, Buyer, Crop and Market according to the client request;
13
hosted by different Grid Nodes. The Grid Manager orchestrates different components of the system in a predefined manner for the smooth working of the whole application. The Grid Manager is the first point of the contact with the system. Grid nodes: They creates a hosting environment which hosts different vanilla or stateful Web Services. The services hosted on different nodes are used in various combinations to capture the requirement of the application. Each initialised WS-Resource has End Point Reference (EPR) attached to it, which identifies the resource itself and the URL of the managing Instance Service. Ideally these Grid Nodes should be geographically dispersed across various enterprises. Grid registry: It is a special Service based on the WS-ServiceGroup specification, which keeps track of various resources initialised during the course of application. The Grid Client can update and query the Grid Registry to search appropriate resources. Grid client: It is an external application which either requests for initialisation of the resource/s or interacts with the existing resource/s to query, destroy or modify them. The client adheres with the WSA specification to work with WS-Resources and corresponding services through their EPR. In this case study the Grid Client has three flavors, for buyers, sellers and administrator which instantiate the market instance for the trade. Instantiation and interaction with the seller entity: The first interaction of the seller with the system results in the creation of the new seller WS-Resource. This resource captures all details of the specific seller and is used for the future interaction with that seller. Instantiation and interaction with the buyer entity: Similarly the first interaction of the buyer with the system results in the creation of the new buyer WS-Resource. This resource captures all details of the specific buyer and is used for the future interaction with that seller. Market Service for direct/indirect trading: This system matches resources for different sellers and buyers which are trading in the same location. Once any such match is found then it means that there is atleast one buyer interested in the produce of a seller. To simulate the successful trade the resource properties for seller and buyers are updated. In the case of indirect trading, the initial matching of seller and buyer resources in the market is followed by invoking operations for the services specific to it.
Web services developed In the agro-marketing case, along with discussed components, different stake holders are also involved such as the buyer, seller, market etc. These components and stake holders are implemented either as stateful Web services, or as simple stateless Web services, based on its role in the overall functioning of the application. Below is the list of different Web services with their role and responsibilities, developed during the prototype: Seller service: The service implements the business logic necessary for the seller. This service exposes different operations related to the seller resource such as instantiation of seller resources, monitoring and modification of different properties for seller resources. These operations are either executed manually by the seller or invoked automatically by other components during the course of the application.
14
Buyer service: This service is the implementation of the buyer. It instantiates the resource for a buyer, and provides different operations on the buyer resources. Instantiation of a buyer resource result in the registration of the Buyer with the system for future interactions. The service, after receiving the preferences instantiates a new resource instance for the buyer. The service also registers these preferences with the DefaultIndexService of Globus Toolkit 4 and provides operations to be invoked on this resource instance. Market service: This service acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. The role of the Market Service is more or less like a broker service among different stake holders. It queries the Grid Registry (i.e. Index Service provided by the Globus Toolkit) to obtain the list sellers and buyers trading in the same city/market and continuously monitors the trading preferences of buyers and sellers to perform trade. The Market Service instantiates the new trade and transaction once it successfully matches the seller and buyer preferences. Initiation of the trade triggers the sequence of events which results in the update of buyer and seller resources involved in the trade and notification to interested parties. Grid Manager service: This service acts as a common factory service to instantiate different resources involved in the case study. The Grid Manager Service is implemented according to the Factory/Instance Collection Pattern and Master/Slave Pattern. The Grid Manager Service instantiate different resources through the specific service i.e. seller resource is instantiated through Seller Service. Vehicle Fee service: This service is responsible for calculating any transportation charges incurred in case of indirect trade. The transportation charges are deducted from the final selling price and are paid by the seller. Crop Price Service: This service is used for retrieving the current market price of the crop involved in the trade. The CropPrice Service calculates the price of the crop based on different factors such as the type of the crop, season, its availability in the market, and its demand etc. This service is only invoked when the mode of trade is indirect. Marketing Fee Service: This service is used for deducting any marketing fee incurred during the course of indirect trade. Similar to the transportation charges, marketing fee is deducted from the final selling price and is paid by the seller. i4d | September 2007
Execution scenario In this section the trading process is displayed by the execution of various services as indicated by a client. Seller Grid Service: When the GridManagerClient is executed for each of the above given entities to perform trade, the following situation will emerge-By looking at the data above it can be inferred that for direct trade, seller and buyers interested in trading in a location will trade with each other. Similarly, trading will take place for sellers interested in indirect trading irrespective of location of their trading. A seller expresses his intention to offer his crop for sale by running the client programme, Client.java by providing command line arguments. These arguments are in the following order: URL of the GridManager service seller: This word is provided to indicate client wants to have an instance of a seller service Crop Name: The crop seller wishes to sell Crop Quantity: The quantity of a crop, which seller is interested in selling Crop Variety: The variety of a crop Trade Location: The location where the seller wishes to trade Expected Price/Kg.: The amount which a seller wishes to obtain per kg. of a crop Trade Mode: If seller directly wants to sell directly to a buyer then direct mode is adopted, else indirect mode is adopted. Buyer grid service Similarly a buyer can express his intention to purchase crop by running Client.java but with a different set of command line arguments: URL of the GridManager service buyer: This word is provided to indicate that a client would like to have an instance of a buyer service Crop name: The crop the buyer wishes to buy Crop quantity: The crop quantity buyer is interested in purchasing Crop variety: The variety of the crop Trade location: The location where the buyer wishes to trade Offered price/kg.: The amount which a buyer would like to obtain for every kilogram of a crop Market grid service Whenever the buyers and sellers express their intentions to trade, their resource instances are also registered with the DefaultIndexService. When MarketService start its operations, it will query the DefaultIndexService to obtain the buyers and sellers interested in trading. The Client.java program is executed with a different set of command line arguments. URL of the GridManager service. Market: This word is provided to indicate that the client would like to have an instance of a market service. Trade location: The location of a market where the actual trade will occur. Setptember 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Once the market service of a particular location starts executing, it tries to match potential buyers and sellers. If an appropriate buyer is found for a seller, appropriate notification is sent to both of them to inform them about success of entering into a trade deal. Otherwise both of them will wait for a potential purchaser of a crop. In case of indirect trade mode, the seller receives various types of notifications, which are computed for this trade. Notification to seller service After the initiation of a market service for a location, matching will be performed for buyer(s) and seller(s) having preference for that location. Based on the match found for a seller and a buyer for wheat, the following notification will be generated for a seller service: • A new notification has arrived • Your crop sold till now is 10.0Kg • A new notification has arrived • Your crop has been sold recently • A new notification has arrived • Your crop quantity still remaining to be sold is:40.0Kg • A new notification has arrived • Amount Offered to you per Kg is Rs70.0 • A new notification has arrived • Crop Quantity Which will be purchased by a buyer is 10.0Kg • A new notification has arrived • Your Earning is Rs700.0 • Waiting for notification. Ctrl-C to end. Notification to a buyer service Following types of notifications will be generated for a buyer service: • A new notification has arrived • The Crop Quantity which you will purchase from a seller is 10.0Kg • A new notification has arrived • Amount Offered by you per Kg is:Rs70.0 • A new notification has arrived • Amount spent by you in current purchase is Rs700.0
Conclusions and future work Business processes of large enterprise systems interact with various stake holders i.e. business partners and customers to integrate distributed heterogeneous services. The focus is on the utilisation and integration of the existing technologies to achieve loosely coupled integration of services having support for state, notification, execution monitoring and scalability. Principles of Grid computing utilising the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) are followed and implemented to satisfy the requirements of the business process. To achieve these objectives, WS-RF, WSN, and relevant specifications and standards in this area are followed here. The future work is diverted into several paths: implementation of policy, agreement, negotiation and use of semantic web to provide meaningful integration and co-ordination of resources in a grid environment.
15
INTERVIEW
Interface with e-krishi K Anvar Sadath Executive Director IT@School & Head ( e-Krishi) Akshaya Project, Kerala
What are the objectives of the project Akshaya, and that of e-Krishi under its broader spectrum? The prime objective of Akshaya is to provide ICT accessibility and services to the common man, thus to bridge the gap between the ‘Information Rich and the Information Poor’. Akshaya project was conceived to achieve this objective by developing ICT access points (e-Centres) primarily, and also addressing issues in the areas like Skill Sets (e-Literacy training to at least one member in 6.4 million families in the State of Kerala), Content Development (relevant to local people in Malayalam in web and digital media) and Services Delivery (e-Learning, e-Business, e-Payment, e-Governance). e-Krishi is piggy backed on the successful Akshaya platform. e-Krishi initiative is aimed at providing basic inputs and value added information to the farming communities as well as to all the stake holders in the Agriculture sector in Kerala. Who are the supporting partners of e-Krishi project? The e-Krishi project is funded by UNDPNISG under ICTD- Rural Livelihoods theme. Besides Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM), the Agriculture Department and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) are associating with the Project. What is the vision behind e-Krishi with relevance to the farming community? e-Krishi is a market driven agricultural initiative through IT enabled Agri Business Centres in Kerala State that addresses the
16
existing gap in agriculture information flow and transaction management, which are the gray areas in the agriculture sector. It envisages facilitating and enabling farmers and other stakeholders through Agri Business Centres to interact with agricultural service providers in the private, government and non-government sectors. The project will provide a web-based solution enabling the small and medium farmers as well as owners of large land holdings. How did the Kerala State IT Mission harness ICTs to its best? Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency for Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, which provides managerial support to various initiatives of the Department. KSITM’s primary responsibilities are (i) interfacing between the government and the industry, (ii)interacting with potential investors, (iii) strengthening
on policy matters, (for details log on to: www.keralaitmission.org). How are the entrepreneurs being selected to run the kiosks /information centres to cater to the needs of local farmers? Akshaya works on a Public Private Participation (PPP) model. Selected local entrepreneurs are permitted to run Akshaya Centres. The investment for setting up the e-Centres is made by the entrepreneurs. It would come around INR 3.00 lakhs (0.1 million, or approximately US$ 7,500) for setting up an Akshaya e-Centre with 5 to10 computers, printers, scanners, web camera, other peripherals and necessary software. High performing Akshaya centres were selected to run e-Krishi programme, based on a grading system. How were the farming communities encouraged to avail the facility in the initial stages of its implementation? Attracting farmers to use Internet was a tough task. They had to be lured to this
K. Anvar Sadath, who won the prestigious i4d Award 2007, in an exclusive interview with i4d speaks of how the ‘Akshaya’ model clearly demonstrates the use of ICTs for the well being of the whole society with special emphasis to ‘e-Krishi’ initiative, addressing the farmers of the state of Kerala. the IT/ITES industry base, (iv) holding promotional campaigns for hard selling the state, (v) ICT dissemination to bridge the digital divide, (vi) e-Governance, (vii) developing human resources for IT & ITES, (ix) advising the government
new concept through constant training and showing the benefits of this new system. Our main drawback was that there was no successful model to be shown to the farmers. Fortunately the e-Krishi portal (www.e-krishi.org) which is integrated i4d | September 2007
with the KISSAN portal was very helpful in demonstrating the usefulness of ICT in agriculture. Through this many farmers got better prices for their produce and were able to get up-to-date information on their doubts, and were able to get immediate reply through the net on plant protection, availability of planting materials, fertiliser calculation, etc. Once farmers came to know the benefits, there was no turning back. How far have technology interventions enabled to build a strong network of farmers and traders in India and abroad? Use of ICT in the farming sector is in a formative stage. But the pilot project at Malappuram district has clearly shown that there is ample scope. The main advantage of networking is in the aggregation of the agri-produce of small and marginal farmers and reducing the influence of the middlemen. It has been shown beyond doubt that just by aggregation, it is possible to get better price for different agricultural produce. How are the farmers ensured of getting a reasonable price for their commodities/products? The current practice is of selling the produce to the middlemen and they in turn sell it to the wholesale markets. In this process, the products pass through different hands before reaching the final consumer. The farmers are, many a time, ignorant about the actual market demand and the prices of the produce. Through ICT intervention and through e-Krishi, the daily prices of the different produce in the different markets are made available to the farmers, which in turn gives them a bargaining strength. Apart from this, now it is possible to do forward trading using Internet, a thing not used before by the farmers for reaching the markets. How is monitoring/evaluation of the activities done? We have two project co-ordinators at the District Level and 14 field co-ordinators at the Block level, besides the 130 e-Krishi Centre entrepreneurs in Malappuram district. Apart from that ‘Bhoomi Clubs’ were formed in all 102 Grama Panchayats and 5 Municipalities, which meet once in a month to discuss issues. The President of the Grama Panchayat in each respective area is the Chief Patron of the Club, and the Agricultural Officer in the local krishi bhavans is the Advisor. Through this mechanism, we are doing the monitoring and evaluation activities. Also the Result Based Management (RBM) reports help to get the status/ feedback and the follow-ups required. This is a participatory learning methodology that is applied for M&E of the activities. Do you feel that the e-Platform is still under utilised on account of accessibility in the state? Yes, especially in the backward areas. However, there is a marked improvement in this sector. More than 25,000 farmers and buyers registered in the e-Krishi portal for selling and buying produce in Malappuram district alone. Content is another challenging area. How do you address the issue of localisation? Content in agriculture, as is in the other fields, is not valid if it is not current and constantly updated. For updating the content, September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
the services of the agricultural scientists of the University and agricultural extension officers of the Department of Agriculture are being used. In Kerala, three agricultural portals are in operation, vis. e-Krishi; KISSAN and VUAT. These provide most of the information required by the farmers. There is a dedicated and exclusive team to update the content of these portals. IT Mission with the help of agricultural experts have prepared an interactive CD on Agriculture called ‘Harithakeralam’ which provides information on thirty major crops of Kerala spread across 500 topics, in the local language, Malayalam. Harithakeralam contains nearly one hundred animations and video clips, one thousand high quality images, narrations, and a key word based index to facilitate easy search of the topics. The CD ROM also uses a web based technology solution for streaming multimedia content. Now, we have decided to update this. Do you think technology driven intervention would solve the problems of farmers over time? As in other sectors, technology driven intervention itself won’t solve all the problems without proper handholding. A holistic approach with proper man-machine interface is essential for the success of such interventions. What are the other challenges being faced and how do you plan to address them? As a novel project involving IT mediated business in agriculture, bringing all the stakeholders together in the rural sector has been a tougher task than anticipated, which involved several rounds of discussions. To streamline this it was necessary to engage field co-ordinators rather than solely depending on the portal. During the implementation of the project it was originally assumed that farmers, agriculture officers and buyers would access the Internet and digital information without resorting to reading information on printed materials. Our experience has clearly showed that it is very difficult to convert the stakeholders from the hard copy to digital format. Most of the persons accessing the portal / CDs, etc. requested the hard copy for future references in their houses and so invariably there should be provisions in the e-Krishi centres to provide printed materials as well. Roping in the traders, especially the local traders to use this facility, is a challenging job. Constant training and showing the benefits to them continuously are helping to overcome this challenge, to some extent. This is the weak link in the whole project, which needs urgent attention.
e-Krishi roll out The project is implemented in Malappuram District, one of the 14 districts in Kerala through 341 Akshaya e-Kendras (www.akshaya.net), and is piggy backed on successful Akshaya platform. After the successful piloting in Malappuram, now KSITM has decided to rollout e-Krishi in seven more districts (Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Calicut, Kannur and Kasaragode) through 1200 Akshaya centres. For further information on ‘e-Krishi’ please visit www.e-krishi.org
17
Information for development www.i4donline.net
Community Radio Karnataka Govt. keen on community radio stations The Karnataka State Government will assist to set up 12 community radio stations to empower rural people through the medium of radio. While speaking at the workshop organised by the Information Department of the state, K.V.R. Tagore, Commissioner, three stations would be started in the each of the districts of Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga. The government will provide only minimal assistance in form of funds, technical expertise, infrastructure and content programming.
e-Governance Latvia government plans eLegislation system
egov
The Latvian government will create a legislative information system to improve coordination of the law-making process and ensure greater public participation. The Ministry of Justice has proposed the project to create a single information system for the legislative process by joining and improving existing systems. The project will enable users to obtain electronic information on laws, draft laws, published legal acts and other documents. The system will cost around LVL1.25 million, while its maintenance cost would be in the region of €400 000 every year. The government has already another system, ePortfolio, which contains information on projects but it does not contain all details of the drafting process.
Indian Government goes for e-Transfer The Indian government is set to establish a trail of all foreign exchange transactions, including electronic transfers through various intermediaries by NRIs in the Gulf and America. The finance ministry and Reserve Bank of India has planned a proposal to keep record of all receipts of money transformed by the agent.
18
The records would include aspects like addresses while some basic ‘knowyour-customer’ (KYC) norms like an identity proof would be mandated. Out of six, five commandments have already been complied with since the government recently notified changes to the rules related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) specifying that suspected cases of terror financing would be part of the suspicious transaction reporting system. The other four specifications were in place as soon as the PMLA Act came into operation along with its rules.
Health Australian Federal Govt unveils e-Health Plan The Federal Government of Australia has unveiled a new Internet based health system for remote areas. The new health system will ensure health issues identified in aboriginal children. The government will invest more than $25 million in next three years to monitor health records online. GPS equipped system would be more helpful to receive results and x-rays through the Internet as well as sending referrals and writing prescriptions online. The system will help government to that ensure the health issues identified in children and the health checks are properly followed up.
AGH, India launches telemedicine in Muscat The Apollo Group of Hospitals (AGH) has launched Apollo tele-medicine services at the Apollo Medical Centres (AMC) Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. The tele-medicine centre at AMC, Muscat of the Apollo tele-medicine network links the people of Oman with the doctors from all over the world. Apollo tele-medicine network provides instant access to specialists and super-specialists in India for consultation and for second opinion services. Apart from video consultation, specialists in India can review the investigations of patients in Oman, including laboratory tests, x-ray,
sonogram, CT scan and MRI, and also give a comprehensive opinion to the patients.
m-Serve VSNL offers web based calling service in India Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), one of India’s leading telecoms service providers will provide new facility, which will allow people of South Asian origin in the US to make calls to their country using its prepaid service without obtaining the calling cards. The company will start this service from August 21, 2007. The new service will provide superior voice quality, easy access and connectivity without any hidden fee or extra charges. The calls would be carried on VSNL’s extensive global fibre optic network. Customers can purchase the service either through online or by calling VSNL customer service directly. It offers advanced features including a prepaid recharge option, which allows a calling account to be recharged through a credit card. Other features include instant recognition of calling line ID for PIN-less dialing from up to 5 registered phone numbers and the ability to make up to three follow-on calls without having to redial the access number, speed dial capabilities for up to 5 frequently dialed numbers, and last number redial.
Open Source Malaysia formally adopts open doc format The Malaysian government has formally adopted open standards and the Open Document Format (ODF) within the country’s public sector. Last week, the Malaysian Administration Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) had issued a tender for a nine-month study to evaluate the usage of open standards in its ICT deployment. The study also looks into how the Malaysian public sector can migrate to open standards and the ODF. According to the Malaysia i4d | September 2007
The i4d News
Kerala (India), creates e-Learning school ecosystem IT@School project of Kerala of the State Education Department has developed an operating system based on the Linux version Ubuntu. The system called IT@School GNU Linux Version 3.0 was distributed to 2,832 high schools to more than a thousand government schools. The children of class 8, 9 and 10 will use around 30,000 PCs to do their quarterly practical examinations in IT. A trained cadre of over 70,000 teachers will help them. The project has created a whole ecosystem of computer-aided tools for self-paced learning, online testing, instant evaluation, marks generation and so on. According to K. Anwar Sadath, Executive Director, IT@School “Kerala was the first state to use theEdusat satellite channel to connect schools in all its 14 districts under VICTERS programme in 2005 and the Union Government had undertaken almost the entire cost of the school computerisation programme to the tune of INR 6.2 crores, while the State had spent INR 75 lakh this fiscal year. Open Source Software Alliance (MOSSA), the study will provide the benefits of open standards, suggest policies and guidelines for achieving openness. The study will also provide roadmap to implement the ODF in Malaysia’ public sector. The country has already unveiled its intention to consider the ODF as a national standard for office documents.
SME Pakistan Govt. releases first SME policy Pakistan Federal Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Tareen has announced the first SME policy under which small business development centres would be established all over the country. Under this policy, these centres would be established in six cities, including all the four provincial capitals. The share of small manufacturing enterprises has been raised from 5.5 per cent in the SME policy and it is targeted at seven percent. The government will provide PNR.13,128.6 million development funds for the promotion of small industries.
Telecentre Qualcomm deploys highspeed Internet centres in Sri Lanka Qualcomm has partnered with a cadre of international business and government partners of Sri-Lanka to create a series of high speed Internet centres in towns outside Colombo. Qualcomm will deploy the project in cooperation with mobile phone operator Dialog Telekom Microsoft, the National Development Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Initially, the project will receive investment of one million dollar to build 15 centres, September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
which will allow living in rural and remote areas to access Internet. This initiative will help the Wireless Reach initiative to empower rural communities in Sri Lanka. The centres will carry the unique Easy Seva brand, and are expected to provide unprecedented quality of service to the communities they serve. The goal of the Easy Seva centres is to develop entrepreneurs in the ICT sector in Sri Lanka by deploying 3G mobile broadband Internet service at the village level and enabling them to offer access to affordable ICT-enabled services and content.
Telecommunications Indian government targets for 9 million broadband connections by 2007 Indian Government is expecting that the government has provided about 2.5 million in more than 1,000 towns in the country by the end of June, 2007. This shows that the Government is unlikely to reach the target of nine million connections within 2007, which has been declared as the ‘Year of the Broadband’. The Communication and Information Technology ministry is expecting that the Ministry has also set up a target of 20 million connections by 2010. The attempt is to provide the connections through various technologies like optical fibre, digital subscriber lines on copper loop, satellite media, terrestrial wireless, cable television network and future technologies. An inter-ministerial group is working out the requirements of various user departments/ministries to roll out broadband infrastructure in rural areas with support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The group comprises of the health, home, human resource development, panchayati raj and Information Technology ministries. Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) is implementing a scheme for supporting shared infrastructure for
mobile services in rural and remote areas not covered by wireless signal.
Wireless Jaipur (India) plans to become Wi-Fi The state government of Rajasthan (India) is planning to make Jaipur a Wi-Fi city by providing wireless Internet access throughout the city. The project will create a digital infrastructure for an open-air Internet access and allow people to use wireless technology to achieve their goals. A state government official claimed that through the ‘Jaipur WiFi City’ initiative, the government is aiming to strengthen Jaipur’s economy and to propel it as a world class city by providing wireless Internet access. The government has already sought proposals from various service providers for a ‘turnkey solution’ for the wireless network. On the basis of proposals the state government will come out with a policy, whereby service providers can set up their wireless network across the city.
Education Oman introduces e-Admission system Oman has become the first country in the Middle East to adopt e-Admissions for students, who are willing for higher education courses. The country has already begun enrolling online through Short Message Service (SMS). Khalid Al Zedjali, Deputy Director General for Higher Education Admissions Centre (HEAC) at the Higher Education Ministry claimed that the ministry would be able to place more than 14,000 students in higher education institutes in the public sector.
e-Learning initiatives in South African school The Abel T Motshoane School in Mabopane, North of Pretoria in South Africa has implemented mobile e-Learning infrastructure to enhance the learning and teaching skills in the school. Abel T Motshoane School is the first in the country to have a wireless network technology. Each student of standard VIII is equipped with laptop, which is connected to microphones and earphones. In the school, teachers are able to give them instructions through their earphones. The technology uses the WiMax wireless broadband, while the features of the classmate PC includes full networking capabilities, Microsoft Windows XP operating system and access to rich educational content. The state government has partnered with several ICT companies like IBM, Intel South Africa, Microsoft South Africa, Pinnacle Micro Systems and Telkom Foundations.
19
The i4d News Agriculture Comesa designs electronic marketing system for African farmers The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has designed an electronic web based system, Regional Food and Agricultural Marketing Information System, (FAMIS), which provides key information on agricultural commodities, trade and investment opportunities in the region. The system helps farmers to access relevant agriculture marketing information. The system is part of harmonisation of the agriculture market access systems that have been developed elsewhere by other companies in the region. The Kenya Agriculture Commodity Exchange (KACE) is a partner in the Comesa programme. Kilimo Hotline or Interactive Voice Response is another way to access the information through a system. Kilimo Hotline is a pre-recorded message system, which is accessible through mobile phone and landline at the cost of Sh20 above normal operator charges. Farmers can receive the information through 411 service or subscribe on ‘what’s on’ service all at the cost of Sh7 per message. The Ministry of Agriculture will monitor the information.
Get land records from Bhoomi’s kiosks The Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services of Karnataka (India) will install a telecentre, ‘Bhoomi kiosk’, which will connect all the 800 kiosks across the state. The telecente will help users, who are fighting a land dispute case. The telecentre will also be connected to back end offices in 177 taluks. Only one need to enter your property details and get a copy of your RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) document. This will enable you to fetch a land record copy even while your case is being heard in court. All the telecentres have updated land records under the Bhoomi project. All these are connected to the main server in Bangalore through the V-SAT network.
ADB assisting Vietnam in improving the quality of agricultural products The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be assisting the Government of Vietnam in improving the quality and safety of its agricultural products. It has been seen that as Vietnam’s agricultural sector becomes increasingly integrated with domestic and international markets; improvements in product quality and safety assume greater importance. Efforts are needed to be directed at agriculture research, extension, marketing,
20
e-Agriculture initiatives for Togolese (Africa) farmers A ‘Center for Commercial and Agricultural Information’ (PICA) for the collection and the publication of price lists through the Internet has been launched in Togo, Africa to allow farmers and traders to check the prices through Internet. The regional network of information systems of market and agricultural trade in West Africa (MISTOWA) www. mistowa.org has supported the project. The centre is equipped with computer and Internet facilities with a web page along with a strong integration of data and mobile technology. The centre will allow farmers and tradesman to consult in real time over price lists. The platform is also equipped with a system that makes it possible to send SMSs to producers, to salesmen and to purchasers. The centre will also provide package system, so that farmers can receive free SMS on mobile phones on the prices of 400 agricultural producers of the regional markets in West Africa, that is Benign, Burkina Faso, Cap Verde, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Togo. post-harvest operations, and product grading and certification. The agricultural sector in Vietnam experienced rapid growth during the last decade, averaging about 4 percent annually. Food security has improved at the national level and the country has turned from a net food importer into a major exporter of various agricultural products. However, key concerns remain, most notably neat hygienic and pesticide residue. Financial and human resource limitations of the government are preventing the establishment of an effective regulatory mechanism, and whatever resources are available are often too widely dispersed. Through the project, ADB will assist the Government of Vietnam in coming up with an action plan that will improve the quality and safety standards of agricultural products, increase the number of viable small and medium-scale enterprises in the sector and strengthen the capacity of concerned government agencies. The project is expected to contribute to Vietnam’s sustainable agricultural growth by improving the competitiveness of farm products and enhancing linkages among producers, traders, product processors and consumers. The project is estimated to cost US$ 9,50,000, with ADB providing a grant of US$ 7,50,000 to cover most of that amount to be sourced from the Japan Special Fund
Farm women plan mobile vending unit in Tamil Nadu (India) Tamil Nadu (India) farm women in Agri Business and Extension (TANWABE), a group comprising of 15 farm women of Ayyanbommayapuram in Vilathikulam taluk of Tuticorin district, are going to launch a ‘mobile unit’ to sell agriculture produce. TANWABE plans to introduce a ‘sales outlet on wheels’ from the first week of August, 2007 so as to deliver quality
agricultural products, both farm fresh and value added ones, at prices lower than in the open market at the doorsteps of people. The group was formed under the TANWABE concept, which was launched by the Department of Agriculture, with an aim to empower rural farm women in agricultural and extension activities. Besides a wide range of items, the flagship product of the group, a herbal oil made by mixing coconut oil, hibiscus/shoe flower, curry leaf, amla and bhringa, would be at the disposal of customers through the mobile unit. The oil will be priced at INR 20 for 100 ml.
Vietnam Govt. to bring ICT applications to agriculture The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) of Vietnam has urged the government to build up infrastructure in ICT to improve farming and farm produce trading. This endeavor will provide information for the farmers to promote their production and marketing. The ministry also suggested the MPT to consider for boosting ICT infrastructure so that TV programmes on agricultural skills can be recorded and circulated to farmers in CD or tape form. Accordingly, MARD has so far attracted several internationally-funded projects. One of these, under the sponsorship of the United Nations Development Programme, that involves research into the feasible application of IT services to agricultural production in rural areas. MARD has also launched project Teletex that aims to air TV programmes consisting only of letters, not images, making it easier for rural areas to receive it. These special broadcasts contain information on markets and farm produce prices both at home and abroad, advanced skills on agricultural production and forestry, weather forecasts and Government warnings on the spread of disease or imminent natural disasters.
i4d | September 2007
The i4d News
Mindanao farmers to use digital technology Soon, farmers in the Mindanao region of Southern Philippines will start selling their goods through digital marketplaces. Government is enabling farmers to adopt digital technology and take benefits of e-Commerce. Government is providing additional funds for agriculture development and trying to increase awareness and usage of digital technology among farmers. The government is pushing farmers to participate in e-Commerce opportunities as a way of helping them increase farm incomes and improve their livelihood.The agriculture department is already ramping up training for policy development in the areas of information technology to ensure greater and cheaper access to technology for farmers.
SMS services to farmers in Haryana, India
Rwanda, (Africa) Agriculture Ministry goes online
The Haryana (India) Agriculture Department has introduced the Short Message Service (SMS) service to resolve agriculture-related problems of farmers on the given mobile number (9915862026). Farmers can send their problems through SMS to the Haryana Agricultural Department. Then the department will immediately look into the issue and the scientists and officials will get back to the farmer through telephone within 24 to 48 hours. The department has also offered a toll-free number for farmers to talk with the concerned person regarding their problems. Firstly, the state government has initiated this service in Ch. Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, which is followed by Regional Research Centre, Uchani, in Karnal and Bawal in Rewari. According to the spokesman of the Haryana Agriculture Department, a total of 1,134 SMS queries have been answered till the end of July, 2007.
Soon Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) will conduct its services online. Currently, the Ministry is installing a telecommunications system to help identify and monitor the scale of agriculture production in the country. The system will assist in online monitoring of crop production among the Rwandan society. The system will monitor cost variances of foodstuffs at different marketplaces across the country. The Agricultural Ministry has partnered with NEPAD so as to develop the online delivery system under its e-School project. Recently the Ministry has launched the telemedicine system.
e-krishi makes Onam happier for farmers in Kerala (India) e-Krishi centre is making people of Malappuram district more happy in Onam festival by offering them cheap goods than any other place. The Bhoomi Club under Thrikkalangode e-krish centre sold banana for INR 16 a kg at its special banana counter set up for Onam. The Club purchased banana from the farmers for INR 15 a kg. Farmers elsewhere got only INR 13 a kg after the agents’ commission. In the open market, banana was sold between INR 19 and INR 22. While the e-krishi centre made available indigenous banana for INR 16 a kg. The demand for the banana was so much that the Akshaya centre restricted the sale to five kilogram for a person. The Bhoomi Club members have decided to popularise the scheme in a systematic and better organised manner.
September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
West Bengal, India plans eTrading of fruits The West Bengal Government (WB), India is planning to launch electronic trading (e-Trading) of fruits in order to give good returns for the farmers of the state. The state government is talking with Bangalore-based (Karnataka) online spot exchange, Safal National Exchange (SNX) to work on this project. Mother Dairy Foods Processing, MCX and Financial Technologies have joined together to start the online spotexchange. The government is planning to put the system in place by the end of 2007. According to Sanjeev Chopra, Secretary of the State Food Processing Industries and Horticulture, with the e-Auction system, farmers would be able to lock in the price of the produce and sell it without physically transporting it to the mandis.
Web kiosks empowers Indian farmers Indian retailers are teaching farmers about how to plant crops and fight pests. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ACCII) claims that customers in small town and villages across
the country will increase up to 60 percent to $18.1 billion by 2012. The Indian government has allowed farmers to sell crops directly to wholesalers and abolished state-run monopolies, which paid fixed prices to ensure affordable food supplies. Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s biggest non-state company, and four other firms has planned to build 2,900 rural stores in the next five years. ITC is building national crop procurement network of 6,500 ‘e-Choupal,’ kiosks for village meeting place. Farmers can sell their crops online, then deliver the produce to supermarkets where they can buy everything from cookies to pesticides. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh wants to boost farmers by spending INR 1.76 trillion between 2004 and 2009 to build roads, provide telephones and link villages to the power grid. The government is calling on state-run banks to increase loans to farmers by 18.4 percent this year. Farmers are using the Internet to get more information, improving yields, cutting consumption of inputs and ensuring higher prices for their produce.
Philippines Govt. to set up electronic kiosks for farmers The Agricultural Department of Philippines is planning to set up electronic kiosks across the country to help farmers. The department is preparing proposals on the e-Portal system for submission to software developer, Microsoft Corporation. Under this project, the computer centres would be set up across the country for farmers to check market prices of their commodities and seek business partnerships using the Internet. The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) presented the agricultural based ICT projects, which also include ‘Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture,’ and ‘Mobile Internet Bus to deliver online services to farmers’, and ‘Farmers’ Information and Technology Services Centers’. Microsoft is providing computers, licensed Microsoft software and training for computer programmers. The company is planning to partner with Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (Opapa) and other ICT projects in Philippines.
Airtel to be provider of Iffco farm information Now the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) has entered into the rural information and telecommunications field after launching a subsidiary named Iffco Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL). IFFCO has partnered with telecom operator, Airtel to provide this service. The new venture, IKSL will identify the telecom and communication products and services, which will provide agri information to farmers. IKSL will connect farmers and retail through the network of co-operative societies. Mobiles would be used virtually as personalised communication kiosks.
21
RENDEZVOUS e-AGRICULTURE INDIA 2007, I - 2 AUGUST 2007, NEW DELHI, INDIA
Enabling agriculture Introduction eAGRICULTURE India 2007 which was a part of eINDIA 2007 Conference, was a new initiative on the part of Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), to understand the role of ICTs (Information and Communiction Technologies) in agricultural development. The present report will cover the discussions and recommendations which came up during the various sessions on eAGRICULTURE India, 2007. The objective behind the special sessions on e-Agriculture was to look at the potential of ICTs in serving the various needs and demands of the rural farming community in India and abroad.
farming anymore. Dr. Patil also informed about the problem of unskilled rural youths. The extension machinery in India is not able to absorb the rapid changes happening in technology. Under all these constraints, the role of ICTs appears as a potent tool. ICTs can help disseminate knowledge which is derived from the wide and strong network of education and research institutions. While talking on the role of ICTs in achieving 4 percent per annum growth rate in agriculture, Dr. Patil pointed out that: (a) The knowledge of seed production should be given to farmer so
despite huge investments from both public and private sectors, and India having resources of large arable lands, multiple agro-climatic zones, large market, strong research and development, hard-working and innovative farmers, etc.; (b) Potential of ICTs to prevent the agrarian crisis; and, (c) Determining the non-ICT factors so as to make ICTs work for agricultural development. He said that the per capita income of the farmers is one-fifth of the rest of an average Indian. He reasoned out three fundamental aspects responsible for this: (a) Fragmented land holding which
August 1, 2007 Agriculture development policy towards faster and more inclusive growth-How to ease agrarian crisis using ICTs? The first session of eAGRICULTURE India 2007, was chaired by AK Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Minstry of Agriculture, Government of India. The other panelists were: Dr. SA Patil, Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, J Satyanarayana, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government, Hyderabad, and from the corporate side S Sivakumar, Chief Executive, ITC-IBD, Secunderabad. In the initial remarks, Dr S A Patil showed his genuine concern over the aspiration of 4 percent growth rate per annum in agriculture, which has not been happening in the recent past. He informed that agriculture has become a non-profitable venture. However, those in the upper echleons of the production and supply chain are earning more. Quoting a simple stance of a cotton producing farmer, he said that the poor farmer can’t even imagine what amount a meter of cloth fetches when it is sold under a brand name. The farming families don’t want their sons and daughters to continue
22
Left to Right: S. Sivakumar, CEO ITC-IBD, Dr. S.A. Patil Director, IARI, A.K. Agarwal, Jt Secy, GOI, J. Satyanarayana, CEO, NISG.
that he can produce the seed at his farm, which will save him from the cost he bears on purchasing extremely costly seeds from the companies; (b) Providing protection and support to agriculture through assured irrigation, minimum support prices, crop insurance etc. is vital; and, (c) Dryland development, which once done can yield growth rate even higher than 4 percent. While making a well structured note, S Sivakumar, highlighted three points viz.: (a) Sluggishness of Indian agriculture
has an average size of less than 1.5 hectare, leading to weakening of the bargaining power of farmer. The market access has to happen through a series of intermediaries; (b) The geographical dispersion of the farmers across more than 6,00,000 villages has implication on bringing information on a real-time basis, which can provide information on weather forecast, market prices, news affecting markets etc.; and (c) Heterogeneity of context, by virtue of the capacity of investment of each i4d | September 2007
farmer, his/ her risk bearing ability, knowledge a farmer possesses, requirement for more customised information etc. Generic information is of little use when seen at the individual-level. He told that virtual aggregation of small stakeholders (producers) across multiple geographies to get the power of scale is possible through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs). He informed that real time multicasting, customisation of information, and personalisation of the content on the basis of knowledge of who is logging in and who is participating, can be done through ICTs. He mentioned about four things, while speaking on non-ICT factors: (a) To create real choices through complementary services such as good roads and infrastructure (storehouses, vehicles for transportation etc.). Simply, broadcasting prices or making them available online, through SMS, on radio, etc is not good enough.; (b) To set up complementary infrastructure to bring the power of scale to the small. This includes human infrastructure which is important to understand first mile issues of the farmers and customising at the last mile; (c) Bringing the benefit of specialisation by leveraging the power of partnership and building a network of specialized organisations in their respective fields is absolutely critical; and, (d) Sustainability of any ICT model is very important. J Satyanarayana in his opening remarks said that agriculture sector is a victim of several gaps. Foremost of these gaps accordingly to him was the intelligence gap. Farmers have little information on the kinds of crops s/he should grow, how s/he should grow, what planning s/he needs to do with respect to his/her area and soil conditions, what are the market dynamics etc. The other gaps mentioned by him included credit gap, productivity gap, marketing gap, price realisation gap and infrastructure gap etc. Barring the infrastructure gap, all the above-mentioned gaps can be dealt to an extent using the ICTs. Pointing towards number of government schemes and policy initiatives from the government side, he felt that an equal role from the private sector is required. To enthuse private sector in handling information poverty and asymmetry, the policy had to be conducive, he added. Later, during the open house discussion, various issues were raised by the participating delegates who hailed from diverse backgrounds including, progressive farmers, researchers, academicians, IT professionals and foreign delegates. The existing extension, research and education mechanism had very limited skill set to use ICTs. ICTs can be introduced by imparting needed training and inducing new courses on Agriculture Information Technology. The right information on prices and other personalised content can be done through ICTs. There was a call to formulate National Agricultural Information Technology Policy. Lack of investment in agriculture sector was seen as major bottleneck. One question that came up was: Can Indian agriculture keep itself abreast of the newer technological breakthroughs? The link from lab to land was weak but the link from land to lab was missing altogether. Summarising, the whole discussion A K Agarwal said that every crisis offers new opportunity to rectify past mistakes. He emphasised on the need to increase productivity to meet the growing demand for food grains. He cleared that intervention had to be made at all the levels. He told that the production gaps existed within smaller areas in a given district. He asked for harnessing ICTs keeping in mind the diversity of India. September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
AGRISNET-Strengthening agricultural informatics and communications Sharing the state’s vision, Om Prakash, Secretary Agriculture, Government of Uttarakhand said that the basic vision was to move away from subsistence to sustainable agriculture. In Uttarakhand due to its terrain and non-existence of formal extension machinery, ICTs was the only option, he informed. Commenting on a strategy, he said that it was needed to blend domain knowledge with technology to enhance effectiveness and efficiency in agriculture sector. In his presentation he shared various initiatives undertaken in the state which included, agriculture-based portal, agro-climatic planning and information bank (APIB) etc. The agriculture portal was to be a one-stop-shop for all including farmers,government, businesses and other institutions. APIB shall be very useful in land monitoring, watershed planning, yield forecasting, cropping pattern analysis, analytical modeling, etc. The third general application, eAgriclinic was a knowledge management system based on a series of questions and their answers to reach the diagnosis. This iterative dialogue would also enable to arrive at optimal solutions. He mentioned that ICTs cannot succeed on a stand alone basis and needed to be supplemented by other programmes.
A progressive farmer making his point to the panelist
Mohd. Qamar Iqbal Khan, Joint Director of Agriculture, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, said that farmers in Andhra Pradesh needed information on unlimited topics and shared the initiative made by the state government in that direction. The idea was to make university online which had a lot of information but was not reaching out to the farmers. In the initial phase, state aimed to reach 1104 blocks and later reached down to village level with hardware support and customised software. Since all the areas were not connected via Internet, it was planned to supply DVDs. In the future, it was proposed to provide spatial information, satellite images of high resolution to help the grower take decision on his crops’ health and the state of field with reference to other neighboring fields. Amit Majumdar, Principal Systems Analyst, NIC, West Bengal, while sharing the goals of West Bengal Agriculture Department, told that the main objective was to provide advice, improve information dissemination and exchange among various stakeholders, through the use of latest ICT tools. There were various G2G/G2C/G2B/G2E projects already implemented or were under the process of implementation in the state of
23
West Bengal. He also described about the portal named www. banglarkrishi.gov.in which was providing information on a number of issues to the agriculture stakeholders. According to Amit Majumdar, lack of infrastructure at the site of implementation, absence of appropriate human resource with the right attitude and lack of training were the major challenges in implementing the various ICT-based projects. J Satyanarayana, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad, while illustrating the salient features of mission mode project (MMP) in agriculture told that the project was divided into two parts. The first part emphasised on what were the requirements, whereas the second part dealt with how the objectives of the first part were to be achieved. He also shared that the first part of scoping the requirements had been completed, and the second phase was about to commence. A set of twenty services had been prioritised based on a consultative process amongst central government, state governments and private sector. It was further seen where the ICT interventions could be made. At the very first place and as a single largest message from his side, he felt the need to create an ICT-based agri-ecosystem which was to grow and evolve continuously thereafter. He also encouraged the participation of private sector during the second phase of ICT intervention, as long as the standards and protocols were maintained. While summarising the session, AK Agarwal remarked that in a vast country like India with 127 different agroclimatic zones and the need for personalised services becoming bigger, it was the technology which could bring success. Agricultural marketing: From farm to firm to fork The session was chaired by KS Money, Chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), New Delhi. The first speaker of the session UKS Chauhan, Agricultural Marketing Advisor, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, said, “Hailing from a village background whenever I go back to village home, the farmers ask me the question that where they would sell their produce.” Showing the concern over the information deficit, he deliberated on Agmarknet which attempts to provide information on prices, arrivals, availability, trends, analysis, laws, etc. Currently, Agmarknet covers 2800 market nodes and 300 commodities and provides information in ten languages. He admitted that the programme had to be reliable and accurate for which data collection and date validation were to be taken into account. The programme aspires to become revenue generating and self-sustaining by the end of XI Five Year Plan. Realising the need of strategic alliance for wider dissemination of market information to the end users, he specifically mentioned 1,00,000 common service centres (CSCs) and other private and public kiosks, which were coming up in rural India. Lamon Rutten, Joint Managing Director, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX), Mumbai while sharing the vision of his company said, “The synergy of exchanges,warehouses and a modern information/communication system will make it possible to cross over into a new era for agriculture”. He told that electronic exchanges act as bridge to the future as they create profit opportunity and efficiency, and help integrating the market. He said that without empowering farmers, the benefit of better
24
organised supply chain will bypass them. MCX has arrangements with India Posts, TERI, MSSRF and Akshaya centres to develop and demonstrate sustainable and replicable ways for getting markets to the farmers. Donald Taylor, Chief of Party, Growth Oriented MicroEnterprise Development Programme, Jaipur made a mention of agriculture retail which had immense potential to bring farmers to commercial supply chains. Mentioning about two missing links in agriculture, he said that both the extension and marketing were very crucial. Specially in horticulture an intensive extension and handholding is required. He also added that just providing information alone is of no use; the exercise needs to be supported by enabling farmers to market his produce. Further supplementing to Don Taylor’s presentation, PS Krishna Kumar from the same organisation shared that the organisation’s plans to reach out to the field using the mobiles. This was mainly for two reasons, it was more practical approach under the fairly deep penetration
Left to Right: Samir Gupta, Jt MD, Samtech Infonet, Donald Taylor, Chief of Party, GMED, K.S. Money, chairman, APEDA, U.K.S. Chauhan, Agricultural Marketing Advisor, Lamon Rutten, Jt MD, MCX.
of mobiles and lack of infrastructure needed for other media. Secondly, it was keeping in view the need of real time information in agriculture. The two modules were being developed keeping in focus the supply chain management and farmers’ technical information needs, told Mr. Kumar. Sameer Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Samtech InfoNet Ltd, New Delhi, said that the farmers are struggling with various issues, and ICTs has a lot to offer to resolve these concerns. He felt the need of integration and channelisation of information, which already existed. While summing up his discussion he made a remark that technology can only take the role of an enabler and not the driving seat. The domain knowledge is of utmost importance, he added. Human intervention is important to take the best out of the technology and should be given due attention. While summarising the session KS Money said that there existed few gaps and the working environment is not perfect. Digital inclusion for fostering rural prosperity and grassroots development M Moni, DDG, NIC, New Delhi in his opening remark talked about the history of ICT in agriculture and the very first beginning i4d | September 2007
which was made in 1995 in this direction. Highlighting the issue of content, he stressed on the importance of developing expert systems, knowledge bases, decision-support systems in agriculture. The major challenges with ICT programme was organisational non-promotional interest and destabilisation through the administrative process. Talking about the development made over the years, he informed that currently fifteen information networks have been given a shape, and they have come up as a scheme with more than INR 1000 crores budget. He asserted on the need to take ICT applications beyond the level of using eMail or word processing. Computer education should be a part of course curriculum of agriculture education system. “Future lies in rural computing” he said further. He said that institutions located in field areas should carry on research at local-level and communicate in local languages. He also suggested for establishing the supply chains, mapping the farmers and to start a 24X7 hours TV channel dedicated exclusively for agriculture. The first speaker of the session Rajesh Khullar, Director Agriculture, Government of Haryana shared his interesting experiences. He told that over the past 6-7 years, the productivity of wheat had actually gone down on account of global warming and high temperatures prevailing during the months of February. The research suggested that an early sowing can help in avoiding the ‘February Heat’ and resulted in productivity increase. But the given proportion of 1extension worker per 8 villages, was a limiting factor to communicate this finding with every farmer. Rajesh Khullar and his team made an innovative approach of touching all the farm families via children from schools and colleges. These children communicated the idea of early sowing to get better yields to their families, and it resulted in an increase in the productivity. Known for his innovative ideas, Rajesh Khullar started a unique SMS-based service for the farmers. He told that most of the farmers were already mapped through mobile network. This service was started wherein any farmer can send free of cost SMS mentioning the problem s/he is facing in the field or the information s/he desires to seek. In return the extension people either visit his farm or advice him over the phone. The next speaker Deepak Chanduka, GGM(IT&NW) Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL), New Delhi, deliberated upon the Kisan Call Centre, it’s working and the future plans. He told that there were currently 144 call centres, which were spread over 14 locations. Sharing his future plans, he told that a Kisan Knowledge Management System shall be developed as a back-end database for the effective utilisation of the service. He suggested to make relevant changes in the course- curriculum to better equip the agriculture graduates to deal with the farmers’ problems in the field. In the discussion, it was observed that the Kisan Call Centre number should also be accessible from a mobile and not only from a landline. Ritoban Roy of Wipro which is engaged in developing a business model for Media Lab Asia, shared his work with the delegates. He said that technology should not dazzle the endusers. ICT should support and not drive the service meant for the farmers. He also emphasised on the need of the involvement of a local partner in the delivery of the service. According to him, charging the customer for the services, even in the pilots, will act as a significant mechanism to put strict discipline on the September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
market. Rikin Gandhi, Asst. Researcher, Microsoft Research India, Bangalore told how ICTs are used for the transfer of technology to the farmers in Karnataka. He informed that in their work, they have added a digital component to the extension, which was costeffective. Capturing a local farmer using the technology (to be transfered) in a film and showing it to the community was the idea behind his work. Due to this, a farmer becomes a star in front of the community, and this participatory approach helps community to generate local content. Peers adopt fast what they see being conducted in their own settings. Provision of ingredients required to follow the technology increased the chances of conversion and adoption, he further informed. Bijay Nanda, Executive Director, Sandhan Foundation, Bhubaneswar, said that people who depended upon coast, realised the importance of the Mangroves after the events like Tsunami. His work was in the same direction. The project aimed at the use of ICTs to educate the coastal-poor on the wise usage of natural coastal wetland-marine resources. He informed how Coastal Community Resource Centre had tried to educate local people on the use of resources by technological innovation. He informed on shooting films on various themes of diversity of the ecosystem, its components and inter linkages etc. The films made were later shown to the community to pass on the message. Ghan Shyam Bansal, State Informatics Officer, Haryana, presented on Agriculture Resource Information System, the pilot project of NIC at Rohtak district. He elaborated on how the sustainability had been affected in the area because of the over-exploitation of the resources. To address this problem, he said that the information on what to produce, how much to produce, where to produce should be provided to farmers, and the requisite changes in the agricultural policy be brought in. He told that how the project was aiming to use ICTs for knowledge management with village as a unit. Locally relevant content was the critical success factor for the project, he said. Summarising the session M Moni said that the task of converting 110 million farm families to get into e-Farming was huge. He said that the solution lies in expert system, decision-support system and knowledge bases. Commenting on e-Governance, he said that the approach should be ‘G for C’, and not ‘G2C’. During the discussion it was suggested that agriculture should be included as a subject in the school curriculum.
2 August, 2007 ICTs in education, research and sectoral growth Dr. H Chandrashekharan, Head, Unit of Simulation and Informatics, IARI, while presenting on behalf of Dr. SA Patil, Director IARI, mentioned ICTs as a tool to carry out proper agriculture research, teaching and extension. Combination of ICT tools to various component of agriculture research was well identified as new discipline of ‘Agri-Informatics’. He also shared how satellite images can help in taking decisions based on information provided on soil, moisture content, land use etc. He further discussed how virtual education through the use of ICTs can address the needs of a wide area of education in agriculture, not only for students but also for the farmers. He ended up by saying that ICTs in agriculture have to go a long way.
25
Dr. Gyanendra Sharma, Professor, Agricultural Communication, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar presented on behalf of Dr. PL Gautam, Vice Chancellor of the same university. Deliberating on the role of ICTs in education, he said that there is need for a paradigm shift from instructioncentric system to learner-centric system. Computer alone is not the end. He mentioned about the evolution of smart class rooms. ICTs had to play a role in regular course content update, better student-teacher interaction, distance education, sharing of resources, etc. Indicating towards the inherent risk in present ICT scenario in universities, it was the general inertia at senior level to move towards the new technologies. He also shared the proactive approach of his university which already had an ICT policy in place. Dr. VC Patil, Head of the Division of Plant and Soil Sciences,University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, who was representing Dr. JH Kulkarni, Vice Chancellor of the same university, said that society has moved from agricultural society to industrial society and then to a knowledge society. Under the present scenario, knowledge has become a critical factor. He also shared how the digital libraries were a source of explicit knowledge, and were the gateways to knowledge outside. He said that lack of finance, lack of IT experts and lack of networking were the major constraints in front of Indian agricultural libraries. He also touched upon the role of ICTs in precision farming, and how it can actually be used to manage spatial and temporal variability. Prof. ML Madan said that the growth in agriculture had to be inclusive. He said that ICTs have to be relevant in the process. He specifically mentioned about the role of ICTs for livestock sector. The usage of ICT for marketing, for forage conditions, disease management, water availability etc., is quiet relevant. Animal disease monitoring and surveillance to have early warning, diagnosis and vaccination programme was emphasised by Prof. Madan. Health kiosk as a touch screen disease system if made available at villages can reduce the time lag and help address many serious concerns of the sector. He also stressed on creating a cyber corridor given the big role of livestock. During the open floor discussion, it was agreed that there should be use of ICTs to take the refined technology to the farmers. During the discussion it was found that the separation of animal husbandry from agriculture and it being treated separately has hampered the concept of integrated agriculture. Agriculture finance and risk management Dr. R Balakrishnan, Executive Director, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Mumbai, during his very interesting opening remark said, “If we know where to go, ICT can show the path”. Agriculture has to be networked with sections of the economy, he emphasised. It has to be supply-chain managed. Leadership and management were the two most important inputs for agriculture. He also emphasised on an electronic system, which could manage financial services, savings, credit, investment opportunity, hedging negotiation, etc for the farmers. He also pointed towards the establishment of the identity of the farmers through Kisan Credit Card. He said that a farmer’s dream is no different from an urban citizen’s one, and both should be given equal opportunity and means.
26
Starting the session with a very important subject of agriculture insurance, M Parshad, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd (AIC), New Delhi, told that agriculture was a risky activity which is vulnerable to natural forces and accordingly risk management assumes its significance. He also shared that the crop insurance programme being run in India was the largest in the world. He informed that for the first time, his company had made the use of latest techniques like remote sensing to estimate crop yield. Further sharing the potential of GIS, he said how it could cover a wide area at regular intervals and helped in minimising the problems of asymmetric information, do away with frequent field visits, etc. He told that the use of such technologies had helped the company in designing suitable products (with in time payment of compensation). He also told about the utility of automatic weather stations to help develop the weather index. He also brought to notice the limitations of the usage of latest ICTs such as frequency of quality satellite images, clarity during rainy season, requirement of system of ground truthing and validation, high cost, lack of legal framework etc.
Left to Right: Dheeraj Rajpal, ZM, ICICI Bank, K.K. Gupta, GM, NABARD, Dr. R. Balakrishnan, ED, NABARD, M. Prasad, CMD, AIC, Dr. V. Shunmugam, Chief Economist, MCX, Alok Gupta, MD, Samtech Infonet
KK Gupta, General Manager, NABARD, New Delhi raised points pertaining to rural credit--first, about the amount of credit from non-formal sources, and second, the exclusion of small and marginal farmers from the formal sources of credit. He said that ICTs in universal access to financial services should not merely be limited to the access but take into account the process and the end-usage. He specifically mentioned the use of ICTs for land records, future price discovery, market intelligence, agricultural database management, e-Banking, mobile-based payment, etc. He wished that every village should have one knowledge centre to fill in the ground gap, which existed between village panchayats and farmers, on one hand, and the financial institutions based at national and district levels, on the other. Alok Gupta, Managing Director, Samtech InfoNet Ltd, New Delhi deliberated on the benefits of technology for microfinance and what principles should be followed while implementing technology. Using ICTs the processes should be automated and the applications should be customised and made more flexible. He said that there were already several connectivity options and many i4d | September 2007
access devices present but we also need to consider unconventional delivery technologies like ATM, digital cash, mobile banking etc to make microfinance reach till the last mile. He also touched upon the idea of energy-electricity network to be used to connect villages with mainstream. Another possibility was of Wi-Max for making financial inclusion of rural areas. According to him, mobiles using GSM could be another way in this regard. Dr V Shunmugam, Chief Economist, MCX, Mumbai, told that the commodity exchange were based on the latest ICTs which was indicative of the potential ICTs have for agricultural finance and risk management. He discussed about the various gaps and other basic characteristics of agricultural finance. Suggesting various innovative uses of ICTs, he told that each farmer should be given a unique identity card which has to be machine readable and must provide electronic and biometric access. There should be commodity bank, scientific warehousing, collateral management linked to national level common database and with an access to commodity exchanges. He also urged to provide a comprehensive solution to the farmers’ financial needs, through the use of ICTs. Dheeraj Rajpal, Zonal Manager, Strategic Initiatives and Channel, ICICI Bank, New Delhi, pointed out the transformal role of agriculture credit and risk management in the economy. For transforming the economy, he said there was a need to develop a comprehensive rural information system to identify credible borrowers. He told that a biometric smart card or e-Passbook could be used to access the account, which ICICI bank was doing as a pilot with the involvement of another company called FINO. While talking on weather insurance he said that advanced weather parametres measuring techniques should be used as it was being done in other countries. He also suggested the sharing of database amongst various financial player in order to bring down the cost of financial services. While summarising the session, the Chair remarked that farmers are honest and don’t intend to default unless forced to do so. So accordingly for bankers, agriculture credit was a good bet. He added that the use of ICTs will induce a lot more transparency to the financial system. ICTs: A golden promise for agriculture Dr Youn-Min Park, Manager, Korean, Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, Seoul said, “ We must analyse that ICTs are for whom and with what consequences ICTs benefit in development”. While sharing the Korean experience, she said that South Korea which is known for ICT penetration herself has faced the issue of digital divide. She told that Korea developed a comprehensive ICT policy which was a package of educational courses, supported public private partnership, provided access and connectivity, formulated village-based homepage, built offline community, facilitate rural-urban interactions et al. She revealed that even after much spending of energy and time, the response from the farmer was not very encouraging. She cautioned to depart from technology based approach and consider end users’ capability and context. There is the need to tailor rural ICT policies aiming to deliver information to solve the problem that rural citizens perceive important for their well-being, said Dr. Park. She further added that the process has to be a step-by-step approach not neglecting the process of rural readiness within the broad context. September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Dr. Anandaraja N, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, shared his field experience of using multimedia with farmers, especially farm women. He said that there was a need to reorient the delivery system using ICTs. While mentioning the active role of farm women in agriculture operations, he said that there was little being done towards building their capacity. He informed that the extension efforts are mainly male biased. Under this backdrop, he mentioned that multimedia was a potent tool and shared his work in the transfer-of-technology to farm women using multimedia. His module was easy to use and can be used by illiterate person as it made use of symbols. This multimedia tool could be used as a learning tool and as a capacitybuilding medium. Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology DA-IICT, Gandhinagar mentioned about the problem of price realisation, which farmers face. He hoped that grid-based agro-produce marketing system can act as a middle ware to support various other loosely coupled components. For realising this, there was a need to lay down protocols and standards and follow the same while various actors/ services (buyers, sellers etc) participate. Under the system the grid manager service will do the match-making amongst the various services, and notify the same using various methods including mobiles. Dr. Chaudhary wanted this system to be started in selected mandis (marketing boards) from where it could be expanded to others, depending upon the performance. Gopi Ghosh, Asst. Representative, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), New Delhi discussed the initiative of Solution Exchange which provides knowledge on demand, connects people with common interests, create communities and explores synergies. Stressing on the need of knowledge management in food and agriculture, he said that it was important to work together to find solutions based on cross sectional discussions. This helps in reaching a more holistic solution he mentioned. The exchange had around 1500 members across the globe over a small period of less than three years. According to him barriers of language, poor access to Internet, e-Illiteracy and lack of linkage with major government programme were the main constraints in the scaling-up, and there lies deepening the reach of the Solution Exchange. J S Sandha, CEO, Jagriti e-Sewa, Punjab explained his unique, self-sustained model of ICTs working for agriculture. He said that the project was down to earth, which attempts to provide solution to the farmers on economising/ optimising the input usage. The e-Khad model used algorithm to determine fertiliser dosages in relation to any farmer’s budget, soil status (worked out after a soil test which is also a part of the project) and the crop one plans to sow. The pay and use model is very successful in the area and has observed growth over the period, Mr. Sandha said. While summing up the last session of the Conference, Prof ML Madan said that agriculture is close to tradition in India. Indian farmers yet were not taking it as a calculative activity. He asked for the need for change, which is evolutionary and not revolutionary in nature. The day farmer learns about resources’ allocation and their optimum utilisation, the real development of agriculture will happen. Reported by Anaam Sharma, anaam@csdms.in
27
Story telling for knowledge sharing
Emerging technologies in African and Latin American countries Presenting a series of locally written articles with Southern perspectives on the impact and the use of ICTs for Development. The iConnect series is in its third year of collaboartion. We are pleased to share stories from Africa and Latin America on emerging technologies written by Southern journalists.
In collaboration with:
www.iConnect-online.org is a platform for sharing knowledge on the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in sustainable development. iConnect draws content from its partners, links resources and expertise and encourages collaboration. For the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), the host of iConnect, this is a way to share experiences, lessons learned and ideas, and interact with communities and people with an interest in development and the applications of ICTs. These experiences can lead to a better understanding of the actual benefits of ICTs for Development (ICT4D). A series of locally written articles on the impact and the use of ICTs for development forms the core of iConnect. The articles have a strong focus on fact finding; objective information on ICT4D practices from a Southern perspective: Southern content written by Southern journalists. i4d is the iConnect partner for Asia, disseminating the articles to their readers. For the full text of the articles, please visit www.iConnect-online.org
Internet brings on participative video in Burkina Faso By Ramata Soré Until recently, watching a video on the Net was almost impossible. Today, more and more initiatives offer television and videos on the Internet. In Burkina Faso, even if television on the Internet is not yet common, private and government structures want Internet users to take the plunge and convert their PC into a television set. “Welcome to TV Wagues. Watch our videos and our photographs and show us yours.” This is what welcomes the ‘Internet viewers’ on www.wagues.org. “TV Wagues is an initiative involving the publication of videos and images about a changing, innovating and working Africa. It is a virtual TV that is both community-driven and an advocate of your actions in the world”, says Sylvestre Ouédraogo, president of Yam Pukri (www.yam-pukri.org) and coordinator of the Burkina Faso National ICT for Development network (Burkina NTIC), creator of this video library. There are videos about initiatives, meetings, artisans of Burkina, a gallery of unusual images like a modern jewelry store made of straw or a donkey pumping gas at a service station… Through TV Wagues, content producers can offer their programmes directly to consumers.
Innovate to exist Wagues is available since 2006. It is the result of a long process. “The difficulties in designing this web site are associated with the making of very short and interesting films. Many people thought that since the connection speed in Burkina Faso is so slow, it was impossible to put videos on the Net. I think that we must start to innovate right now before the speed gets September 2007 | www.i4donline.net 28
faster, because we won’t have the expertise as people will not have a practical knowledge of TV on the Net”, says Sylvestre Ouédraogo.
Participative television and video Besides Sylvestre Ouédraogo’s initiative, the new Information and Communication Technologies drive the media in Burkina Faso to adapt and transform. During live television programmes, viewers can get involved and give their opinion, ask questions using interactive services or communication tools like SMS, web sites and webcams. They illustrate the public’s participation to the feeding and enrichment of the programming schedule. The dark side of this picture is that it creates a new digital divide. TV-Internet, as a window on the world, speeds up communication and access to knowledge, i4d | September 2007
28
but it is still inaccessible to the forgotten ones, the 97 percent of the population of Burkina Faso living both in the cities and the remote areas. This inaccessibility is due also to the lack of connection to the Internet in most of the country, to technical difficulties and to the lack of funds to buy computing or television material.
The changes in perspective While e-Television is still at a very early stage in Burkina Faso, in view of the overlap between television and the Internet, what could be the relationship between television fees and the Internet? Many people in Burkina Faso don’t own a television set, but pay the monthly fee. Will subscription to Internet with access to the national television system subject to an audiovisual fee? According to the Telecommunications and New Technologies
Ministry, Internet access, which includes e-TV access, would not be subject to this audiovisual fee. Only the lines, rental would be taxed. Up to now, television offerings in Burkina Faso have been limited to a few channels broadcasted in a linear flux directed to a collective and passive audience. In the next few years, just like the participative Web 2.0, TV 2.0 will emerge with programmes on request, directed to an individual and interactive audience in an environment full of possibilities. With TV Wagues, the general trend is already there and African Vlogs will be able to blossom in the years to come. In this context, survival of over-the-air channels will depend on their capacity to innovate in taking ownership of the new Information and Communication Technologies. For further information contact iConnect coordinator Sylvestre Ouédraogo, sylvestre.ouedraogo@gmail.com
Ecuador: Web 2.0 at the service of participatory democracy By Anavela Herrera In Ecuador, people seem to be politically aware that they need to participate in social processes of collective interest. Technological tools are the new resources that enable this unifying social participation that is gradually becoming massive. When Web 1.0 arrived on the scene, the companies in particular felt that it was then possible to expand their identity. Their business web pages quickly appeared on the Internet offering information about their vision, their strengths, their mission and services. Having a centralised and uni-directional information management, Web 1.0 had to undergo many changes mainly related to the applications development process, to information management and to the cycle of users’ participation. This was the birth of Web 2.0 where knowledge sharing and socialised information are used to strengthen the networks formed by people with shared interests and common needs. The possibilities offered by Web 2.0 have enabled people to participate, and this participation is extremely important for them, even crucial, as they are now able to express their own opinions, make comments, criticize or even suggest proposals. These communication tools, that can be called ‘social software’, like personal pages or blogs, RSS data format for dissemination and updating, Flickr, a service for sharing photos, systems for content management like Wikis, social bookmarks services like del.icio.us and other services like YouTube, etc. are being used by collaborative networks formed by people who work on significant national issues. There are in Ecuador important examples where people’s participation is being fostered through the technological tools accessible through Web 2.0. This is the case of the e-Journal Ciudadanía Informada (www.ciudadaniainformada.com) that uses Web 2.0 tools to create an enhanced communication with the community. The commentaries about the news, forums, discussion groups, blogs about politics, journalism and football, they all together constitute an axis of interaction among the citizens users. The great receptivity and response from the users can be noticed in the news and in the weekly Setptember 2007 | www.i4donline.net
thematic forums. Another relevant initiative is Radio La Luna. Here Web 2.0 is the resource that has enabled the creation of a citizen’s movement that goes beyond its microphones. Its blog www.radiolaluna.com gathers all the information created by the radio together with news coming from agencies through collaborative RSS. In addition, there are participation forums and a chat room where people in the virtual community can make their opinions be heard. Another successful experience is Somos Democracia that took advantage of the opportunity and offered its web site as a tool for civil participation, particularly for people to take a stand on the issue concerning the National Constituent Assembly. Its portal http://somosdemocracia.org is a space for participation, ideas, proposals and debates about political issues, mainly related to the
National Constituent Assembly. The implementation of new tools for analysis, browsers to search for articles and comments and the monitoring of information are the resources that enable citizens to express their opinions or provide evidences to back up their
29
commentaries. Finally, also Ecuadorian Universities are using Web 2.0. An example of that is the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, UTPL, located in one of the southern provinces of Ecuador. Several Centres for research, transference of technology, extension and services, CITTES, developed by this institution, are using Web 2.0 since last March. This has enabled creation of new bonds and bridging of the gap between teachers and students. Nelson Piedra, Computer Sciences Director in UPTL, points out that blogs are one of the most used resources. ‘This tool is creating knowledge, intelligence and progress in a collaborative way’. The School of Communication Sciences has opened a directory of blogs in www.utpl.edu.ec/blog to help students and teachers create their own spaces. One of them is www.utpl.edu. ec/eccblog. It includes relevant information for students, such as events at the university, news, etc. Another initiative is Unidad de Sistemas y Proyectos Informáticos, UPSI, www.utpl.edu.
ec/upsiblog, whose blog offers a space for university technical staff to talk about their experiences and receive other people’s remarks. This initiative resulted in the creation of working groups for research. “This has turned out to be something special as people are sending issues for discussion from everywhere. They send suggestions and commentaries and what we see is that hierarchical structures have been knocked down. Here, these structures do not exist any more. Students and teachers may enter their commentaries or publish a paper in the same way”, affirms the School Director. “Students do not need to wait any more for someone to give them the contents they needs. Now they have been empowered to generate these contents. Now it is possible to share everything in such a way that, in the end, we are collaborating in the production of knowledge.” For further information contact iConnect coordinator Diana Andrade, dandrade@infodesarrollo.ect
Mali: iPath as an electronic pathology: a remote exchange platform for different illnesses prevalent in Africa By Filifing Diakite iPath (www.ipath.info) is an open source software developed at the University of Basel, Austria. It allows the publication of cases requiring a second medical opinion from experts who are members of the iPath network. The cases must be anonymous and submitted to the ‘RAFT Forum’ group. RAFT means Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine (http://raft.hcuge.ch). Cases are reviewed by the group’s facilitators who insure their completeness and are published for the concerned group or groups of experts. For RAFT, the facilitators and administrators of these groups are Dr. Cheick Oumar Bakayoko, Dr. Ousmane Ly and Professor Antoine Geissbuhler. They can also facilitate the participation of people who want to register and use the platform.
The choice of a free technology
In Mali, the iPath platform is found in the Mère Enfant hospital in Bamako within the national reference centre for e-Health activities, a project from the REIMICOM Kènèya Blown Association (www.keneya.net).
Practical cases: telecardiology
30
For Dr. Ousmane Ly, specialist in medical computing, telemedicine and telehealth, this choice is not accidental because this software allows the platform development to be supported, since the needs are very specific. “This software being entirely open source, we can adapt it to the Malian context. The other advantage is that the platform won’t be forgotten or won’t disappear one day as did a proprietary software that we used before”, says Dr. Ousmane Ly. And Dr. Ousmane concludes, “ Proprietary software is expensive, and often even very expensive, and in our projects we do not always have the money to buy the licenses.” On the iPath platform, there are thematical forums and a general exchange forum. To be a member of the platform, you only need to know the link. The new member can choose his status: he can be a user, in which case he receives a user name and password, or he can register in a special space. Everybody can register. You only need to send a letter to the platform administrator and someone will validate it and will send you a link to activate your account. As Dr. Niang Mouhamoudane, a constant user of the platform, indicates: “As a member, I go into the space dedicated to radiology. From there, I have several options, either I consult the cases or I participate to the discussion, or I suggest one or several cases. For example, there are often cases suggested, so I open one that I can review. Usually, there is a summary of the illness. There is a gallery with different images, either x-rays images or other tests to complete the file. After reading the file, I click on ‘add a comment’, since the person who places the file wishes to discuss it with other professionals in the area, and I give my opinion.”
To meet the needs in Mali, three iPath modules are used: cardiology, radiology and orthopedics. For example, in cardiology, i4d | September 2007
some children suffer from heart failure. Under a partnership with the associations MECENAT from France and Mali, the surgery must take place in France. The MECENAT Mali Association submits the files to the platform. These files are reviewed and put online. The doctors in France study them and a discussion is launched between the French and Malian specialists. This exchange leads to the selection of the children who will have the surgery. These children are prepared and send to France for the surgical procedure. After the surgery, the children are sent back to Mali. Doctors in Mali complete a follow-up file that they place on the platform so that the doctors from MECENAT France can follow-up with the children. There are other examples in orthopedics where the platform has made hip surgery easier to perform. Doctors from Marseille (France) had access to the files from ten patients online, so that they could identify the candidates for surgery and choose
the material and the type of prosthetic device to bring with them in Mali. In the case of an earlier mission, the French doctors were not able to handle some of the cases because they did not have the needed information. Unfortunately, the prosthetics they brought at that time were not suitable.
General advantages of the platform for the patients In Mali, there are only 5 cardiologists, of which 2 are associate professors. This number is of course inappropriate for a population of about 12 million persons living mostly in remote areas. The iPath creators believe that with this tool, it is possible for Malian people, wherever they are, to access Internet and take advantage of a specialised care system in their community. For further information contact iConnect coordinator Filifing Diakite, filifing@journalist.com
Uganda: Technology is making a difference, yes, but related challenges abound By Edris Kisambira As the third world struggles to integrate and introduce Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the technology component still stands out as the biggest drawback for many embracing what ICTs have to offer. New technologies are being integrated into working environments to ensure efficiency, be it in education, healthcare or any development project you can think of, but technology is a big shortcoming. Technology is in use to help remote communities in Africa, and indeed the developing world, and what a difference it has made not to mention the shortcomings that are usually of an infrastructural nature. In urban Uganda, like everywhere in the developing world, technology advancements have brought on the market computers, which have evolved into desktops, laptops, to palm tops and now to mobile phones. It is all about mobility and convenience. Internet in Uganda is delivered through on-demand telephone dial, always on wireless solutions and copper/fibre-leased lines and in fewer cases over VSATS. However there is a host of other technologies that service providers use to carry the Internet. Although those using dial up are still the majority, the number of those using leased line on copper and wireless has significantly grown. Other types of connectivity technology available on the market include ISDN, DSL, GPRS, CDMA, WiFi, WiMAX and EDGE. The last three forms of technology are the newest on the market and can enable users’ upgrade from older technologies. Internet access can be accessed wherever there is a phone line, which is virtually in all key towns in Uganda. However, a quality connection with heavy traffic is not always a guarantee. Publicly, government is in advanced stages of building its own infrastructure. This will increase coverage and cut connection costs. Plans to have cable connections to the Internet backbone through the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable are also underway. It is expected that consumers will benefit from price cuts due to the EASSy cable. Setptember 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Because of advancements in technology, consumers are getting more for less. But again, technology has contributed a lot to changes in people’s lives as well as developments we see and those we are yet to see. Today, because of technology a lot of things are possible simply because of computer programmes, rolled-out infrastructure, the Internet and bandwidth to mention but a few. A report on a survey for Internet development in Uganda that was carried out by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), the regulator of the communications industry in Uganda, at the end of 2005 shows that 46 percent of Ugandans have access to the Internet daily. The study also found that 28 percent used the Internet once a month, 11 percent never used the Internet while 14 percent use it around once a month. These results are an indicator showing that technology is helping people communicate better. As far as access is concerned, 80 percent of the respondents say they access the Internet at Internet cafes, while 8 percent had home connections, 6.4 percent access from a friend’s place and 5.7 percent use hotspot connections. Because people go to the Internet for research purposes, writing official and personal eMails plus a lot of other things, it has impacted on people socially, economically and culturally. The UCC study shows that while 59 percent of respondents are satisfied with the speed of bandwidth they receive, the remaining 41 percent mainly feel that the speed is slow while others think it is expensive, not reliable and frequently breaks down and connections are poor.
Economic impact The big question though is: have the different technologies the industry players brought on the market made a difference and helped communities especially in under-served or unreachable places develop? The answer is in the affirmative; data is collected to improve service sectors like health and research functions of different institutions have been boosted.
31
In Uganda’s tourism sector, it is the telecentre technology that has had as much impact. The Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) Bwindi Impenetrable National Park telecentre in southwestern Uganda demonstrates this very well. The telecentre is making a whole lot of a difference to endangered mountain gorillas. Lawrence Zikusoka, the founder and director of the CTPH telecentre says the idea behind setting up what he has called ‘the eco-friendly community telecentre’ was to safeguard species and the ecosystem, improve rural livelihoods and incomes, and empower people. Technological advancement is en-
abling income generating projects like call centres as well. Recently, Makerere University’s faculty of Computing and Information Technology (CIT) announced plans to set up a US$1million call centre that will provide national directory services and in future move to attract offshore work. For the Ugandans the waiting is now for the benefits that will come with cheaper bandwidth towards the end of next year when the EASSy cable becomes operational. For further information contact iConnect coordinator Davis Weddi, DWeddi@newvision.co.ug
Open source technology opens to Zambians By Henry Kabwe A light stroll in the City of Lusaka quizzing open source proved to be a comical exercise that exposed the ignorance of the subject amongst the Zambian population. Many people interviewed were simply dumbfounded or gave inconsistent guesses that prompted this writer to go further in search of an open source technology programme in Zambia. Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city, has found itself glowing in the number of Internet service providers that have literary filled the main shopping centres. The increased supply in the city has left an indelible mark that has made it possible for people to pay as low as US 1.5 for an hour’s time on the Internet. According to the ‘Wikipedia – free encyclopedia’, “Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the production and design process for various goods, products, and resources”. Former e-Brain Forum of Zambia (www.ebrain.org.zm) Chairperson Moses Mwale says “it has been a journey that has experienced a few strides but has left much to be desired where teaching and applying open source is concerned.” ‘Open source’, he confesses, “has not been fully appreciated as people think that the computer world revolves around Microsoft. We as a country (Zambia) have been subjected to being users”, says Mwale. He says there was need for countries to own their own software and this should come through the development of relevant skills and recognition of this need by government. For Mwale, even if Zambia is lagging behind, demand has been generated in accessing ICTs. The only problem is that, “we have been made to believe that we should not be developers.” The ‘gospel of Microsoft’ has indeed killed innovation in many African countries as they think that only Microsoft exists. To get the open source imbedded in Zambians, it has to start from students. Under Mr. Mwale’s leadership e-Brain marketed the use of Linux every Wednesday evening at the Evelyn Hone College under the auspices of the IT Students Association. They acquired 30 computers from an organisation called Computers for Zambian Schools and the World Bank, which also provided modernised windows. Zambia has not just been sitting on the pedestal while other nations were thriving in the open source arena. The e-Riding project is a living attempt to answer some of these ‘open source’ questions. Having started with ICT empowerment programmes among women through the Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC), this open source project
32
is empowering women beyond the Microsoft euphoria. Former National Coordinator for the Youth IT, Entrepreneurship and HIV/AIDS Project, Oliver Shalala, is the Project Manager of the Zambian NGOs e-Riding Project. The Zambian NGOs eRiding Project is a non-profit ICT-support collaborative project sponsored by the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) with the content support of Ungana-Afrika (UA). The project was initiated by Rescue Mission Zambia (RMZ) and NonGovernmental Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC) who jointly run it. The project commenced from January 2006 to end of February 2007 Shalala says. Rescue Mission Zambia
(RMZ) which empowers disadvantaged children and youth in rural and urban areas manages the project while the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), a SADC region fund provides financial support. In all these endeavours, Zambians should be able to teach its citizenry how to develop and not just how to use open source technology. This would not only create more business and employment opportunities in the ICT sector but also develop vulnerable groups to improve their living standards. For the most educated, most affluent, the average Zambian and the most vulnerable, it must begin with understanding what open source is all about and the benefit it would bring for them in their respective life domains. For further information contact iConnect coordinator Tovin Ngombe, tngombe@yahoo.co.uk i4d | September 2007
RENDEZVOUS LAUNCH OF THE BIG TECH PROGRAMME, 27 AUGUST, 2007, NEW DELHI, INDIA
Technology assistance for NGOs Introduction On 27 August 2007, NASSCOM Foundation (NF-www.nasscomfoundation. org) announced the launch of BiG Tech (www.bigtech.in), a technology assistance programme for non-profits and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). BiG Tech is a platform that facilitates the distribution of software products donated by corporate partners. It is a NASSCOM Foundation (NF) initiative in partnership with TechSoup (www.techsoup.org), a San Francisco-based non-profit technology capacity building organisation. NF is the principal TechSoup partner in India, and is well-positioned for successful outreach to build ICT capacities at the grassroots given its association with the IT industry and links with civil society in India. NF with its national presence has the ability to build and deliver a world class programme. Today, NGOs play an important role in citizen welfare services. In addition to the increasingly complex social issues, these organisations face shrinking fund sources and a growing demand for transparency, all of which can be addressed by the efficient use of Information Technology (IT) applications. IT can help to ensure better funds accountability, efficient management systems and ultimately greater on-theground impact.
Welcome session The key speakers at the launch session of BiG Tech were Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation; Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM; Mike Yeaton, Director, TechSoup Global; Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, Microsoft India; and Rufina Fernandes, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation. Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman NASSCOM Foundation said, “Technology, in our September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Dignitaries, (L to R) Rufina, Mike Yeaton, Saurabh Srivastava, Kiran Karnik and Neelam Dhawan.
‘flattened world’, can help NGOs create regional, national and even global awareness about their activities. This heightened awareness can, in turn, lead to a rise in public attention, interest, and action on behalf of causes. One of the barriers to technology for NGOs is affordability of technology products. BiG Tech, NF’s new online donation programme, is perfectly suited to address this issue of access to affordable technology, which is the most critical spoke in the wheel”. Kiran Karnik said, “The benefits of ICT for social development need no elaboration. While the civil society and governments are playing their role, corporates, especially IT companies need to get involved proactively by similarly participating in such donation programmes”. “NASSCOM and NF have been encouraging the IT industry to use ICT - their core strength, for societal development through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The BiG Tech programme, launched today, is ideally
suited to link such CSR activities”, Karnik added. Mike Yeaton spoke about TechSoup and NF, “TechSoup is very excited to be partnering with NF for their BiG Tech programme. India is extremely important to this programme for several reasons. First and Foremost, the opportunity to serve NGOs and civil society is immense. Second we want to reach out and encourage India’s booming IT industry to deliver new offerings to NGOs worldwide. Finally we can partner together to deliver innovative ways to reach underserved communities at the grassroots level, lessons which can be applied globally”. BiG Tech is made possible by generous donations from software producers; Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) is the first donor for BiG Tech. Microsoft has a long history of combining innovative technology, partnerships, and programmes to create economic, educational, and social opportunities in local communities worldwide, and to help foster a more secure
33
computing experience for people everywhere. Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, Microsoft India, said, “Microsoft India is happy to be a part of NF’s BiG Tech programme and to be its first corporate donor in India. Microsoft is already partnering with TechSoup globally and the response has been tremendously satisfying. We are sure that with NF at the helm, BiG Tech will be equally successful in India.”
About the alliance NASSCOM Foundation is the principal TechSoup partner in India, and is very well positioned for successful outreach given its association with the IT industry and links with civil society in India. Like TechSoup, NF is committed to building ICT capacities at the grassroots, has a national presence and the capacity to build and deliver a world class programme.
About NASSCOM Foundation NASSCOM Foundation is a trust registered under the Indian Trust Act 1882. It was registered in the year 2001. NF’s vision is to leverage Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to empower and transform the lives of the under-served. NASSCOM and its members are committed to social development through the application of ICT. NF today has the unique opportunity of leading the IT Industry towards changing the social development landscape of India. NF is the CSR arm of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), the internationally recognised trade body of the Indian IT industry. NF has two cross-cutting functional areas – ICT for development (ICT for D) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the IT industry. NF is engaged in a number of initiatives in ICT for D, which are multifaceted yet intensive and leverage on the power
Dignitaries launching the BiG Tech programme
(L to R) Mike Yeaton, Saurabh Srivastava, Prof. Tikot, Neelam Dhawan and Kiran Karnik (Prof. Tikot is the CEO and founder of a Dharwad based NGO called Vidya Poshak. They became first donee to receive the products from all dignitaries.)
of partnerships. NF plays the role of a catalyst in bringing together implementing agencies, industry, government bodies and people at the grassroots for integrated development boosted through the use of ICT. NF intends to become a catalyst, encouraging members to do more, capturing best practices, and promoting and assisting their replication.
About TechSoup Founded in 1987 as CompuMentor, TechSoup is one of the most comprehensive nonprofit technology assistance providers in the world, employing a staff of 150 and deploying a budget of over $18 million. It conducts a range of major programmes on the international, national, and the local level. These include the nonprofit technology Web site TechSoup (www.techsoup.org) and its distribution service for technology product donations, TechSoup Stock (www.techsoup.org/stock). The global TechSoup donation programme is aimed at building NGO capacity worldwide. It engages a broad network of international partner non governmental organisations to manage global technology product donation programmes for Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Symantec and 20 other donors. Their programme spans Europe, Africa, Australia and now India. The programme is expected to serve about 25 countries and distribute product donations with a fair market value of $55 million in the countries outside the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2008. TechSoup’s other programmes that empower nonprofits on a global level include the NetSquared (www.netsquared.org) initiative to help nonprofits worldwide use new Internet-based tools such as blogging and podcasting to extend their reach and impact.
GRISERV to help Monsanto ‘educate’ farmers The agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto has partnered with the Gujarat Rural Institute for Socio-economic Reconstruction Vadodara (GRISERV) to educate farmers on the benefits of growing Bt cotton. Under this project, the company will train farmers to educate them about the importance of Bollgard technology and its socio-economic benefits. Jayantilal Satashia, a representative of Monsanto said that Bollgard technology can reduce farmers’ cost of cultivation by reducing pesticide use, and there by increasing yield. Jayantilal has trained the GRISERV project officers who in turn trained 180 village opinion leaders on the company’s Bt cotton seeds and crop management techniques. The project officers also conducted 40 days field-work and covered 75 villages and 2,800 farmers. Using the Bollgard and Bollgard II technologies, farmers have doubled their cotton production to 18-20 quintal/ acre in 2006, against 8-10 quintals per acre in 2005. GRISERV is an NGO working towards upgrading the lives of the rural poor and it is the first time an NGO has adopted technology to promote social aims.
34
i4d | September 2007
September 2007
ICTD Project Newsletter
ICTs and indigenous people Indigenous peoples in every country have not benefited from mainstream development and much less from the information society. Living on the fringes of society they are not only denied the most basic human rights but are also excluded from participating in the world that is changing due to the use of ICTs. A look at the situation.
R
ecorded history is replete with examples that with the march of invading groups, original inhabitants have been driven out of their homes and lands. This story has repeated itself all round the world countless times. Indigenous people (as the original inhabitants are known) have been displaced to the margins of society and have seen their cultures being eroded, their traditional lifestyles being displaced, their lands taken away (most often forcibly) and are subject to all possible kinds of exploitation. As a result they have been left out of the mainstream development. Who are indigenous peoples? United Nations human rights bodies, the International Labour Organisation, the World Bank and international law apply four criteria to distinguish indigenous peoples: 1. Indigenous peoples usually live within, or maintain an attachment to, geographically distinct ancestral territories. 2. They tend to maintain distinct
social, economic and political institutions within their territories. 3. T h e y t y p i c a l l y a s p i r e t o remain distinct culturally, geographically and institutionally rather than assimilate fully into national society. 4. They self identify as indigenous or tribal. There is no universal and unambiguous definition of the concept of ‘indigenous peoples’, since no single accepted definition exists that captures the diversity of their cultures, histories and current circumstances. However, all attempts to define the concept recognise the linkages between people, their land and culture. A widely used working definition of indigenous peoples, proposed by the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, argues that indigenous populations are “…those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the
societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems”. The world’s estimated 300 to 370 million indigenous people representing over 5,000 languages and cultures are spread across the world in more than 70 countries. Among them are the Adivasis of India, the Indians of the Americas, the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Saami of northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and the Maori of New Zealand. More than 60 per cent of Bolivia’s population is indigenous, and indigenous peoples make up roughly half the populations of Guatemala and Peru. China and India together have more than 150 million indigenous and
Make ICTs Work for People
tribal people. About 10 million indigenous people live in Myanmar. Indigenous groups tend to be the most marginalised in any society and also the most ‘invisible’ group. Some statistics are quite an eye-opener: The Adivasi, or tribal peoples of India, constitute only 8 percent of the total population of the country, but 40 percent of them are internally displaced; most of them due to major irrigation projects. In Thailand, more than 40 percent of indigenous girls and women who migrate to cities work in the sex trade. The majority of females trafficked across state borders in southeast Asia are from indigenous communities Indigenous peoples make up about one third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people Indigenous peoples suffer h i g h e r r a t e s o f p o ve r t y, landlessness, malnutrition and internal displacement than other members of society, and they have lower levels of literacy and less access to health services Two centuries ago indigenous people lived in most of the earth’s ecosystems. Today they have the legal right to use only about 6 percent of the planet’s land and in many cases their rights are partial or qualified Indigenous peoples, in particular women, have rich and varied local systems of traditional knowledge. These systems include
36
vast knowledge about ecosystem management, technologies, medicinal plants and local crops. Managed sustainably, territories where indigenous peoples live hold considerable economic potential as sources of water, timber and high-value niche products such as medicinal plants, organic foods and hand-woven fabrics. The Amazon River Basin is home to about 400 different indigenous groups. While it accounts for just 7 percent of the world’s surface area, it is home to more than half of the world’s biodiversity. While these kinds of products are increasingly the focus of commercial interest, indigenous communities rarely receive a fair share of the economic benefits. And possibilities for the future are increasingly diminishing as private companies apply for patents on plants and other resources that have traditionally been used by indigenous peoples. More than 100 multi-national pharmaceutical companies are exploiting indigenous plant knowledge and specific plants used by native healers, with no benefits flowing to the indigenous communities. Indigenous people and the Information Society Low literacy levels; lack of basic infrastructure like electricity and telephone; lack of access to ICT equipment; and lack of financial resources to procure the necessary equipment, largely prevents indigenous people from access to and participation in the Information Society. But like any other group they have the right to equitable and affordable
access to ICTs on their terms and serving their needs. There is a need to develop culturally appropriate ICT applications and content that support the survival and development of their living cultures and do not replace them. ICTs must be used very consciously and carefully so that they do not contribute to culture loss, for instance by ignoring necessary inter-generational teaching, participation in traditional economies and interaction with ancestral territories for educational purposes. ICT use should not replace traditional methods for transmission of knowledge, cultural heritage and identity from generation to generation, but could become a useful supplementary tool, if applied in a culturally appropriate way. There have been some innovative uses of using simple ICT tools to empower indigenous communities. Van Gujjars and wireless radio: Va n G u j j a r s a r e a n o m a d i c community inhabiting the forested region of the Shivalik ranges in the state of Uttaranchal. They live in remote areas cut off from roads or any other kind of communication facilities. RLEK (Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra) an NGO has been working in the region with these communities. Since the community is dispersed and out of touch with each other when grazing their cattle one major problem for them is that in case of problems like forest fires, medical emergencies, accidents (to men and animals), poaching or harassment by forest officials,
The Gujjars travel in groups during grazing and each group has been provided with two handsets, one of which has to be with a man and the other with a woman. About 80 handsets were distributed throughout the community, while RLEK staff members were supplied with nine sets. Three base camps and one central station in the RLEK office serve as the command posts. The handsets run on batteries which, once fully charged, can work for 8 to 10 days. After that, RLEK staff pick up the batteries for charging. The Gujjars convey any messages they may have to the base station, which then passes it on to the central station. Reception is generally good throughout the region. The government has allocated two frequencies to RLEK for use by the community. The wireless sets cannot, however, be used to communicate with state institutions like police stations, hospitals, forest department etc. The Van Gujjars are only allowed to communicate with RLEK. Since the messages sent on one transmitter can be heard on all, it improves intra-community information flow and brings in transparency in operations. To get the maximum benefit from this technology, members of the community (both males and
females) are trained at regular intervals about the appropriate and effective operation and maintenance of these wireless sets. A formal committee of Gujjars manages the wireless operations through a democratic process for a cluster of groups. Special care is taken to select the person who is not only a good wireless operator, but also trustworthy and approachable by everyone in the community. The impact of the wireless communication project should be seen mainly in the light of empowerment, but it has also added to the sense of security of the community. With wireless communication the whole community feels secured and empowered and the feeling of helplessness is gone. Apart from reaching help in case of harassment or accident wireless sets have done wonders to increase the self worth and confidence level of the Gujjars and empowered them in that sense. Use of Internet: The Internet boom raises some pertinent questions: Does the Internet provide indigenous communities with a medium to share information among one another? To what extent can this new medium strengthen indigenous organisations—or is it a threat to their traditional cultures and identities? Can the Internet really empower indigenous peoples to effectively influence international policy debates and promote their rights? There are some interesting examples of use of the Internet by indigenous people for their development and
Amazon tribes using modern ICT tools
for asserting their rights. Asháninka Community from Peru The Asháninka are one of the largest indigenous groups of the Central Amazon Region of Peru. With the support of the Red Cíentifica Peruana and IDRC-Canada, the Ashaninka have created a communications network among 43 indigenous communities, as well as between several regional organisations and the Conferencia Permanente de los Pueblos Indígenas (COPPIP) – a national indigenous organisation representing the indigenous peoples of the Amazon region. For these groups the Internet presents a unique opportunity to share the richness of their cultural tradition, while strengthening their social, cultural and linguistic capacities. It gives them access to higher education and a chance to actively participate in political discussions determining their future. In the latest political discussions in Peru about the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, led by the Asháninka had significant influence on the debates. On the other hand,
37
Make ICTs Work for People
they are unable to quickly get in touch with other members of their community or with RLEK. To empower the community they have been given wireless radio sets which help them stay in touch with each other and with RLEK.
Make ICTs Work for People
the ‘pueblos originarios’ of the highlands did not succeed in m a k i n g t h e i r vo i c e s h e a r d . Certainly, in addition to the much stronger organisational capacity of the Amazonian peoples, the effective use of e-Mail campaigns has contributed to their success. The Mirror Art group from Thailand The Mirror Art group from Thailand is another illustrative case on how powerful the Internet can be in raising awareness about the challenges these highland peoples face in their daily lives and in promoting indigenous peoples development. Since 1991, this small NGO composed of young people committed to social change has supported the Akbar hill tribe in the highlands of Thailand. The Group’s website http://www.bannok. com/ has had 300,000 hits a month, making it one of the most popular sites in Thailand. At the same time, it has successfully promoted indigenous peoples’ rights and carried out many campaigns to support the Akbar people through the recruitment of volunteers and solicitation of financial and inkind donations. Furthermore, the Akbar peoples have begun trading their arts and crafts through this site. The group is convinced that the Internet can be utilised for social change and can become a powerful tool to improve the livelihoods of poor, marginalised peoples. A concrete example on how the Internet can be used to support the lives of children can be told through the story of a blind boy who complained that he had nothing to do all day long and
38
expressed the wish of owning a musical instrument. This request was posted at this groups’ website and two days later a Thai person from Japan responded that he would send a guitar and mouth organ in the mail. The boy received the present and continued the relationship with his new friend via the Internet. UNUMA- bilingual and intercultural education project from Venezuela In Venezuela, an interesting project has supported a bilingual inter-cultural education project of indigenous teachers from the Wayuu, Kariña, Pemón and other communities. The programme executed by UNUMA, a local non-governmental organisation, has focused on strengthening the capacity of indigenous teachers in rural areas by providing training in linguistics, production of books in indigenous languages (wood prints), mathematics and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The key role of the training in ICT was to reinforce the other training modules, rather than focusing exclusively on the IT field. This experience has demonstrated the high value of combining a bilingual and intercultural training programme with computer courses. This project is working to strengthen the capacity of indigenous teachers combining training in the production of books in indigenous languages with computer courses. Most indigenous teachers had never used a computer before the training and were enthusiastic about exploring an entirely new world. One indigenous leader has
created computer graphics—all of which were based on traditional Kariña cultural and spiritual motifs. His computer graphics are reproduced on T-shirts and other items and sold for a profit. This clearly demonstrates that computers and the Internet can reinforce indigenous cultures and values, when these technologies are being managed by the indigenous, themselves, without undermining t h e i r c u l t u r a l s u r v i va l . I n addition, this example highlights that computers can be used by indigenous artisans to generate income and in this way improve their livelihoods. Conclusion While ICTs have a crucial role to play in empowering indigenous people there are tough challenges in making use of ICTs for their betterment. Some of them are: Generation of local and relevant content; social dimension of ICTs; dominant use of English on the Internet; ownership and trust. These issues need to be sensitively tackled in order to enable the most marginalised groups to reap the fullest benefit of the information society. Credit: The international examples were taken from a paper “Opportunities and Challenges for Indigenous Peoples” by Bjorn-Soren Gigler, World Bank.
NISG and i4d jointly hold the copyright to the articles printed in the ICTD section of the i4d magazine and website. For permission to reprint the articles please write to the Editor i4d.
CCRC, INDIA
ICTs - connecting the communities Bijay Kumar Nanda Sandhan Foundation bknanda@satyam.net.in
Introduction Knowledge is vital in meeting development goals. Experiences from various ICTassisted initiatives suggest that it amplifies citizen’s voices, promotes quality in health and education services, and broadens livelihoods bases of the poor and marginalised. The diffusion of ICTs across Orissa so far has been modest. Longevity, low infant/child mortality literacy, nourishment and personal liberty and freedom are the basic features of wellbeing that help in expanding the human capabilities. Various forms of ICT-capturing, storage, processing, communication and display–infuse knowledge that helps in expansion of capabilities. After the ‘Super-Cyclone-1999’ the coastal fabric of Orissa got devastated and thus saw extreme poverty. Extreme poverty exists when people are denied the opportunity to lead a long, healthy and productive life. Extreme poverty persists due to lack of mission-zeal and appropriate opportunities. Rural Orissa presents socially, culturally, economically and politically diverse environs wherein knowledge centres or knowledge gateways like CCRC operate. Building institutional linkages is an effective enabler in poverty reduction.
Role of CCRC The CCRC, an innovative management model in the coastal village ‘Gupti’ has taken care of the aspirations of the coastal September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
communities with implementation of alternate livelihood workshops, trainings and syndicated demonstrative activities like horticulture based kitchen garden promotion in all coastal households to divert their excessive attention on fish and crabs to green vegetables and leaves. Every cultivation in this regard is demonstrated in CCRC campus and then its procedure, and caretaking is discussed with the communities. It is found that the coastal communities have shown interest in preparing kitchen gardens in their own communities. It helps both ways by making the waste land cultivable and meeting the need of bio-vitamins from the green yield. The CCRC project site is located in the village of ‘Gupti’ one of the entry parts of the National Park and ‘Ramsar-site’ of Bhitarkanika Mangrove Ecosystem, an internationally known egg-laying site of the endangered ‘Olive
... CCRC has brought a new vigor to attempt innovations of development in a structured format to educate the coastal communities with its village institution at Gupti
Ridley’ Sea Turtles. It is 150 km away from Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa State in India. The fisher folks, local people, Bangaldesh Refugee settlers and others have been involved in this CCRC peoples’ movement. The Government of Orissa through its Forest and Environment Department gave an unused Tourist Rest House at village Gupti and its one-acre vacant land for the construction of CCRC on May 5, 2005. With the support funding from the United Nations Environment Programme of its Global Programme of Action (UNEP-GPA) the CCRC was built after the MOU was signed between Government of Orissa and Sandhan Foundation. A great deal of activities were undertaken to inform, equip and empower the coastal communities to choose alternative livelihood practices, to curb their excessive dependency on the coastal wetland marine resources. A DVD documentation, ‘A Mouthful of Hope (ENG. 35 Min)’ explains the works executed and achieved in the last one year. CCRC’s objectives are to disseminate new knowledge and experiences using ICT innovations and to develop a field laboratory for school children and other students of Higher Education, to study the bio-diversity and natural processes in the mangrove ecosystem. The Community based Coastal/Mangrove Resource Center is designed to demonstrate ICT-led educational strategies to mobilise fishing communities in particular and other associated people in general to conserve and restore the mangrove ecosystem. Initially, the communities were in a hesitant mood because of a spectacular pack of progress in government schemes and impractical promises but after six
39
months they were ready to know the long-term developmental avenues for sustainable growth and prosperity. Visits by experts from a variety of fields and their person to person interaction have rejuvenated the community folks to walk with CCRC projectmission. The coastal children are exposed to new forms of ICT learning with computer gadgets, laptops, syndicated art training to understand the contributions of mangroves and coastal-wetlandmarine resources to their life.
Knowledge sharing Knowledge is an integral component of human development. Human beings transfer, imbibe, inherit, adopt, practice, nurture, share and develop numerous kinds of knowledge cultures throughout their life cycles. Mothers who teach their children how to utter words, how to eat, how to walk and how to grow up augment the first communication of knowledge. The ability to communicate using a language is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of a knowledge culture. Speaking, writing and reading are, thus, the cornerstones of a knowledge culture for any society. The term ‘knowledge’ evokes varied connotations as semantics of knowledge varies across academic disciplines-in schools of thoughts belonging to economics, information science, management, philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc. The CCRC in its inception has put emphasis enveloping all these ideas to spread a syndicated campaign with the scintillating slogan ‘connecting community with knowledge’. The innovative management model like CCRC at village ‘Gupti’ of Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystem is an uncommon and first attempt to inform and equip the coastal communities with the help of an ‘ICT-mission’ to wisely use the coastal-wetland-marine ecosystem of Orissa. Poverty, population pressures, social inequity and the terms of trade are identified as prime agents of environmental degradation. The coastal areas of Orissa after the ‘super cyclone’ in 1999 could have engaged, with the subsequent attention to emulate new skill with pointers of appropriate demonstrative methodologies, but to its utter disillusionment, nothing could be made possible because of stale dreams and defocused policy frameworks. At this juncture, CCRC has brought a new vigor to attempt innovations of development in a structured format to educate the coastal communities with its village institution at Gupti. It is too early to be hopeful of its outcomes but it has tread a long way to win the confidence of the community folks to reap the benefits by introducing ICT avenues to diffuse new knowledge through electronic gadgets like the computer, and audiovisual accessories. ICTs with a great deal of activities have been undertaken to inform and educate the coastal small fishers about the myriad contributions of marine micro-organisms that boost the coastal wetland-marine fish resources along the coast. If they catch only 250 gm of fish in one net-catch and damage the rest of living micro creatures, the natural resources are at a loss and their livelihood is at a stake. Through informative pictorials, video and audio programmes they have been informed the intricacies of the sea life and their responsibility for the wise use the natural resources which could motivate them to grow as conservators in a very small period.
40
The illiterate fisher folk in the presence of their young children are given information through ICT gadgets. The joint efforts of UNEP-GPA, IUCN-TRP, MAP, and Government of Orissa and Sandhan Foundation on mangrove conservation and management in Orissa’s coastal scenario will be the first of its calibre in whole of India. The strategies for the management of mangrove areas of Bhitarkanika have been meticulously implemented to improve the socio-economic status of the coastal poor and small fisherfolk through enhancing the ecological status of the associated mangrove areas. The CCRC has undertaken many awareness activities to educate the community folks through a video film show on health and hygiene. The graphical design on sanitation has motivated them to have toilets in their household. The knowledge on this makes them conscious to keep their domestic surroundings clean. The intervention of technology in this regard equips them to learn the necessity of keeping the environment clean. The syllabus-based educational CDs on a variety of subjects inform and attract the community children to develop regular study habits, which is an achievement through the ICT cabin of the CCRC. The knowledge-gain in this method is lucrative in that the ignorant parents, small fishers community, appreciate in coming into close contact with the ICT-mission of CCRC. The excessive dependency on fish and crab is regularly minimised and the women are interested in developing kitchen gardens in their own premises to grow green leaves and vegetables. The knowledge on nutrition is disseminated with priority so that children can grow up to lead healthy and productive lives in the most disadvantageous coastal situations. The CCRC in a real sense transmits this knowledge to the coastal community folks in an efficient manner. The marginally educated and unemployed youth of the coastal villages throng in the CCRC campus everyday and through ICT gadgets they get syndicated training to grow into independent small entrepreneurs. Some of them become self sufficient by getting into rural based livelihood practices with a loan from the State Bank of India. Idle youths are getting the directions to choose from a number of livelihood practices by coming to CCRC and getting exposed to varieties of ICT-stock documents. The new livelihood avenues allure them to understand the wise use of natural resources than to spoil them indiscretely.
Conclusion Addressing gender inequality, to increase opportunities for women and to ensure that they have a say in decision-making that affects their lives, is one of the successes of the CCRC mission. The coastal women are given training on tailoring and incense stick making to earn a livelihood and keep them engaged, and not to depend on collecting the firewood, fish and crab from the coastal wetland and marine resources on a daily basis, thereby damaging the virgin natural resources. With actions and demonstrations, the role and capacity of local organisations are strengthened to make communities more self-sufficient. The practiced strategies are to educate the coastal-poor on the wise-use of natural coastal wetland –marine resources by technological innovations with the CCRC that help translate the mission’s slogan ‘connecting community with knowledge’ into reality. i4d | September 2007
INTERVIEW
Exploring MCX Dr. V Shunmugam Chief Economist Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), Mumbai v.shunmugam@mcxindia.com
What is your role in the Multi Commodity Exchange? Our exchange is into future trading in commodities. The range of commodities include those from verticals such as agriculture, metals, bullion, energy, horticulture, on a daily basis. I am involved into analyses of markets and the benefits to the stakeholders, besides conveying the same to the policy makers, the eco-system, and regulators. What is the role of futures trading in ensuring food security and stabilising prices in India? Futures trading worldwide has contributed to one phenomenon, which is undoubtedly, price stabilisation. In the process, futures exchanges provide signals to the farmers about what to produce, how much to produce, when to sell and when to store. This leads to the creation of transparent markets, helping the policy makers to take efficient decisions. Futures exchanges thus help in effective management of food supplies, which determine food security. Has the government taken conducive policy measures in the area of futures market? The introduction of National Multi Commodity Exchanges itself is a major initiative on the part of the government. However, necessary measures by the government and government agencies to build up a conducive ecosystem are missing. Instruments like options, and indices, are not allowed in the commodity exchanges which would enable exchanges to offer more products on the platform. September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
Institutions such as banks, mutual funds and FIIs are not allowed to participate in the commodity exchanges. This restricts the participation of real beneficiaries, either due to want of the suitable products on the platform or for want of required depth of the market. What has been the role of ICTs in the futures market? ICTs form the backbone of commodity exchanges. National level multi-commodity exchange is being run purely on ICTs. Previously, there were regional exchange platforms that were available for regional participants. Trading calls by buyers and sellers used to be costly due to high cost of communication. But with the current revolution in ICT and the fall in the cost of communication, commodity exchanges could enter into previously unknown and new areas which sometimes were not even reached by roads. ICTs are helping in creating a national level online market, instead of a regional exchange based on the pit trading system. This would be more relevant as most commodities are produced regionally but consumed nationally. ICTs created continuity across the time period by helping people to transparently discover prices based on the information available with them about the fundamentals. In the process, everyone in the value chain gets empowered, due to transparency. The entire process in exchanges, using ICTs, can reflect value addition in the value chain.
Dr. V Shunmugam spoke with i4d during the eINDIA 2007 Conference.
If agriculture comes under the concurrent list, would it be helpful to futures trading? The main blame on the futures market could not be effectively countered due to lack of transparent spot markets. Had there been a transparent spot market, futures prices could have been audited. Due to this lack, it had become our responsibility to collect and disseminate the spot market prices to the futures participants, to streamline their calls. It would have been effectively solved by realtime online national spot exchange trading on the same quality of the commodity. Major hurdles have been faced by private entities including the one [National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL)] being floated to establish national electronic spot market, as agricultural marketing remains a state subject and does not come under the concurrent list. What is the future of agriculture in India? With the current level of investment in agriculture, achieving 4 percent growth rate per annum in agriculture would remain an onerous task. For example, there are no alternative marketing platforms for farmers to sell their products to obtain a competitive produce for himself to invest more in improving what he is doing. Public investment in technology development and dissemination are yet to deliver their results. Private investment in technology development being marketled had remained confined to fewer commercially potential technologies and crops. Even the credit delivery systems would have to be improved to augment the farmer’s access to available technology, and improve their input use. Unless, a coordinated effort to address the problem of adequate and focused private and public investment in farming is taken up, realising the targeted growth rate would only remain a mirage. „
41
es es es es es
for for for for for
All... All... All... All... All...
Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... By
Bytes for All... News/Events Meraki’s Guerilla Wi-Fi to put a billion more people online Like some kind of techno-utopian Johnny Appleseed, a start-up called Meraki wants to cover the earth with ad hoc Wi-Fi networks. Meraki Networks, Inc., is a three-year-old company headed by Sanjit Biswas, a polite and bespectacled Massachusetts Institute of Technology student-cum-CEO on permanent hiatus from the pursuit of a doctoral degree in computer science. Biswas says his goal, and that of Meraki, is to ‘connect the next billion people.’ Source: http://www.sciam.com
Awarded Magsaysay for connecting remote village to Internet highway A Nepali from the remote Myagdi district, Mahabir Pun, has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay 2007 for his outstanding contribution to community leadership. He won Asia’s premier prize for his innovative application of wireless computer technology in Nepal, bringing progress to the remote mountain, connecting Nangi village to the global village. Source: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com
Microsoft India selects five entrepreneurs for ‘rural innovation’ funding Microsoft India and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has chosen five organisations to be funded under the Rural Innovation Fund, a collaborative effort between Microsoft and IRDC. The successful five are: Aravind Eye Hospital, Theni, Tamil Nadu, Janastu, Bangalore, Society for Participatory Research and Integrated Training, Tamil Nadu, Vritti Solutions Limited, Mumbai and Aruntec. The were chosen from among 700 applicants with solutions focusing on enhancing livelihood and agriculture practice, education and literacy, rural health and telemedicine, e-Commerce, local content management applications and village level administration tools; and disaster preparedness and management. Source: http://www.domainb.com
War of formats: India shows thumbs-down to Microsoft India gave Microsoft a thumbs-down in the war of standards for office documents. In a tense meeting at Delhi’s Manak Bhawan, the 21-member technical committee decided that India will vote a ‘no’ against Microsoft’s Open Office Extensible Mark Up Language (OOXML) standard at the International Standards Organisation (ISO) in Geneva on 2 September 2007. Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
IBM helps NIIT to establish Linux competency centre IBM announced the opening of a Linux Competency Centre which it has donated to NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) http://www.niit.edu.pk, Rawalpindi. This Linux
42
Competency Centre will help customers, students, developers and business partners in Pakistan to experience and test Linux handson and to explore the benefits of open standards-based computing. The Teach the Teachers programme will span several Universities and teachers will be trained at NIIT. In addition IBM is extending its scholars programme to offer free software, course material and access to IBM portals to major Universities in Pakistan. Source: http://www.ibm.com
National ID project of Bangladesh driving through wrong way Is it a voter list with pictures project or national identity cards (NID) project? The confusion was started from the beginning. The election commission of Bangladesh claims it as a voter list with pictures project although Bangladesh army claims it as a national identity cards project. Government has taken the project of preparing NID for about 100 million people according to the claims of Army. Leading weekly news magazine of Bangladesh ‘Shaptahik 2000’ published a cover story on the current National ID Card process. Source: http://www.shaptahik2000.info
Intel Foundation’s fillip to women’s education The Intel Foundation has announced a donation of $60,000 (INR.25 lakh) towards women’s education and empowerment. The sum, being granted to mark the 60th year of independence, will fund a project which Intel will execute in partnership with the Digital Empowerment Foundation, a New Delhi-based nongovernmental organisation, which is working towards bridging the ‘digital divide’ in India. The fund will be used over two years and, depending on future needs, Intel may provide more. The centres will focus on developing skills and learning abilities among women and children by training them in English language, computer literacy and subject-based learning with digital tools. Source: http://www.hindu.com
Grameen-Intel Partnership for World Ahead programme Dr. Craig R. Barrett, the chairman of Intel, will visit Bangladesh on September 04, 2007. The purpose of his visit is to introduce Intel World Ahead programme in Bangladesh. Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chairman of Grameen Solutions, will sign an agreement with Intel Chairman to introduce Grameen-Intel Partnership for World Ahead programme. Besides this, Intel Chairman will attend several meetings with Bangladesh government, community, academia and industry. Source: http://voiceofsouth.org
Announcements GK3 Market of Opportunities launched! The GK3 Market of Opportunities – nicknamed ‘the MoO’ - is a marketplace where people seek and offer expertise, experience, i4d | September 2007 | Vol. V No. 9
Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes ytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for
for All... Bytes for All... Bytes for All... Bytes for All... Bytes All... Bytes for
for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All... Bytes for All...Bytes for All...
All... Bytes for A All... Bytes for A All... Bytes for A All... Bytes for A Bytes for All...B
Bytes for All... project support, ideas, solutions and other resources that leverage on knowledge and ICT to fulfil the needs of ‘Emerging People, Emerging Markets and Emerging Technologies’. The MoO is available in 2 forms – the Virtual MoO and the Physical MoO.
kernel 2.6.20.11 with NDIS wrapper 1.44, madWiFi, truecrypt, kqemu, contain more then 10 implementations of FUSE, read/ write mode is default for NTFS partitions and improved hardware detection system.
Source: http://www.GKPEventsOnTheFuture.org
Source: http://blackroute.org
Call for proposals ‘accessing patented knowledge for innovation’ The ITS programme is issuing a call for proposals on the subject, ‘accessing patented knowledge for innovation’. Proposals should address how developing countries can access technologies and information contained in existing patents to enhance innovative research at the national level. Source: http://www.idrc.ca/intellectual-property/
2007 Access to Learning Award-Australian library The Northern Territory Library was presented with the 2007 Access to Learning Award, worth a USD $1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for its efforts to help remote indigenous communities build technology and literacy skills. By providing free access to computers, the Internet, and training, NTL’s community libraries are giving people the tools they need to digitally preserve their cultural heritage and improve their lives through greater access to information and learning. Source: http://www.thenewsmarket.com/
Call for partners In order to enable the sharing of learning practices among various stakeholders and practitioners, world’s first observatory and knowledge portal www.mgovworld.org was launched in January 2007 along with a yahoo discussion group titled mGov. We are now planning. We are seeking partners to work with us jointly on the project and help accelerate the creation of innovative mobile government applications and also help taking the e-Government services beyond electronic public services. Source: http://tech.groups.yahoo.c group/bytesforall_readers/message/10841
DFID RIU: call for proposals The Research into Use (RIU) programme is a new initiative funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) which was recently launched in June 2007. Its purpose is to make existing natural resources research outputs (in the form of technologies, policies, processes and knowledge) more accessible to the poor and to enhance their uptake. Initially, concept notes will be invited where proposed activities relate to the following 6 Asian countries; Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam. Source: http://www.researchintouse.com
First Pakistani Linux disribution released BlackRoute is multipurpose GNU/Linux distribution for advance users, texttools lovers, network, security specialist and system administrators. It can be use for rescue, distributed computing, security and forensics analysis or desktop. Supporting the Linux September 2007 | Vol. V No. 9 | www.i4donline.net
Projects/Resources e-Championing Sri Lanka’s e-Government ‘e-Champions’ is an innovative programme created to equip a core group of thirty ‘Chief Innovation Officers’ (CIO) with the knowledge and skills necessary to drive the implementation of an effective e-Government in Sri Lanka. This key initiative is being undertaken by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), in a strategic partnership with the World Bank Institute (WBI), Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), and the Distance Learning Centre in Sri Lanka. Source: http://voiceofsouth.org
e-Primer on small and medium enterprises and ICT SMEs can benefit either as producers of ICT or as users of ICT for purposes such as increased productivity, faster communications and reaching new clients. This e-Primer, with a foreword by Kim Hak-Su, (i) discusses benefits ICT brings to SMEs; (ii) explores possible uses of ICT; (iii) surveys past ICT policies and programmes for SMEs; and (iv) recommends policy options for the consideration of interested governments. Source: http://www.apdip.net/news/sme
Resources for free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) in schools Conversations with high school students who complain of broken networks, unrepaired computers, too few computers, too few choices in programming languages, overworked and (so far as computers are concerned) undertrained teachers are the inspiration leading to this document. The main intent is to provide the following links so that those who wish to bring open source to their schools will have some ‘ammunition’ with which to persuade those in charge. Source: http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html
IT for Change’s background paper for the IGF Background paper by IT for Change prepared as an input into the synthesis paper for the UN – Internet Governance Forum’s (IGF) second meeting at Rio. This is a slightly improved version of the original submission which can be found on the IGF website at: Source: http://www.intgovforum.org
Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net Bytes for All Readers Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ bytesforall_readers To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Bytes for All Discussion summary compiled by: Miraj Khaled, techigemik@yahoo.com, Bangladesh/Canada
43
BOOK RECEIVED
Grameen Bank’s story Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank Author: Muhammad Yunus, Alan Jolis ISBN: 0143102915 Publisher: Penguin Books Pages: 336 ‘It’s not people who aren’t credit-worthy. It’s banks that aren’t people-worthy’ —Prof. Muhammad Yunus Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank is an autobiography written by the founder of Grameen Bank, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, who received considerable amount of appreciation from all over the world because of his innovative way of using micro-credit for alleviation of poverty and generating livelihood security. Even the US First Lady Hillary Clinton made her remark, by saying, “By giving poor people the power to help themselves, Prof. Yunus has offered them something far more valuable than a plate of food. He has offered them security in its most fundamental form”. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, Prof. Yunus set up the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in order to lend small amount of loans to the poorest of the poor, who were earlier shunned by ordinary banks. Besides the Bank, Grameen has gotten involved with health insurance, handlooms, fishery and phone services, making it one of the interesting conglomerates currently, which is competing in the corporate world. Against the advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out ‘micro-loans’ since 1974, and in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, which is founded on the principles of trust and solidarity. Alan Jolis who is the co-author of the book Banker to the Poor, is an American journalist and writer, now living in Sweden. The book Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The book provides a background history of how Bangladesh’s terrible 1974 famine underlined the need to enable its victims to grow more food; of overcoming criticism in many governments and in traditional economic thinking; and of
44
how micro-credit was extended into credit unions in the West. Prof. Yunus’ dream is to totally eradicate poverty from the world, and in this book he explains how it can be done. In 1976, he began visiting the poorest households in Jobra, Bangladesh in order to see if he could help them directly. There were three parts to the village: a Muslim, a Hindu, and a Buddhist section. When he visited the Buddhist section, he would often take one of his students, Dipal Chandra Barua, a native of the Buddhist section, along with him. Otherwise, a colleague, Professor HI Latifee, would usually accompany him. He knew most of the families and had a natural talent for making villagers feel at ease. That is how Prof. Yunus started by lending money to basket weavers, who were women and this activity later expanded to become the Grameen Bank. But when he started his work amidst poor people, he also faced opposition from the official machinery, Yunus writes. Prof. Yunus started the Grameen Bank in 1983 with the avowed intention of turning banking practice on its head and lending to the poorest of the poor. In June 2007 the Grameen Bank had 7.21 million borrowers, 97 per cent of whom are women who managed a repayment rate of 98.61 percent. In this autobiographical book, Prof. Yunus provides his background and throws light upon his work towards creation and direction of the Grameen Foundation. He was born in the year 1940 in Chittagong, a seaport which is situated in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, five of whom died in infancy, he was educated at Dhaka University, Bangladesh and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. In 1972, Yunus became the head of the Department of Economics at Chittagong University, which was also the year when Bangladesh faced domestic problems. Prof Yunus also explains how the money which is provided by the Grameen Bank would enable poor women to set up the smallest village enterprise and thus, pull themselves out of poverty. He also writes how collateral free loans help poor women to stay away from village-level moneylenders. Most of the loans provided by Grameen Bank go to poor women, and it is said that since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent. Kudos to a person like Prof. Yunus who has pioneered such an attempt to help the poorest of the poor. i4d | September 2007
What’s on Africa 8-11 October, 2007 Cards Africa 2007 Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/cardsza/
Australia 22-25 October, 2007 WiMax Summit Australia 2007 Sydney Harbour Marriott, Sydney http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/wimax%5Fau/
15-16 November, 2007 KPO Australia 2007 Hilton Hotel, Sydney http://www.terrapinn.com/2007kpo%5Fau/Custom_ 15363.stm
10-11 March, 2008 Somerset Conference for Librarians, Teachers, et al, Queensland
8-11 October, 2007 Broadband World Forum Europe 2007 Estrel Convention Centre, Berlin http://www.iec.org/events/2006/bbwf/
India 15-17 November, 2007 Seventh Global Conference on Flexible Systems Management Noida, Uttar Pradesh http://www.giftsociety.org
24-27 January, 2008 Ahmedabad Education Society Grounds Ahmedabad, Gujarat http://www.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/agrifare. html
8-12 March, 2008 Krishi Expo Pragati Maidan, New Delhi
http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/conflib
http://www.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/krishiexpo.html
Bulgaria
Malaysia
3-6 December, 2007 ITU Telecom Europe Sofia http://www.itu.int/EUROPE2007/index.html
Dubai 14-17 January, 2008 e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East 2008: Define. Design. Deliver Dubai, United Arab Emirates
27-28 November, 2007 Digital Asia e-Gov Summit (DAEG07) Kuala Lumpur
7-9 December, 2007 Iadis International Conference e-Commerce 2007 Algarve http://www.ecommerce-conf.org/
Russia 23-25 October, 2007 Second international conference : Fruit & Vegetable Business of Russia 2007, A Wealth of New Opportunities Moscow http://www.lol.org.ua/eng/conferences/fvr2007/
Singapore 14-17 April, 2008 Biomedical Asia 2008 Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/biomedasia/
25-27 April, 2008 Mobile Content World Asia 2008 Suntec International Exhibition and Convention Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/mcw08%5Fsg/
United States 24-26 October, 2008 The University of Atlanta’s First International Symposium on Online Teaching and Learning Georgia http://www.UofA.edu
http://www.worldsummits.com/
27-29 November, 2007 International Conference on Engineering & ICT Malacca http://www.icei2007.org/
Ukraine 4-5 December, 2007 Fourth International Conference: Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007 Akademika Glushkova Str., The National Complex Expo-center of Ukraine http://www.lol.org.ua/eng/conferences/fv2007/ fv2007prog.php?lng=2
Egypt
11-13 December, 2007 3rd Global Knowledge Conference Kuala Lumpur
20-23 October, 2007 37th (2007) International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering - CIE37
http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3/
Vietnam
11-13 December, 2007 ICET 2007 Kuala Lumpur
http://www.cie37.net/
http://www.icet.unikl.edu.my/
Germany
Portgual
18-20 September, 2007 Wimax Global Forum, Hilton Düsseldorf
3-6 December, 2007 E-ALT’07 E-Activity and Leading Technologies, Portol
10-13 December, 2007 The 10th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2007) Hanoi
http://www.iask-web.org/e-alt07/e-alt2007.html
http://icadl2007.vista.gov.vn/
http://elexforum.etqm.ae/
http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/ world_forum
September 2007 | www.i4donline.net
3-5 October, 2007 CommunicVietnam2007 Ho Chi Minh International Exhibition and Convention Centre (HIECC) Ho Chi Minh City http://www.communicvietnam.com/
45
IN FACT
e-Agriculture analysis e-Agriculture is an emerging arena that is awaiting to tap ICT potentialities in the sector. A world wide region specific survey done by e-Agriculture Working Group (EAWG), The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), shows that ICT awareness into farm activities is minimum. It also studies into the barriers that obstructs the uptake of eAgriculture. The survey responses showed that an overall majority (57 percent) were unaware of the term ‘e-Agriculture’ (Table 1). Moreover, (Table 2.) shows that half (50 percent) of the total respondents were affected by the barrier of restricted access to digital media/ technologies. A significant proportions (>25 percent) also selected high cost of access, insufficient content in the correct language, lack of equipment, and lack of power.
Table 4: Types of information and communication process
Table 1: Familiarity with the term ‘e-Agriculture’ Degree of familiarity, Region (%)
Global results
L. America & Carib.
Yes
31
No
Africa
Asia/ Pacific
Europe
North America
Near East
26
36
37
32
29
40
57
63
48
48
56
61
46
I think so
9
7
10
12
9
8
12
I don’t remember
5
4
7
5
3
2
2
Total responses
3196
1868
862
568
387
371
% of responses
Type of process
46
information transfer/dissemination
28
learning
27
communication (sharing/exchanging)
16
trade/transaction/commerce
14
research on ICT
13
information service delivery
12
information systems
11
information management
Table 3: Frequency of types of information
157
% of responses
Agriculture-related topic
57
farming techniques and practices
33
agricultural markets
26
Training
25
data/statistics
16
science and research
Table 2: Barriers to uptake of e-Agriculture by region
Region (%) Global results
Africa
L. America & Carib.
Asia/ Pacific
Europe
Near East
North America
Restricted access to digital technologies
50
52
52
47
40
37
37
High cost of access to ICT
44
55
39
44
39
32
35
Insufficient digital content in my language
39
30
42
36
36
30
31
Lack of ICT equipment
28
46
22
28
23
22
19
Lack of power, telephone, network
28
44
22
31
26
20
17
Unreliable digital technologies
19
21
20
17
16
14
16
Lack necessary skills/knowledge
17
23
13
21
17
17
14
Other
12
13
11
17
18
34
26
Total responses
2523
1856
3317
1037
670
243
610
Type of barrier
Source: Analysis of eAgriculture survey, March 2007, (http://www.itu.int/wsis/c7/e-agriculture/docs/survey-analysis-2007.pdf )
46
i4d | September 2007
Beyond the mainstream... 9 - 10 December 2007 Crowne Plaza, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Get Involved! Submit films in the following genres • Films documenting ICT use for Development • Films created by the Community for the Community Topics of the films should address the Millennium Development Goals in their essence such as, • Poverty alleviation • Education • Health • Gender equality • Women empowerment, etc. Log on to www.i4donline.net/filmfestival for more details Contact: Sulakshana Bhattacharya (sulakshana@csdms.in)
Organised by
knowledge for change
Image credits: Chaitarya Modak, DRISHTI
Theme for the 2nd i4d Film Festival: New Media in Development
Mapping ICT4D Knowledge: The i4d initiative i4d Newsletter Information on ICTs for development September 12, 2007 AGRICULTURE Reuters ready to give Agri-info to rural India Reuters has launched Reuters Market Light, an initiative to reach the rural community in India. The Reuters Market Light will provide information on crop prices, weather updates and other agri-related news via SMS. e-GOVERNANCE Committee in the offing to make action plan for cyber crimes: Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI The Ministry of Home Affairs on 10, September, 2007 has disclosed that it would shortly set up a high-powered committee to develop a comprehensive action plan to enable it to effectively deal with possible threats, arising out of cyber crimes. Dubai eGovernment and Etisalat in Strategic Partnership Dubai e-Government signed a memorandum of strategic partnership (MOSP) with Etisalat, the UAE's leading telecommunications provider, to deliver a range of ICT solutions to Government units in the UAE and across the region. Indian Parliament pulls up Govt. on cyber laws The Indian parliament panel has criticised the government for not preparing a new set of laws on cyber crime and instead taking a "short cut route" of making changes in the existing norms. Singapore, Indonesia to cooperate in Info comm sector Singapore has signed an agreement with Indonesia to cooperate in the field of information and communications. HEALTH Child malnutrition in Somalia at critical levels: UNICEF The UNICEF has said that child malnutrition in Somalia is at critical levels due to violence and lack of access for aid workers.
View the latest i4d Magazine, August, 20 07 Vol.V No .8 on Government investments in ICT4D ANNOUNCEMENT EU-IndiaGrid Trainin g & Workshop on Atmospheric, Earth & Material Sciences Location: Pune, India Date: 24-28 September, 200 7 You ng Social Entrepreneurs' Forum Organisations: Global Knowledge Partners Location: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia Date: 11-13 December 2007 UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication$ 20,000 Location: UNESCO Headquarters, France Date: 26 to 28 March 2008
Telemedicine: Boon for rural India There are many rural folks in India who are living life in constant fear of IFC and FT's Essay Competition imminent death due to improper medical diagnosis. But now things are Encourages Innovation changing due to telemedicine service. Organisations: Rural Marketing Agencies m-SERVE Association of India Terranet comes out with new mobile handsets (RMAAI) & NASSCOM
i4d monthly magazine
i4d daily newsletter
i4d portal i4d film festival
Join the community. Write to us at info@i4donline.net
Visit www.i4donline.net