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This workshop discusses the development of a personalized agricultural advisory system for tea growers in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. The system provides personalized dashboards for farmers, delivering agricultural advisories and tools to improve efficiency. Collaboration between Indian and UK partners has led to the successful implementation of cutting-edge technologies in this system.
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IU-ATC Workshop 24th -25th Nov 2014, IIT Madras. IU-ATC Group 1- WP1-E-Agri IIT Mandi, Himachal Pradesh Group: Distributed Services and Application Indian/UK Institute: IIT Mandi/University of Bristol Indian Workpackage Coordinator: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Padamshree UK Workpackage Coordinator: Prof. NishanCanagarajah IIT Mandi: ArtiKashyap
WP1: e-Agriculture Product (Personalized dashboard for farmers) • Work done so far • Development of a platform that can deliver personalized agricultural advisories to registered farmers • Demonstration of the personalized agricultural advisory system and quantifying its impact • Building tools that can make the system more efficient – • personalized user interfaces (working with University of Cambridge) • automatic disease recognition tool (working with University of Bristol, University of Ulster and IIT Delhi) • Looking at ease of replicating system in other farming scenarios (with IIT Mandi) 2.Key Contributions • Fully functioning agricultural advisory system with individual farmer dashboards enabling farmer interaction through a simple mobile– Innovative & Cost-Effective Approach • Successfully delivered personalized agricultural advisories for one entire crop cycle and established the benefits of the system for farmers • Active collaboration with India & UK partners in implementing cutting edge technologies to deliver value added services through this system
Present Status: Collaborations; MoUs signed up. Collaboration is formally initiated with the following institutions:
Present Status: • Where are we working… • Select Districts; Crops; Geography; Climatic Conditions • Focus Crop: • Tea • Kangra, Himachal Pradesh • District Profile: • Latitude: 31°2 to 32°5 N; Longitude: 75° to 77°45 E • Altitude ranges from 427 to 6401 m • The district has considerable diversity in its soils, physiographic, land use patterns and cropping systems. • Five sub-regions PirPanjal, Dhauladhar, Kangra Shiwalik, Kangra Valley and Beas Basin
Present Status (Continued…) • TEA: • Tea plantation started in mid 19th century. In 1852 the first estate was set up in Palampur with seedlings brought in from China. • The lower slopes of the Dhauladharrange. Altitude 900-1400 mtrsare ideal for tea plant. • Kangratea: famous for its rich aroma, color and taste which differs from Darjeeling tea. • By the end of the 19th century, crop area was around 4,000 hectares and produced almost 1,000 tonnes of tea annually. • An earthquake in 1905 devastated the tea industry.By mid 20th century area had reduced to 3000 hec. and it continues to reduce further. • This calls for an intervention! Tea Growing Areas ~ 2300 hect.]
Need for Intervention: Present Status • The falling trend in production • Nearly half of the area under tea plantation has been neglected or abandoned. • Tea estates have become highly fragmented. The average Land holding size has reduced from 25 hectares(in early 50s) to less than 2 hectares at present.
Need for Intervention: What could be done? • Tea Board of India, An apex body under finance department, Government of India has stepped in. • A base line survey has been done and intends to make a directory of small tea growers in the region. • IIT Mandi, is in process of analyzing the baseline survey data and will report once the data is published. • ICT4D: The situation demands Information and Communication Technologies for Development. The Mobile based Agriculture Advisory System (MAAS) implemented by IIT Mandi in collaboration with stakeholders is an important forward step. • It aims to work as an interface between tea growers and Experts/Market.
Need for Intervention: Business-as-usual Model Agriculture University Tea Board of India State Agriculture Department Tea Growers
Need for Intervention: Proposed Model Agriculture University Tea Board of India MAAS Market State Agriculture Department Tea Growers
Baseline Survey: Preliminary Analysis • What do they want ? The Limiting factors as reported by tea growers. • Labor Problem: Labor shortage, High Labor cost • Awareness: Know-how, Training, Govt. schemes • Subsidy: State Govt. withdrew subsidy. Needed • Mechanization: New machines for different activities • Market Linkages : Not aware of Market, better prices
PRESENT WORK DONE: Collaborations; Team Hiring; Portal Development Farmer’s basic profile
PRESENT WORK DONE (Continued) • Integration of Survey Data with Website Database Tea Growers Database Integrated with the Website Database
PRESENT WORK DONE (Continued) • Pilot testing of Call Centre- Phase One • Lead File created with data of 100 growers in selected region for testing purpose. • Voice message recorded in specified format, informing growers about the Call Centre. • The voice message has been sent in a form of survey campaign. The response are being recorded • Kisaan Call Centre in action- Phase Two • Introductory messages are being sent to inform people about the facility. • Regular advisories in form of voice messages are being sent.. • Queries asked by people are being told to Tea Board.
PRESENT WORK DONE (Continued) • Working of Kisan Call Centre: Recording the responses • Ex: A snapshot of 19th November, 2014 (on the server)
PRESENT WORK DONE (Continued) • Working of Kisan Call Centre: Recording the responses • Ex: A snapshot of Weekly Report, 3rdWeek- November, 2014
PRESENT WORK DONE (Continued) • Working Kisan Call Centre: Statistical Analysis • Ex: Month of November, 2014
FUTURE PLANS: • To Scale-up the system at National Level to reach 2,50,000 small tea growers. Talks going on with Tea Board. • Empanelment of Experts from different collaborating partners, like; Agriculture University, Palampur, Department of Agriculture, (H.P), Tea Board of India, among others. • To improve the personalised database with the help of growers input. • To upload information regarding current market prices, fertilizer and pesticide details, soil testing laboratory details etc. • Extension of the MAAS to include other crops, eg. For Apples for which wireless sensor network is also tested and ready.