Experiences of Building eSagu TM (An IT-based Personalized Agro-Advisory System)

1. Experiences of Building eSaguTM(An IT-based Personalized Agro-Advisory System) Media Lab Asia and IIIT, Hyderabad P.Krishna Reddy International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-H) Gachibowli, Hyderabad-500019, India E-mail: pkreddy@iiit.ac.in http://www.esagu.in

2. Outline • Organizations • Crisis in the farming community • The eSagu solution and its implementation • Key results and Benefits • Capacity building/content related problems • Lessons learned • Issues and concerns: future plan • Recommendations • Conclusions

3. Organizations • Media Lab Asia (Not-for-profit Organization) • Set-up and supported by DIT (MC&IT), Govt. of India • Research and Design of ICT-based systems for common man • Primary Healthcare, Education, Livelihood Generation, Empowerment of Disabled, Rural Connectivity • IIIT, Hyderabad, India (Deemed University) • Educational and research institution, started in 1998 • To produce highest quality manpower: Researchers, Technologists, Entrepreneurs • To produce research, technologies & products that make a difference to society and industry • UG, PG and PhD programs in computer science and electronics. • Inter-disciplinary research centres

4. Personal Information Systems (PISs) • A research agenda of Information System researchers • Creation of Personal Information Systems • What is PIS ? • To provides useful personal information to each individual’s personal information device (PID) in a timely manner. • A PID can be PDA, Handheld PC, Laptop; Equipped with wireless network connection • Main Challenge: • Developing a Personal Information System to provide agricultural advice for each farm. • Farmers may not have PID !

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

6. BackgroundCrisis in farming community • Indian farming community is in severe crisis. • There are several factors • Seed failures • Adulteration in pesticides • Shortage of inputs • Unscientific practices • Unfavorable markets • Pest outbreaks • Unfavorable weather conditions • ..

7. Motivation: Unscientific practices • Farmers are using untimely, unnecessary, excessive pesticides and fertilizers. • Consequences • Debt trap • Deterioration Public Health • No demand in international market • Environment pollution • Ecological imbalance

8. Regarding Existing Extension • Role of “agriculture extension wing” • Dissemination of both advanced agriculture technology and expert advice to the farming community. • Exiting extension methods • News papers, broadcast media (radio and television), organizing seminars and gatherings, Training and visit, call centers, Web portals • Problems with the existing methods • Do not cover all farms/farmers • Very generic; No personalization • No accountability • No timeliness • No feedback mechanism.

9. Observation • The information Exists ! • ICAR, Agri. Universities, Researchers, Research institutes, Department of Agriculture • But, farmers are carrying out unscientific farming. • Agricultural knowledge is the cheapest input for increasing agricultural output. • Judicious use of inputs, cost minimization and sustainability • Existing agricultural extension methods need improvement.

10. Outline • Organizations • Crisis in the farming community • The eSagu solution and its implementaion • Key results and Benefits • Capacity building/content-related problems • Lessons learned • Issues and concerns: future plan • Recommendations • Conclusions

11. eSagu: basic idea (1) • Extend developments in IT to agriculture • Agriculture scientist does not visit the crop. • Crop photos are brought to agriculture expert. • As a result, the agricultural expert • can utilize the time efficiently • spends less time on good crops and more time on bad crops. • can advice more farmers. • can work during the night !

12. eSagu: basic idea(2) • Who will send photographs ? • Option 1: • The farmers can send the photographs • Difficult to implement as several farmers are illiterate and can not send photographs. • Option 2: • Educated and experienced farmers brought in as coordinators. • Needs only a few educated and experienced farmers. • Can be implemented in every village.

14. eSagu Operation • Establishment of eSagu main lab and local centers • Coordinators, agriculture scientists and others • Farm registration is completed. • The following steps are repeated. • Collection of farm status by coordinator • Renaming of photographs at the village • Transmission of CDs to the main system by courier. • Advice preparation by AEs • Transmission of advice to the village center • Explaining the advice to the farmer

15. eSagu: Demonstration • We have built an information system • Web-based Agricultural Information Dissemination System(web) • Web-based Agricultural Information Dissemination System(local) • Please visit “http://www.esagu.in/” to know the details.

16. Implementation Summary • Started in 2004 • Implemented 8000 farms of 16 major crops in 300 villages since 2004 (A.P). • Operated for 162 fish ponds • Experiment is on for 20 Shrimp/Prawn ponds • Service is available for all the farmers • Service is provided based on subscription fee and farmers are appreciating the service.

17. Project Partners and their Role • Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University • Knowledge partner • Byrraju Foundation, BASIX, Confederation of Kisan Organizations, Bhagavatula Charitable Trust • Operation of eSagu local centers • JANANI FOODS Pvt. Ltd. • Business model • ICICI • Giving finance to farmers

18. Key Results • The farmers are happy with the service. • Encouraging IPM, judicious use of pesticides and fertilizers by avoiding their indiscriminate usage. • Gain • 2004: Rs. 3,820/- per acre; cost benefit ratio 1:3 • 2005: Rs 3,874/- per acre; cost benefit ratio 1:4.1. • Turnaround time for advice delivery is 24-36 hours. • Revenue model has been experimented. • Multiple service model has been experimented • Expert Advice, Inputs, finance

19. Benefits of eSagu (1) • Quality personalized agro-advice • Regular advice • Query-less system • Feedback based • Scalable system. • It is a cost-effective system. • It can be made self-sustainable • It provides a farm-specific database • Follows a proactive approach • Capacitates rural livelihoods and generates rural employment.

20. Benefits of eSagu (2) • Can be developed on the available infrastructure even without bandwidth. • Performance of banking system can be improved. • Effective agri-insurance can be devised. • Significantly reduces the lag period between research efforts to practice. • Shows a great promise in the era of globalization. • Standardized products • Farmer cultivates like an agriculture scientist. • Makes agriculture deterministic

21. Recognitions • Manthan Award 2007 • The eSagu project is the winner of "The Manthan Award 2007 - India's Best e-Content for Development". • Best eGovernance project 2006 • Overall winner of CSI (Computer Society of India) Nihilent e-Governance Awards for the year 2005-06. • Recognition by Taiwan Think Tank • Features as a select entry among worldwide latest novel internet applications in the book "Innovative Application Case Study 2006" published by Institute for Information Industry, a not-for-profit Taiwan Think Tank for Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taipei. • Recognition by NISG • eSagu has been listed as one of the top three e-Governance projects (the other two are BHOOMI and SAMPARK) of India in the video film on “Next e Governance Plan”, National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG) November 2005.

22. Outline • Organizations • Crisis in the farming community • The eSagu solution and its implementaion • Key results and Benefits • Capacity building/content related problems • Lessons learned • Issues and concerns: future plan • Recommendations • Conclusions

23. Capacity Building Problems • Agriculture scientists • Coordinators • Computer operators • Farmers

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

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

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

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

28. Outline • Organizations • Crisis in the farming community • The eSagu solution and its implementaion • Key results and Benefits • Capacity building problems • Lessons learned • Issues and concerns: future plan • Recommendations • Conclusions

29. Issues/Observations • If followed, the advice is giving significant advantage • The farmer is unable to implement the advice due to the following problems. • Inputs (pesticides and fertilizers) are not available • Finance is not available. • Following age-old practices • Other reasons: weather, labor, or laxity • Strategy: Provide all services to his/her door-step

30. About IASP • It is an integrated agri-service program planned by Media Lab Asia • Under IASP, all the agri-related services are provided at the farmer’s door-step. • eSagu service is the key service • Other services • Finance/banking • Input (fertilizers and pesticides) • Crop-Insurance • Marketing (create a market linkage)

31. IASP Investment and income • IASP is a corporate entity under PPP model • Investment • Government, Banks, Venture capitalists, donor agencies, input companies, marketing agencies and so on • Income • eSagu subscription • Financial services • Inputs • Marketing • Other services

32. Specific Issues and Concerns From the Project • Self-sustainability • Technical manpower shortage • Capacity building • Content preparation • Farmer’s indifference • Govt’s non-participation

33. Lessons Learned • It is feasible to build a personalized agro-advisory system • With eSagu kind of monitoring, it is possible to improve the success probability of the crop • It is making positive impact on the farming. • The benefit is significant. • Farmers need a comprehensive system with all the services • Farmers are unable to pull the information. • The level of farming is very low. • Illiteracy, Small farms, Small incomes, age-old practices • Farmer is depending on several players.

34. Recommendations • Every country should come forward to build eSagu and provide personalized agro-advisories to farmers. • Build a self-sustainable system with PPP Model • Govt should be a facilitator initially • International organizations should be involved

35. Conclusions • eSagu is personalized, regular, query-less scalable and sustainable agro-advisory system • eSagu has a potential to help bottom of the pyramid. • Touches and benefits every family. • Provides a cost-effective opportunity to reduce the farming community’s crisis.

36. Important Question • Consider a typical farmer in India. He says “I have two/three acres (1.5 hectare) of land and I will provide water for that land. I can also arrange finance myself. And I will follow/implement whatever agriculture expert and management expert says, (from the pre-sowing operations, seed, package of practices, post-harvesting and marketing). Then how much monthly income can I expect ?” • As of now, we are not in a position to give concrete answer in 90 percent of cases. • Let us work towards providing the concrete answer to that question through IASP.

37. THANK YOU