ICT in Agriculture

1. ICT in Agriculture For ensuring knowledge connectivity in areas, relevant to the day-to-day life and livelihood of every families Vinod Bothale Director, MRSAC Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MRSAC), Nagpur

2. Indian Scenario • Total Geographical Area (TGA) - 329 M.H • Potential for Biological Production - 265 M.H • Net Sown Area (NSA) - 143 M.H • Net Irrigated Area - 56 M.H • Land degradation - 50% of TGA • Drought-prone Area - 190 M.H

3. Agriculture is the slowest growing sector in the economy Period: 1993-94 to 2000-01 Data Source: CSO

4. Issues/Challenges in Indian Agriculture • Large number of marginal farmers (< 1 Ha) • Inclement climatic conditions- Uncertain crop yields and livelihoods • Rainfed Agriculture ( 70 % farmers live on monsoon) • Inadequate agriculture extension services • Insufficient (spatial/non-spatial) agro-met-enviro-rural data/information

5. Do Maximum with Minimum Maximum with Minimum Maximum with Minimum

6. Thrust areas to meet Challenges…. • Diversification of Agriculture • Inter-cropping • Micro Management • Water Management • Organic Farming • Agri-Clinics and Agri-business Centres • Bio-Technology

7. Technologies at behest …. • Technologies for ON Field • Technologies for OFF field

8. Technologies at behest …. • Gadgets, WSN, Data collection systems ( Parameters collection, Mapping of facilities, amenities, assets etc) • Information Systems • MIS • Dissemination • Advisory • Data Mining • Data Analysis • Decision Support

9. ICT – Agriculture Needs

10. Knowledge and Information Needs 1. Farmers need to know What to grow ? When to grow ? How to grow more ? How to store & preserve ? When to sell ? Where to sell ? What price to sell at ? Farmers who understand market trends and market opportunities have a better chance of succeeding than those who do not

11. Knowledge and Information Needs contd. Government policy and notices regarding agriculture Usage of fertilizer for higher productivity. Crop Diseases, preventive measures and in case of disease curativemeasures. Irrigation details like means, timing, quantum. Information on water conservation through advanced irrigation technology like Drip etc HYV seeds: exact know how on usage in terms of selection, quantity sown per hectare. Education on what needs to be done at the pre-harvest stage and post harvest stage to ensure productivity and quality with minimum losses

12. Knowledge and Information Needs contd. Advice on crop rotation to maintain soil quality so that the crop productivity could be increased and not negatively impacted as has happened in case of sugarcane in many parts of the country. Advice on fruits and vegetables because these are perishablein nature but provide good opportunities for profit due to a great demand in domestic as well as world markets. Advice on the Vegetable crops to be sown, timing of sowing, varieties to be used, areas for growing particular crops, irrigation requirements, preventive measures from diseases, which pesticide should be used, pesticide usage, storage facilities available, measures to be adopted for increased keeping quality during storage.

13. ICT VALUE PROMISE

14. Initiatives at all fronts • Government • NGOs • Private • Academic • India & Other Countries • Trend and Scale varies

15. Challenges in ICT execution.. • User for the developed model / system / tool • Availability/development of different models for applications • Integration of Geo-ICT and SN • Development of real to near real-time DSS • Integration of spatial Remote Sensing and proximal SN systems for up-scaling • Development of Middleware for Agro-Met model • Extending the developed system at the farmers’ level through Rural Extension Community • Agriculture and Environment assessment

16. Some Initiatives in India Computerisation of Land Records (Dept.of Land Resources, Govt of India) Bhoomi Project in Karnataka : Online Delivery of Land Records • Gyandoot (Madhya Pradesh) • e - Choupal • Village Knowledge Centres • Village Resource Centres • Integrated pest management- Advisory • Agris • … and lots more • Lokvani Project in Uttar Pradesh • Project FRIENDS in Kerala • e-Mitra Project in Rajasthan37 • eSeva (Andhra Pradesh) • e-Procurement Projects in India

24. Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) • IMD • ISRO ( Mosdac) • State specific networks and other

25. COMMON-Sense Net –IISc Bengaluru •To save water in irrigation,one needs to know the hydric needs of the plant at a given time,which means knowing its environment with precision. •As a consequence, monitoring the rural environment for a better use of water resources has become a crucial challenge, especially in semi-arid developing countries,which suffer most of water shortage. •With their low cost,low maintenance and ease of deployment, wirelessSensor networks emerge as a promising technology that is ideally adapted to such a problem. •With the help of sensors communicating with each other wirelessly, it is possible to build an integrated picture of the field's environment, on which one can apply crop prediction models that feed a decision-support system for farmers.

26. Agro-Sense -IIM Kolkata •Precision Agriculture Using Sensor Based Wireless Mesh Networks– IIM Kolkata Agricultural Sensors, positioning systems for detecting location of sensors, actuators like sprinklers, foggers, valve-controlled irrigation system

27. Geo-ICT & WSN Based Crop Informatics –IIT Mumbai •Objective of the research is to provide weather based online service on predicting, estimating the Maize and Rice crop growth/yield and to determine the crop water requirement

28. eSagu –IIIT Hyderabad •'e Sagu‘ is a web-based personalized agro-advisory system which uses Information Technology to solve the unscientific agricultural practices. •Sagu means cultivation in Telugu-local language of Andhra Pradesh, the region in which the project started.e Sagu means electronic cultivation. •In e Sagu, rather than visiting the crop in person, the agricultural expert delivers the expert advice at regular intervals (once in one or two weeks) to each farm by getting the crop status in the form of digital photographs and other information. •During2004-06,through eSagu, agricultural expert advices delivered for about 6000 farms covering six crops

30. Robotics and Bio-fuels Biofuelsare derived from biomass. They differ from fossil fuels in that they are derived from renewable sources, including crops, animal waste and some forms of ‘rubbish’. Bioethanolis the biofuel substitute for petrol (gasoline). It derives from cereal based crops – mainly wheat in the UK, sugar beet and maize (corn), soybeans and sugarcane in the US and South America. Biodieselis the biofuel substitute for diesel. It derives from oilseed based crops – mainly oilseed rape (OSR) in the UK, and palmoil in South East Asia. Biogasis the biofuel substitute for natural gas. It derives from organic waste materials including animal waste and waste generated from municipal, commercial and industrial sources through the process of anaerobic digestion. In the UK biogas can be generated through animal waste, it is also collected from emissions produced at waste landfill sites.

31. Counter Call Center Internet E-Mail Mail Kiosk Serving ICT… Integrated Facilitation Center Service/Correspondence/eCommerce Integrated Backend Content Delivery Service Providers Suppliers & Partners

32. ICT – Anticipations in Indian scenario…… • Adoption has been slow and uneven • Economics not well documented • Information intensive Vis-à-vis embodied knowledge • Lab to Land – Effective operationaliztion

33. We welcome you … Thank You Vinod Bothale, Director, Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre (Dept. of Planning, Govt. of Maharashtra) VNIT Campus, South Ambazari, NAGPUR - 440011