Agriculture is the mainstay of the India's economy and 74.73 per cent of the people are rural. As much as 49 per cent of the land area is cultivable. Being capable of producing the best crops, India now seeks the role of Information Technology in agriculture.

Growing human population in India put increasing demands on land and water resources. Land and water availability is one of the major factors for food security, as recently reiterated during the World Food Summit. On the other hand, land and water are limited resources. Land degradation and land and water scarcity are rapidly increasing undermining the capacity of the resource base to sustain food production at required levels. A better use of the land and water resources and an understanding of the components (soils, climate, vegetation, topography), their relation, interdependency and interaction are essential to achieve sustainable production of food and the conservation of the resources for generations to come.

Timely availability of reliable geo-referenced land, climate, plant nutrients, production and water information, integrated with infrastructure- and socio-economic factors, are essential for stakeholders, policy makers and land users to exercise the best choices among options in using these resources to achieve sustainable levels of food production and development in an increasingly complex environment.

Between the Indian council of Agricultural Research, Provincial Departments of Agriculture and other spatial information providers there is a wealth of information. However, this information is not readily accessible. This could be due to various reasons including:

• Data retained as a power base.
• Unsatisfactory communication, resulting in role players not being aware of the information.
• Information in a non-standard or incompatible format.
• Information compilation and dissemination not seen as a priority by organizations.
• Data not in a spatial format.
• Too costly to convert to digital formats.
• Major suppliers of data did not consult users on their data requirements and often data is not structured to address the needs of the end users.

Overview of Agriculture Sector in India
The fundamental problem that plagues the agri-sector in India is the lack of wealth of the producers. Agriculture is the direct source of livelihood for more than 70% of the population. Yet only a handful of the farming community is said to be rich. The sector has undergone several changes during the last 5 decades. India started as a food deficient country and the emphasis was therefore on achieving self-sufficiency as soon as possible. As time passed, the basic need has been met and now the focus has shifted to value added production. India is today a gain surplus nation and its priority has been changed. During the first 3-4 decades, there were more consumers that production and hence it was not necessary for the farmer to know too much about what was happening in the market. The situation has changed since the basic needs of the markets are met and it now demands different products to suit individual/ regional preferences. The farming community now needs to produce for the market and therefore a closer understanding of market dynamics becomes necessary.

The current scenario
Today, the government is not in the position to continue the massive subsidies. It is also undesirable, since it allocates resources into areas that are no longer the priority. The area where demand is growing is not being addressed properly leading to high wastages and costs. This in turn constraints demand growth. The following facts are revealing:

• Nearly 40% of fruits and vegetables produced are wasted. The farmer loses revenue and the end-consumer pays a high price. Both are losers as is the economy. The high wastage and consequent high cost constraints the growth of value added processed food sector.
• Livestock sector is plagued with poor productivity (apart from a few well organized pockets). It is well known that with better guidance on livestock management the production from existing resources can be raised by at least 50-60%. This will drive down the prices and stimulate demand for value added products.
• One good thing here is that there are several sectors of excellence in the farming community itself - Rice in Tamil Nadu, Dairy in Gujarat and Punjab, Poultry in AP and Maharashtra etc to name a few. These sectors have world-class productivity and cost structure. If harnessed well, the existing skills can be leveraged to spread the good practices across the various other pockets and deliver high quality value added products at lower cost to the consumers. This will stimulate demand further and lead to a virtuous cycle of demand and production.

The key issues for the sector
1. Information: Farmers operate in the market, but markets in rural areas, and particularly agriculture markets, suffers especially from the problem of information, inadequate competition, and week enforcement of contracts. Building institutions that reduce transaction cost for farmers, therefore, can greatly improve the way agriculture market operates.
2. Geographic Spread: Agriculture activity is usually geographically dispersed and distant from major urban centers. A problem in providing rural credits, for example, is that formal providers of credits, such as banks, may find it costly to obtain information on geographically scattered small farmers.
3. Ability to access: Beyond physical access to markets, large segment of the rural population, and the rural poor in particular, often face considerable obstacles in accessing agriculture markets. This is because their relative lack of education can make some useful formal institutions, such as institutions for disseminating technological information, harder to access.

The key challenge is to marry the existing knowledge and expertise to the communities who need it the most. This needs to be done such that the delivery is timely and efficient and the cost of dissemination is kept low.

Areas of ICT intervention
There are several areas requiring intervention. The most promising ones are a follows:
1. Facilitation of contract farming: Contract farming arrangements or "out-grower schemes" are attractive for farmers because they help small farmers access modern inputs, such as credit and seeds, and market their produce to domestic and international markets. Even though the arrangement is private, we can help it build in two ways:
a. As information facilitator, helping to match small farmers with domestic traders and agro business firms.
b. Through tie-ups with complementary institutions, especially contract enforcement mechanism (such as courts to resolve contractual disputes, or grades and standards). Sectors - poultry, dairy, horticulture, other cash crops, back-end to food processing.

2. Grades and standards: Because agricultural products have a vast array of characteristics, grades (classification based upon quantifiable attribute) and standards (rules of measurement) are used to separate similar product into categories and describe them with consistent terminology, this evaluation system can significantly reduce information cost by allowing traders to contract 'remotely' through commodity specification rather than through on-site visual inspection.

3. Market Information Systems: Market Information System (MIS) generically describe dissemination networks of public data that provide information on agriculture markets. For farmers, knowledge of market information (such as the prevailing price of a commodity in key wholesale market) can help them to plan their production, harvesting, and sales according to market demand. For traders, better information improves their ability to decide whether to hold products in storage or ship them to the most lucrative markets. In both cases MIS are of special use to smaller farmers or traders, who lack the scale economics to gather such information on their own account.

4. Extension Services: The main function of extension services are twofold:
a. To inform farmers of new products and techniques, and
b. To gather and transfer information from farmers to other participants.
This includes collection feedback on farmers needs as input for research priorities, and learning techniques from one farmer and sharing them with others, for example, irrigation techniques.

Offline extension services exist but are highly expensive. VIIT can use ICT to provide a relative low cost platform for high quantity inputs to the extension activities. This work can be done directly with the target and /or with agencies involved in extension work by providing them with the knowledge backbone.

Target Communities and their needs - ICT related
Below is the list of our target communities for the entire process
a. Farmers groups/ Co-operatives
Market intelligence (input and output), Market trends (input and output), technical support, extension support training, operating consulting support, know how access to service providers
b. Trading community
Market intelligence
c. Corporate - machinery, inputs, sourcing
Extension access, Market intelligence, contract farming
d. Service providers
Access to farmers, corporate bodies, relevant content, technical service providers
e. Individual consultants - technical, doctors etc
Content, access to farmers, access to providers of complementary services
f. Extension service providers
Access to farmers, corporate bodies, relevant content, technical service providers
g. Service Centers
Knowledge support, access to service providers and service seekers
h. Universities and research institutions
Expertise dissemination, access to service seekers and extension service providers, feedback
i. Rural NGO's
Access to farmers, corporate bodies, relevant content, technical service providers
j. Government agencies
Market intelligence, research related content, access to service providers and service seekers.
k. External Agencies

As is evident the target for ICT services will not be just the producer. It will include all participants -some will pay for value added services and products (Corporate), some will pay for basic services (individual consultants, large farmers), some may have to be subsidized to start with (small farmers).

The current methods of addressing these needs
 

• Market intelligence is available from a few web-based service providers. However, very few cover it in the depth and width required. Detailed information is largely absent.
• Service providers reach the seekers through direct efforts and hence tend to be local in reach. A large proportion of their time is lost in just establishing contacts.
• Knowledge and know-how is procured from the sources or intermediaries. It involves search time and cost and is hence not readily available.
• Service centers exist with minimal back end support and could do with low cost easily accessible back stopping support.
• Research institutions have a lot of information and know-how available but their dissemination is limited and only the seekers with initiative and resources are able to benefit from them.
• Expert knowledge available exists in independent silos that are unconnected.
• Training efforts frequently lose momentum since the relevant person is not tracked in time.
  
  Current methods are costly, time taking and service a very small proportion of needs. Almost all system are regional in focus and do not have width or depth of reach. Some of them have ICT components and have demonstrated success in small areas. They are at best pilots that have demonstrated a system, which now needs to be scaled up.

Proposed role of VIIT
VIIT will be the enabler and facilitator

• Given its strengths and management bandwidth, VIIT can make a significant difference in information dissemination and micro-level problem solving.
• Technology usage in both information gathering and dissemination will be effective levers.
• VIIT will be the platform where all service providers and service seekers will come together. Mechanism will help them to find each other quickly and efficiently.

Baramati Fact File

Baramati taluka has 117 villages with a population of more than one hundred thousand; out of with 63.74% population is illiterate and rural. Lack of information and illiteracy are the major causes of not growing with the growth of IT. Baramati is the major producer of sugarcane and other traditional crops. The production percentage as compared with India is higher in this region and incorporating a well-structured Information Dissemination System can further increase it.

Objectives
1. Create a forum of experts who will be able to provide technical and managerial advisory services.
2. Enroll professional working actively in the sector and enable them with information and consulting services to add value to their enterprise.
3. Provide information on production and post-harvest technology and market to the farmers.
4. Develop information dissemination channels to reach the target groups. The channels will basically be the kiosk centers. At now 20 such kiosk cnters are identified in and around Baramati.
 

Action Areas

• Create a network of function experts
• Enlist agribusiness professional as associates
• Create a searchable, catalogued knowledge databank
• Help set up and manage local service centers by providing training, course content, know-how and managerial inputs - including helping entrepreneurs to arrange finance and launch services.
• Support initiative in the sector to leverage strengths.

Every problem solving experience on the network will be documented. The project will use information technology to convert every experience into a flexible and easy to use query database.

Below diagram shows the physical structure of this setup.

Figure 3: Physical setup of the system at VIIT

A 64 KBPS lease line coming to VIIT will be the source for these kiosk centers to have fast Internet access along with the intranet access. VIIT will gather the information from KVK and various web sites that provide national and international market rates and upload it to the main web server. These web contents will be uploaded to the server to ensure maximum availability of information at one place for the kiosk operators and other people. Two computers and two telephone lines will be dedicated for IVR system, which a farmer can use to listen to the market rates by using a telephone network. Two computers will be placed for the dissemination of information at VIIT. This will facilitate farmers by displaying and providing relevant information.

Other useful programs such as audio and video conferencing, availability of video clips and other applications will be kept at server and will be managed by VIIT.

Benefits to service providers
The fundamental benefit will be the enhanced reach. This will result in:

• Access to a large base of service seekers
• Opportunities to form consortiums with provides of complimentary services
• Updates on happenings and development in the sector

Benefits to service seekers
The fundamental benefit will be a consolidation of the scattered base of service providers. This will result in:

• Query redress by experts: Access to network of subject matter experts, agri industry professionals, innovative farmers, like minded NGO's and grassroots volunteers.
• Meaningful and useful information on: Price and crop availability and Goods origin and destination
• Information sharing mechanism
  -Sustainable linkage with all sectors
  -A forum to post requirements
  -Training in agribusiness
  -Referrals from other users of services

Collaboration
For successful implementation of this project VIIT believes to have partners with their core skills and area of expertise rather then try to do everything itself. VIIT can enter into tie-ups with some of the organizations to add value in terms of scale and reach of operation. VIIT is very keen to have collaboration with Agriculture department of Maharashtra Government for seamless implementation of this project and KVK, Baramati for providing the latest information about research on agricultural issues. VIIT also invites the support of allied industries for packaging, processing, cold storage, exporting and other services to give their best for this project.