27

Transcript

Hello friends, I am sure you must have enjoyed the previous class on private extension services. In today’s class we will be discussing about the Cyber extension. In its simplest form we need to understand the concept of the cyber extension as the process of extension over the cyber space. Means it is only the mediation is going to be changed between the source and the receiver. In the traditional models of extension, extension worker is reaching its end-user or the client system for providing the extension services. May it be the information services or may it be the input services or any other services required by the farmer. But in case of the cyber extension, largely it is providing the information needed by the end-users or our client system with the mediation of the technology and anybody bypassing the limitations of the time. So you can provide access information. You can provide information as an extension professional. And as a receiver you can access information at your leisure time. So that’s what is the beauty of this cyber extension.

So in today’s class we will be making an effort to understand different aspects of this and some successful e-extension or the cyber extension initiative that have been planned and implemented in different parts of the country. Let us start with the term the ‘information technology’ which is closely associated with the cyber extension. So we as extension professionals, we are not much concerned about the concept of information technology. Because information technology deals with the study, design, development, implementation, support management of computer based information systems. So this is the responsibility or the area of domain of a software engineer. But what we are concerned with is making use of the applications of this information technology for the purpose of communicating the ideas or communicating the information related to agriculture and allied sciences, And that is what is the domain of extension education.

Now coming to another important term associated with this cyber extension is ICT- Information Communication Technology. It is the basket of technology which assist or support in storage, processing of data, information or dissemination, communication of data or information or both. It means largely through the process of information communication technology, we are dealing with the data as well as information because ultimately this data and information is going to be translated as knowledge, as we have discussed in one of our previous classes also. And let us again try to understand this concept. Data as I have already said, it is the rough fact which needs to be processed. So then it takes the shape of the information. The moment the information is being disseminated through various channels, wherein the role of information communication technology and the utilization of the cyber space comes into the picture, through which we are going to disseminate it and we are going to translate it into our knowledge that depends on my understanding of the issue.

For which we are making some deliberate attempts like summarizing, averaging, graphing, creating charts, visual data, audio-video, all these processes are being done. Ultimately to translate data into information, and information to knowledge, it is the deliberate individual effort. With this brief background on the concept of cyber extension or the e-extension. So now let us look into the need for eextension. The electronic extension or the cyber extension is needed to expand the knowledge resource. As I said, this is the channel. This is the medium, which is going to reduce the barriers between the source and the receiver. It is reducing the distance between the source and the receiver. And you can have the access of the expert at any point of time that you are in need of. So that you can expand your knowledge base.

Then to accelerate agricultural growth, because the moment you go on adding to your knowledge base, obviously it is leading towards the growth. Then to supplement the inadequate technical manpower, which is the biggest problem in providing the extension services. According to the available statistics which says that the ratio between the extension worker and the farmer is. For every 1000 farmers, there is one extension worker available. If we take out the administrative posts amongst the extension service providers. So the proportion is going to be still higher, that is 1500 farmers are having access to 1 agricultural extension worker. So to come out of this grim situation, the information communication technologies and use of the cyber space, and the concept of electronic extension is going to address good number of problems associated with this.

Then for stronger research-extension and client system linkage. So because we have reduced the barriers like the time and the space between the source and the receiver. So you can yourself attach to the research system as well as the extension system. As and when you are in need of information, you can touch upon. And as and when you want expert adviceyou can contact your expert and get the solution for the problem. And that is how the bondage or the linkage between the source and the receiver is going to be more stronger. And it is providing efficient feedback mechanism also. Instant feedback is available. So even though, may be the researcher is not looking at that problem immediately but it is there in his mailbox or it is there in his domain, so that he can have access and provide the solutions to you.

Then it is cost effective extension delivery because the elements of time and space have been reduced here. So it becomes very cost effective. And ultimately it is going to develop the knowledge manager. Those who are trained in this particular mechanism are going to develop as a knowledge manager. Because we are interested in enhancing the knowledge resource. To ensure the gender equity in technology transfer process, because in case of traditional extension models, so which involves visiting of good number of villages and the remote places, wherein the participation of the women might be discouraged because of the heavy travelling and reaching the disadvantaged areas of the State or a district or a village. So with the availability of the cyber space, we can reduce that problem also.

To empower the small and marginal farmer this is one of the effective instruments, that we can see, with the use of the may be the mobile app and web portals that are available for providing the extension services. The concepts like Kisan Call Center, getting the mobile advisory services. All these are some of the best examples to for empowering the small and marginal farmers, using the cyber space. Some of the experiments that have been taken up using the internet based agricultural extension services in India include, this is a list, this is only an indicative list. There are good number of various other experiments also that have been conducted and that are going on in future, good number of the experiments are also under the process to be implemented.

Let us start with the BHOOMI project of Government of Karnataka, wherein more than 20 million land records of more than 6.7 million landowners in 176 talukas of Karnataka have been computerized. So now the question arises is, what is the advantage of this. To get the land records of his own land, the farmer used to visit the respective Taluka or the district headquarter again and again. And now with this particular facility, he can get the land records, which is required for many purposes like getting the financial institution, getting various government facilities, so on and so forth. He can get it at his fingertips. There are good number of Common Service Centers that are available. The information kiosks that are available, he can get this information. And he can get the printouts of that just by paying the nominal fees, and he can get the services. So that is what is the advantage of the digitization of land records of the farmer.

Coming to some of the NIC initiatives. National Informatics Center is a body of the Government of India. So which is providing the information technology support to the government initiatives. In that context one major initiative of this National Informatics Center for the farming community is development of the web portal on the agricultural marketing network, which is popularly known as AGMARKNET. It is providing the effective information on the market prices related to agricultural produce. Now it is available in the regional languages also. 17 major regional languages you can access the information related to the marketing of agricultural produce, in your market which is nearer to you as well as the far off market. What exactly, how the commodity is behaving as far as the price is considered. And accordingly the primary seller can take the decision. If the nearby market is quoting the higher prices for the same produce. He can just take his produce to that market and he can sell it. And this how the farmers are being empowered to take the decision. When to sell, where to sell, how to sell his own produce, with the information support like AGMARKNET.

Then coming to the initiative of IIT, Bombay, which is popularly known as aAQUA. The interesting part of this program is, they started the project as aAQUA again. The small ‘a’ that you are looking at in your screen was not there to begin with. They said that All Questions Answered. It means they were of the opinion that they can address all the questions of the farmers. And they can provide appropriate solutions with the help of the experts. The structure was developed by IIT, Bombay. And the service, research information and the extension information was taken up with the help of the State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutions. But over a period of time they realized that they are not able to provide, satisfactory answers to all the questions that are being asked by the farming community. So then the subsequent time they added a small ‘a’. Now the full form of aAQUA is almost All Questions Answered. It means now they are into the safe zone by giving answers to the questions of the farmers. It is also supported that in the regional languages you can ask the questions, and you will be provided with the satisfactory answer on the same portal. And not only that the person who has asked the question. That question as well as answer is also available to the public, who might be facing similar problems in different parts of the country or in that particular region only.

So this is web based advisory services which is being provided by the technological institutions. Gyaandoot is an initiative of Government of Madhya Pradesh, which is catering to the everyday needs of the masses, such as commodity, mandi, marketing information system, income certificate, domicile certificate, caste certificate, driving license, so on and so forth. All these services are being provided at one spot as an information kiosk. So that’s why they have called it as Gyandoot. Basically the State Government initiative to provide the marketing information, the agricultural marketing information to the farmers was the initiative under Gyaandoot.

Coming to the iKisan program of the comprehensive agricultural portal, addressing the information, knowledge and business requirements of the farmers, trade channel partners and agri-inputs and companies. It provides online detailed content on crops, crop management techniques, fertilizers and pesticides and a host of other agriculture related material. Basically this is the initiative of Nagarjuna group of companies, which are providing, manufaturing fertilizers as well as the plant protection chemicals. They are providing information services to the farmers through these portals. IFFCO- Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative which has developed a IFFCO agri tech portal, agri portal in 16 States are covered by this particular company with the information of relevance to the farmers in their local languages. IFFCO has installed about 100 farmers information kiosks in 16 States. Through that they are providing the information services to the farmers.

Then Warana Wired Village project is the initiative of the Government of Maharashtra. Basically it is covering the about 70 villages around Warana. So wherein the information related to the sugarcane and is being provided through these information kiosks set up by in the villages by Warana Wired Village project. The AgriWatch.com is the largest agri-business portal in India which is providing the information services related to agricultural marketing, covering more than 15 subsectors within the agriculture and food industry. The daily, weekly and fortnightly trade related information reports are also being provided, so that farmer can take the decision on how to sell his product, where to sell his product and what is the price that he can realize at different markets.

e-Sagu was one of the initiative of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the International Institute of Information Technology based at Hyderabad. Basically it is a personalized agricultural extension system, wherein they provided the facility of uploading the photographs of the problematic crops or the problematic situations which are taken in different angles. And these photographs are being sent to the experts on the e-Sagu platform. And the experts are providing the advises in their regional languages. And those advises are sent to the farmers on an instantaneous basis. Within 24 hours the farmer used to get the appropriate advice for the problem that he is facing with the help of the domain experts who are situated in the different Agricultural Universities or the research institutions.

So with the such experiments the latest addition to these initiatives are over a period of time, the mobile applications are being largely used by the farmers. As per the TRAI data around 110 crore mobiles are in operation throughout the country. So it means mobile applications is comparatively higher than the internet users, using the desktop or various other facilities. The internet penetration rate is only about 34% in India, but mobile penetration is more than 90%. So to take care of the information needs of the farmers, there are good number of mobile apps that are coming up like the Kisan Suvidha app developed by the Ministry of Agriculture. Pusa Krishi app developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institution. And so there are many such mobile apps that are coming up to satisfy the information needs of the farmers. In addition to that mobile krishi initiatives and expert systems like Rice Knowledge Management Portal.

These are some of the initiatives that are being taken up for providing the information services using the cyber space. So this is in nutshell about the cyber extension initiatives of that are taken in different parts of India. In the next class we will be discussing about the concept of market led extension.

Thank You.