Video Conference on “Innovations in NeGP-Agriculture”

Organized by Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS), Hyderabad with Technical

Support from National Informatics Centre (NIC), Delhi on 9th April, 2015 from 10.30 AM to

01.00 PM

Chair Person: Shri D Ramakrishna, Senior Consultant, CIPS, Hyderabad

Speakers:

1. Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar

Sr. Consultant, NeGPA, PMU

Office of the Commissioner Agriculture

Govt. of Maharashtra

Mobile No: 09822273619

e-Mail: harshvardhan.nmirajkar@gmail.com

2. Dr. N. Anandaraja

Assistant Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Mobile No: 9443444383

Mail Id: na75@tnau.ac.in

List of participating States and Locations: 1. Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore

2. Maharashtra: Pune-NDC

3. Karnataka: KA-ZP. Raichur, Gadag

4. Goa: NIC-Panjim

5. Uttarakhand: NIC-Dehradun

6. Tripura: Agartala

7. Chhattisgarh: Naya Raipur Studio-1

8. Jharkhand: Ranchi NIC2

9. West Bengal: NABANNA

10. Telangana: NIC-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Urban

11. Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal-EVCS

12. Jammu and Kashmir: Jammu-NIC-Sectt.

13. Kerala: Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kozhikode

14. Sikkim: Gangtok

15. Himachal Pradesh: Shimla

16. Meghalaya: Shillong

17. Haryana: Panchkula

18. Bihar: Patna-NIC

19. Arunachal Pradesh: AR-Itanagar-NIC

About NeGP-Agriculture:

Date of commencement: Phase 1 has been completed during November 2010 to August 2012.

Scheduled date of completion: 2014-15

Name of the Implementing Agency: Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of

India.

Summary of NeGP-Agriculture: National e-Governance Plan-Agriculture (NeGP-A) aims to

provide an integrated platform to the farmers for making informed decisions. The information

is proposed to be delivered through various channels like internet, electronic media, Krishi

Vigyan Kendras, Agri clinics, Common Service Centres mobile phones (broadcast, Interactive

Voice Response System, Interactive Messaging using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data

and Voice Recognition),touch screens, etc. which enables easy access to information for

farmers.

The aim of Agriculture MMP is to consolidate the IT initiatives, in order to provide integrated

services to the stakeholders.

Over the years Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) has taken up several IT

initiatives such as

1. AGMARKNET

2. SEEDNET

3. DACNET, etc.

Similarly State/UTs have either developed or in the process of developing IT applications such

as AGRISNET under various programmes of DAC. Such applications will be integrated with

Central Agri Portal (CAP) and State Agri Portal envisaged under NeGP-A. The portals will have

the options of providing online feedback for the stakeholders, which improves the transparency

and effective monitoring.

The objectives of this scheme are as follows:

In order to achieve the aforesaid vision, the department has also articulated key SMART

(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) objectives which need to be

achieved through the Agriculture MMP. These objectives are

Improve access of farmers to timely and relevant information & services throughout crop-

cycle

o By providing multiple delivery channels to access information

o By reducing time between generation and dissemination of information

o By providing information to the farmer through a uniform platform

Bringing farmer centricity & service orientation by providing location specific and up-to-

date crop management related information in terms of:

o Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) - how many days, season specific, crop specific,

location / zone specific

o Packages of Practice (POPs) - How many days, season specific, crop specific, location /

zone specific

o Providing personalized advisory services

Increasing effectiveness of government service delivery in

o Certification and licensing related to Manufacturing and MARKETING through use of ICT

o Providing easier and approachable channels for grievance registration and tracking

More effective management of schemes of DAC through process redesign aimed at

o Effective Monitoring of the Schemes (timeliness of implementation etc)

o Reducing time required for data consolidation and reporting of schemes at all levels

Enable private sector participation to benefit farmers by providing an integrated platform

to promote value added services in

o Extension

o MARKETING (both input and output)

o Post harvest & Storage

Components of NeGP-Agriculture:

There are 12 Cluster of services and 78 components. Presently, 47 components have been

made live these include web enabled delivery of services and mobile based interactive services

of farmers. 7 States have been covered in the 1st year under 90:10 funding pattern. The 12

clusters are identified below:

1. Marketing Infrastructure

2. e-Certifications for imports and exports

3. Prices, arrivals and procurement points

4. Weather forecast and Agro-Met advisory

5. Crops, Machinery, Training and GAPs

6. Soil Health

7. Pesticides, Fertilizers and Seeds

8. Livestock Management

9. Drought Relief and Management

10. Irrigation Infrastructure

11. Fisheries

12. Monitoring of Schemes and Programmes

As part of the dissemination of information relating to the replication of innovative practices,

CIPS has launched a major sensitization process through a series of Video Conferences (VCs).

These VCs are aimed at ensuring the participation of different states with very little dislocation

and by providing maximum coverage to officers as also field staff in different parts of the

country.

CIPS has been entrusted with a project titled “Capacity Building Programmes of Innovative Best

Practices under Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) of State Governments and Govt. of India" by

the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India.

As a part of the above project, CIPS has conducted a Video Conference (VC) on “Innovations in

NeGP- Agriculture” from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM on 9th April, 2015 (Thursday).

The VC was focused to bring all the states together and to sensitize State Government

Departments on the key benefits of e-Governance in Agriculture.

Objectives of the VC:

To provide a platform for cross-fertilization of ideas/innovative practices and to share the experience of States/UTs in the areas/usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for greater service delivery

To appraise the participants about the latest ICT learning and e-Governance initiatives by Government of India State/UTs and also provide them the necessary insights in to the processes and technical aspects of these initiatives

To establish networking forum between the experts/champions of these initiatives and to exchange and share the ideas/perspectives and development(s) in the area-from across the State/UTs

Welcome address by Shri D Ramakrishna, IAS (Retd.), Senior Consultant, CIPS:

Shri D Ramakrishna, IAS (Retd.), Senior Consultant, CIPS has set the

tone with a welcome speech. He introduced Centre for Innovations in

Public Systems (CIPS) to the participants and also introduced the

project titled ‘Capacity Building Programmes of Innovative/Best

Practices’ supported by Department of Electronics and Information

Technology (DeitY), Government of India (GoI), under the grant entitled

“Capacity Building Programmes for Innovative/Best Practices for

Mission Mode Project (MMPs) of State and Govt. of India” as part of the

National e-Governance Plan. He suggested the States/UTs to look at the

possible replication of the best practices in Agriculture in order to bring

good governance in the country.

1. e-Parwana, Maharashtra: Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar, Sr. Consultant,

NeGP-A, PMU, Office of the Commissioner Agriculture, Govt. of

Maharashtra

Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar has over 6 years experience in managing

complex engagements in Project Management, Business Process Re-

engineering, Market Research and Software Implementation.

He has worked with clients in IT, Manufacturing and Government

domains across ERP implementation, Process Re-engineering, Software

implementation and Project Management.

Some of his assignments include large scale IT implementations in key

Government clients, Research reports on emerging markets for Indian

IT/ITeS, Process Improvement for a Steel Manufacturer and

implementation of Microsoft Ax HR module.

He has Cleared CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) exam in June 2013, standing

among the top 10% candidates

Specialties:

Business Analysis

Functional & technical process design

Software implementation

User Acceptance Testing,

IT road-map & Go to market strategy

Primary and secondary research

Experience in working with mission critical government agencies

Pre-sales: Response to RFPs and EoIs

Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar introduced himself along with the senior officials belonging to

Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra. The senior officials were

1. Shri. Vikas Deshmukh, Hon. Commissioner, Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra

2. Shri Vijay Deshpande, Direcor NIC

3. Shri Mukund Hardas, Dy Director (Project) and NeGPA State Nodal Officer,Department

of Agriculture, Maharashtra

He listed out the ICT projects that are being implemented by Department of Agriculture,

Maharashtra for better service delivery. They are

e-Thibak: Online system for application & processing of Micro irrigation subsidy

e-Parwana: Licensing for Manufacture, Import, Distribution & Retailing of Seeds,

Fertilizers and Pesticides

Maharain: SMS based recording of daily rainfall from all Circles of Maharashtra

Cropwatch: Information system for online reporting of week wise crop area sown

during the season.

Horticulture Information System: Contains the details of Horticulture sown crops

Horticulture Census: Census of Horticulture specific crops

CROPSAP (Crop Pest Surveillance & Advisory Project): On the field Surveillance of

pests and reporting over sms

Soil Health Card: Decision support will be provided for farmers about crops and

fertilizers

suitable for their land

Maha Krushi Sanchar CUG: Largest Mobile Phone User Group which has benefitted

about 15 Lakh farmers under the scheme

Agriculture Census: Census of Agriculture land holdings

The above mentioned projects had won various awards and among these projects e-Parwana

project has won maximum awards. The awards won by e-Parwana project are listed below:

Skoch Order of Merit 2013,2014,

eLets PSU Award 2014

State eGov Certificate of Recognition, 2013

e-Maharashtra Jury Choice Award 2013

e-India Jury Choice Award 2012

Before briefing e-Parwana project, he explained about e-Thibak project.

e-Thibak:

e-Thibak is an Online Application to perform all administrative activities. Initially all the

applications were manual at taluka level and there was no uniformity. After introducing the

online system, they had maintained standard procedures for applying and obtaining subsidy.

The cost of micro irrigation components have been standardized. Beneficiary data is made

available in public domain.

He described the solution saying before installation, the beneficiary’s data will be entered into

the system. Hard copy from the farmer is accepted and data entry is made in the system. Based

on this, the pre-sanction is granted. After installation, invoice will be generated in the system

upon which spot verification will be done. In spot verification, taluka level officer goes and

inspects whether the instrument has been installed properly. After this process, the subsidy is

decided and the payment is made.

The diagrammatic representation of the above process, is shown below:

He explained the Pre Vs. Post implementation of e-Thibak project:

Criteria Pre- eThibak Post eThibak Benefits

Application

for subsidy

Multiple visits to dept.

offices:

Application form

Supporting

documents

Application/subsi

dy status

Online form

submission

Online Supporting

document checklist

Online application

tracking

Saving in time &

money

Realistic

application tracking

Reduction in

farmers’ visits to

Dept.

Farmer’s

informatio

n source

Dealers

Limited choic

Multiple sources

Standard rates of

components,

available online

Same rates across

manufacturers

Well informed

farmers

Proposal Scrutiny

Fixing of SubsidyDemand of Subsidy

Beneficiary EntryApplication EntryHard copy acknowledgement Scrutiny of applicationsQuotation entryGrant of pre-sanction

Pre Installation

Subsidy Fixation

Subsidy Payment

Bill Invoice EntryProposal Ack.Proposal ScrutinySpot Verification

Post Installation

Duplicate

beneficiari

es

Fake/duplicate

beneficiaries,

leading to subsidy

‘leakage’

Each application is

unique

End-to-end tracking

Re-application

rejected based on

fixed criteria

Subsidy saving in

the tune of Rs 50

Cr.

Transparen

cy

Beneficiary data

provided only

upon follow up

with Dept

Block wise list of

beneficiaries

available online

Transparency

leading to public

trust

e-Parwana:

Before introducing e-Parwana, there was lot of burden on the Department in the process of

licensing. There was no way to track how much revenue is getting generated by the way of

accepting the fees. It was also felt that the implementation of Government Act’s was difficult.

There was no way to monitor the quality of inputs produced. Also, there was no single source of

information on the inputs.

Because of the above challenges, the Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra has introduced

e-Parwana. He listed out the key objectives of the project mentioned below:

Effective and useful implementation of Acts, Rules and Orders

Uniform & convenient process across the State

Effective monitoring and reporting

Expediting license granting process

Reliable product information for farmers

Validation of license anytime

Advance notice for license renewal

Description of e-Parwana Solution:

Before e-Parwana, the applications were submitted at Taluka Level. e-Parwana has eliminated

one step by submitting the application to District Level functionaries. It has reduced the list of

documents from 30-40 to 10. Documents like Toilet certificate was removed from the list.

Online payment is introduced using Government Receipts and Account System (GRAS). Online

filing of Monthly Sales Returns is being implemented. SMS based alerts were sent for License

validation, License renewal and Application Status.

He had briefed the technical architecture of e-Parwana, saying that the Department has

designed a three-tier Model-View-Controller. It is developed in Open Source using PHP, Java

and Apache app server. Database is also developed through Open Source using Postgre SQL and

Jasper Reports.

Modules of e-Parwana:

License Application & Processing System

Monthly Sales Return (MSR)

Product Information

Features of e-Parwana:

License Application & Processing System

Monthly Sales Return (MSR)

Product Information

Beneficiaries of e-Parwana:

Farmers

Pesticide Industry

Fertilizer Industry

Seed Growers/Producers

Dealers of Seed, Fertilizers and Pesticide

Importers and Exporters of Seed, Fertilizers and Pesticide

Agriculture Department – Quality Control Division

Pre Vs Post implementation of e-Parwana Scenario is shown below:

Criteria Pre- eParwana Post eParwana Benefits

License

procedure

• Manual

• Non uniform

• Time

consuming

• Repeated

office visits

• Online

• Reengineered

• Uniform

• Processing time –

from 3 months to 1

month

• Monthly

applications up

from 10 to 30

• Advanced renewal

SMS alerts

Monthly

sales

returns

• Manual

submission

• Huge paper

• Online submission • Reduction in efforts

• Demand forecast

possible

work

• No electronic

database

Product

information

• Available only

in paper

format, mostly

in English

• Manual

submission

• Online submission

• Marathi & English

• Easily available

information in

Marathi

License

Renewal

• Most renewal

after license

expiry

• Difficult to

track invalid

licenses

• Rare advance

renewals

• License expiry

details available

• SMS alert for

license renewal

• Users can also

‘pull’ license

information

(Check Validity:

EPARWA<space>LICV<spa

ce><Licence no> to

9766899899(from BSNL)

or 09766899899)

• Better license

enforcement

• Increase in timely

renewals

Key Learnings of e-Parwana:

He explained the key learnings of e-Parwana saying that roll out of the project in a phased

manner ensures efficient implementation of the project. Introducing Change Management in

the beginning of the project ensures future sustenance. Understanding the requirements of the

farmers plays a very crucial role in the implementation of the project. He further said that single

source of information should be made available keeping in view the requirements of the

farmers.

Merits of e-Parwana:

He explained the merits of the project saying that the department has developed application

and hosted it at the NIC without cost. The Department bears only the cost of manpower

(programmers). Approximate cost of the project is about INR 8 Lakh/year. Revenue generated

till date is about INR 3.5 Cr. He said that services are made available under single portal

reducing the direct and indirect costs of obtaining the licenses, product information and filing

sales returns.

Licenses issued till date under the project:

Input No. of licenses

Seeds 30,880

Fertilizers 42,457

Insecticides 47,261

Nursery 48

He discussed about other initiatives mentioned below:

Mobile apps

Shetkari Masik Android app launched

Planned apps

Krushi Vaidya (pest, disease management and dosage calculator)

Aadarshgaon magazine

Scheme information

Package of practice

USSD:

Brief information about schemes

Pest, disease & weed management information

IVRS: Fertilizer rates

Web based Scheme Monitoring MIS

Open House Discussions on e-Parwana:

1. Question raised by Shri Ramakrishna, Senior Consultant from CIPS

How the environment is built up to be harmonious with the Innovation among the staff? What

are the challenges faced? How did you overcome?

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that they have faced challenges from the dealers. Initially, they

were not ready to use the entire online system. There was lack of uniformity. The department

has demonstrated them by conducting a workshop. Therefore during the workshop they had

built trust between dealer’s community and the department. Also, there were regular trainings

conducted within the department in input cell. All the officers in input cell have made their

suggestions and their suggestions were taken in to consideration. In this way, the trust was

built. NIC has also extended its support in this regard. In this way the dealers and distributors

have accepted the system.

2. Question raised from NIC Kerala

Participant from Kerala asked the requirements for implementing the Project in Kerala

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that they will speak with the concerned NIC officer of Kerala

and share the pre-requisites of e-Parwana with them. After discussions, they will share the

technical requirements of the project with Department of Agriculture, Kerala.

3. Participant from NIC-Tripura

Tripura has requested to explain more about Cropwatch and CROPSAP (Crop Pest Surveillance

& Advisory Project)

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that they will share the details via e-Mail and requested e-Mail

address of Department of Agriculture, Tripura

Tripura has asked about the software required for NIC to implement e-Parwana project in

Tripura. Also they have asked for the finance required for implementing the project.

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that they will share the details with NIC Tripura. e-Parwana can

be used by taking the source code and deployed in the Server. The cost of project depends on

man-power.

4. Participant from Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has requested to know more about GRAS system

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar explained saying that GRAS system is developed by NIC,

Maharasshtra. It stands for Government Receipts and Accounts System. In this system, around

10-12 banks are available using which various fees can be paid to the Government. It is a

Government Payment Gateway prepared by NIC.

Madhya Pradesh further asked about what could be the steps to adopt the project in their

state.

NIC Pune is the key point of contact for implementing the project. The details of the contact

person is mentioned below:

Mr Kailash, Mobile No: 09422017051

5. Jammu and Kashmir has requested for a detailed report of the project.

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar has reque sted them to share their e-Mail Id.

6. Telangana has asked the team of e-Parwana, whether the Department of Agriculture,

Maharashtra is accepting the scanned copies and uploading the documents on websites

or are they issuing only hard copies at the time of submission.

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar answered saying that hard copies are accepted for verification. He

said that there is a check list available at the time of submission. As of now they are not

accepting scanned copies of documents.

Telangana has asked the team saying that after License in generated in the system, they have to

manually sign and again upload the signed license in the system or have they gone for any

digital signature

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar clarified saying that the documents are digitally signed.

Telangana has asked the monthly maintenance cost of e-Parwana

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that the monthly maintenance cost is about Rs 50,000.

Telangana has asked about the integration of the project with Common Service Centres (CSCs)

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar said that they will be doing it in this year.

7. Participants from Agartala, Tripura has requested for details of the e-Parwana project to

replicate it in their state

Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar has asked him the mail id for sharing the details. The mail id of

Participant from Tripura is kiran.kk@nic.in; Mobile No: 08794839604

2. e-Extension Initiatives of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University - Dr. N.

Anandaraja, Assistant Professor (Agricultural Extension), Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Dr. Nallusamy Anandaraja is working as Assistant Professor in e-

Extension centre, Directorate of Extension Education, Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University, Coimbatore. He has been specialized in

Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture (ICT-A)

and bagged two prestigious Awards on ICARs best Post Graduate

Agricultural Research Award on Jawaharlal Nehru Award and Young

Scientist Award constituted by Indian Science Congress Association

from the former president of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Currently, he holds two important research projects sponsored by

Govt. of India & Govt. of Tamil Nadu on Back Office-Dynamic Market

Information and Invigorating Extension through ICT tools. He has completed eighteen projects

funded by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and

Technology, Planning Commission, GOI and IGNOU.

He has explored the power and potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

intervention in Transfer of Farm Technology which may accelerate the speed of flow of

technology, weather data and price information to extension system and finally reach to the

needy farmers. Few of the notable initiatives in e-Extension centre are

1. TNAU AGRI TECH PORTAL http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/ 2. TNAU Multi Video Conference facility http://vcon.tnau.ac.in (Meeting ID protected) 3. Dynamic Market Price Information for Perishable Commodities

http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/dmi/2015/index.html 4. TNAU- Agricultural Market Information System http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/amis/index.html 5. TNAU-IIT, Chennai Mobile Agro Advisory Services

http://e-vivasaya.rtbi.in/aas/index.php (Password protected)

6. TNAU Video Modules http://www.agritech.tnau.ac.in/technologivideostnau.html

7. TNAU Plant Protection Information http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/crop_protection/crop_prot.html

8. TNAU e-Course information http://agridr.in/tnauEAgri/ 9. TNAU Weather Information Network http://tawn.tnau.ac.in/ 10. TNAU-ICAR Mobilizing Mass Media for Sharing Agro Information

http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/govt_schemes_services/mmedia/index.html 11. TNAU-online e-Radio http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/comm_e_radio.html

For his credit he has published seven books and more than 40 research and popular articles in

National and International Journals.

Dr. N. Anandaraja, Assistant Professor (Agricultural Extension), Tamil Nadu Agricultural

University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu has presented e-Extension Initiatives of Tamil Nadu

Agricultural University.

Initially he explained the e-Extension Initiatives of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. They are

1. TNAU AGRI TECH Portal

2. Multi Video Conferencing

3. Dynamic Market Information (DMI)-Kisan SMS

4. Domestic &Export Market Intelligence Cell

5. Automatic Weather Network

6. Crop Doctor-Expert System

7. Instant Agro Advisory System

8. TNAU-IFPRI Knowledge Management Portal

9. Video Clipping through Cloud Computing

10. Invigorating Extension through ICT Tools

He spoke about TNAU Agritech Portal (http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/) and described the features of

the portal with the help of the snapshot provided below:

He said that TNAU Agritech Portal is one of the best agriculture portals in the country.

Salient features of the Portal:

1. Bi-lingual (Tamil and English)

2. Portal comprises of Six lakh pages of information including Agriculture, Horticulture,

Animal Husbandary, fisheries, marketing, seri-culture, etc.

3. A to Z technological information on Agriculture and Allied sectors

4. Central and State Govt. Agricultural Schemes and Services

5. Farmers’ success stories and daily newspaper information on agriculture

6. e-Community Radio

7. 1000-Video Clippings

The portal is more interactive and user friendly. Unique feature of the portal is it is being

updated on daily basis. Daily visitors of the portal will be around 11,000-13,500. He said that

TNAU contains multiple video conferencing facilities.

Salient features of Video Conferencing facility:

1. Enabling to share power point presentation along with video conference

2. On-line chatting

3. Moderator option for effective span of control

4. Simultaneously 24 parallel meetings can be scheduled

He has shown some snapshots of Dynamic Market Information. He said that initially Dynamic

Market Information project was started with the help of Centre for Development of Advanced

Computing (CDAC), Hyderabad. He said that TNAU is using BSNL Gateway for sending the sms

of price information. Daily price information of 160 commodities (68 vegetables, 36 fruits, 37

flowers, 11 spices and 8 plantation crops) is available on the portal. SMS are provided to

farmers and extension officials by using Kisan SMS Portal (Govt. of India). Every day by 11 am,

the market information can be viewed in the portal site. Traders database, Market Profile, SMS

request form are available on the portal.

He further said that they have started Agriculture Marketing Information System, where all the

markets including AGMARKNET, etc. are made available on single platform.

He discussed about Crop Doctor Initiative, which deals with diagnosing the pests, diseases and

nutritional disorders, key visual symptoms (primary symptom) with multiple sub-levels

(secondary symptoms) and knowing appropriate solution.

TNAU has developed multi lingual expert systems (English, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada) for

crops like paddy, sugarcane, banana, coconut, millets, etc. The Government of Tamil Nadu of

Tamil Nadu is implementing the project called Farm Crop Management System. In this system,

individual farmer’s database is built. He has shown the snapshots of Interactive Multimedia

Advisory System and Mobile based Agro Advisory System.

Tamil Nadu Agriculture Weather Network (TAWN):

Government of Tamil Nadu under National Agricultural Development Project (NADP) have funded for establishing Tamil Nadu Agricultural Weather Network (TAWN) by installing 385 AWS, 224 in the first phase and 161 in the second phase.

The Agro Climate Research Centre (ACRC), Directorate of Crop Management (DCM), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore in collaboration with Department of Agriculture, Tamil Nadu established the TAWN1

.

He discussed about salient features of Tamil Nadu Agriculture Weather Network. They are

shown below:

Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) installed in all blocks of Tamil Nadu

Maximum and minimum air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, soil moisture,

soil temperature, rainfall, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure and leaf wetness are

recorded daily

1 http://tawn.tnau.ac.in/General/HomePublicUI.aspx

Updation of hourly weather database through GSM technology

Facilitates extension functionaries to render weather based agro advisory services to

farmers

Weather forecast information at short, medium and long range periods

He discussed about one of the initiatives called e-Velanmai, an ICT based Agricultural Extension

Model and explained the process of how it can reach the farmers.

e-Velanmai: e-Velanmai2 is referred as demand driven participatory extension system

because:

Farmers pay a membership fee based on the farm size owned by them to avail the

extension services under e-Velanmai as a mark of their participation in the system of

technology transfer.

Scientists attend the farmers queries based on their call (demand) or need and hence it

is demand driven for technical advice or scientific farming.

It is also believed to be sustainable approach of extension as the farmers are going to

take up the e-Velanmai model of technology transfer by themselves in the long run even

after the scheme period (2012). The membership fees collected will be utilized for

sustainability of the scheme. Sustainability component is inbuilt in the process itself

He explained the salient features of Education Media Centre. They are listed below:

Equipped with professional digital audio and video equipments

Creation of video lessons, audio CD lessons on agriculture and allied fields

Production of video programmes for direct telecast through Doordarshan

2 http://tniamwarmtnau.org/technologies/e-velanmai-tn-iamwarm.pdf

Production of video films for Government departments, NGOs and private agencies

Production of complementary video modules for PGDAEM courses of MANAGE,

Hyderabad

Video programmes on ‘Achiever Farmers’ and ‘Award Winners’

TNAU Community Radio Station:

The TNAU, Community Radio Station3 which has the coverage of 15 to 20 km, has the feature of ‘e’ component in it and hence the broadcast programme is integrated into the e – Extension network.

Handling Community e – Radio is an interesting and creative task. All the three types of intelligence viz., abstract, mechanical and social, are judiciously utilized in this ICT tool for making the programmes informative as well as interesting.

He explained the features of TNAU Community Radio Station given below:

Operated under the name “Vivasayee FM” (107.4 MHz)

Rural community within 20 Kilometres radius is benefited

Programmes on special technologies, farmers’ success stories, community development

etc., are broadcasted

All the programmes are uploaded in the TNAU Agritech Portal

(http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/comm_e_radio.html)

Cloud Computing with Videos

TNAU has produced 1000 video clippings on agriculture and allied fields in 3GP format using

Cloud Computing.

Outcomes of Experimentation…

1. TNAU Agri Tech Portal

2. Crop Doctor

3. Multi Video Conference

4. Cross platform of Android, Mac iOS

5. Training the Extension Officials Phase-I (1482)

6. On-line and off-line Access

3 http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/comm_e_radio.html

7. Instant interaction with Research Institutes and KVKs

He said that in order to replicate the model, they would

Facilitate for the establishment of e-Extension Center

Facilitate for the establishment of Agri Tech Portal (Agricultural Commodities on project

mode of Hardware and software aspects) on project mode.

Facilitate in developing expert systems for various customized capacity building program

Conduct mes

Organize Study Visits on ICT related ventures

Organize collaborative workshops / seminars / conferences etc.,

Open House Discussions on e-Extension initiatives of TNAU:

1. Haryana

Participant from Haryana asked about the usage of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

(IRNSS) instead of GPS. The participant also asked about the usage of navigation system to track

the movement of field level functionaries

Dr Anandraja said that they have already included the GIS mapping tool developed by NIC. The

touch screen tablets have been distributed to all the department functionaries to track the

movements of field level functionaries. They are planning to incorporate Aadhaar data and

Election Card data with Farm Crop Management System.

2. Thrissur, Kerala

Participant from Kerala has asked to explain more about Community Radio

Dr Anandraja said that the Community Radio is established in tribal belts where the people are

unable to read. Community Radio is operated under the name “Vivasayee FM” (107.4 MHz) in

which programmes on special technologies, farmers’ success stories, community development

etc., are broadcasted.

3. NIC, Meghalaya

Participant from Meghalaya has asked to explain more about ICT based Agri. Extension Model

Dr Anandaraja said that most of the farmers are illiterates. Therefore we cannot educate the

farmers with ICT based models even with sms based alerts. He said that they are educating the

Extension Officers and intermediaries. In future (before 2020) they will be connecting farm

holders through mobiles, tablets, etc. so that they will be able to access the required data. He

said that Govt. of India will bring out the 3G connectivity. Within 2-3 years the connectivity

issues will be sorted out by Govt. of India.

4. Mr Harshvardhan Mirajkar has asked whether the Dynamic Market Information (DMI)-

Kisan SMS are being sent manually or they have any automated process

Dr Anandaraja said that they are having automated process. RKVY is providing the funding

support for the project. They are having their own market analysis. Their database is built by

CDAC. He said that they are taking the price information manually from the server database and

then insert the data in to the m-Kisan Server.

Vote of Thanks:

Shri Ramakrishna, Senior Consultant, CIPS thanked all the participants from North to South and

West to East for showing their interest and participating in the VC. He has expressed his warm

regards to the Resource Persons for showcasing the innovations and explaining them about the

innovative practices in detail in spite of so many queries. He said that the presentations

appeared to be the fountains of knowledge. He encouraged the participants to learn from the

showcased best practices by experts, if possible undergo field visits to the respective offices. He

said that CIPS would be happy to replicate the best practices and develop the case studies of

the innovations in order to bring good governance in the country.