Agricultural Informatics & Communication Perspective and prospective

M.V.S. Sarma
Agricultural Informatics Division National Informatics Centre Department of Information Technology

Indian Agriculture
Agriculture Sector is changing the socio-economic environments of the population due to liberalization and globalization

About 75% people are living in rural areas and are still dependent on Agriculture. About 43% of Indias geographical area is used for agricultural activity
Agriculture continues to play a major role in Indian Economy

Indian Agriculture
Provides about 65% of the livelihood Accounts for 27% of GDP Contributes 21% of Total Exports, and Supplies Raw materials to Industries Growth Rate in production - 5.7% Food grains production 211.17 mt

Indias position in world Agriculture

Rank

Total Area Irrigated Area Population Economically Active population Total Cereals Wheat Rice Coarse grains Total Pulses Oil Seeds Fruits and Vegetables Implements (Tractors) Milk Live Stock (castles, Buffaloes)

Seventh First Second Second Third Second Second Fourth First Second Second Third First First

Agricultural Resources
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 Area threatened by land degradation - 50% of T GA Drought-prone Area - 190 M.H

Mile Stones in Agricultural Development

Green Revolution (1968) Ever-Green Revolution (1996) Blue Revolution (water, fish) White Revolution (Milk) Yellow Revolution (flower, edible) Bio-Technology Revolution ICT Revolution

Development of Indian Agriculture : Basic Issues

Revitalization of Cooperative Institutions Improving Rural Credits Research, Education & Extension Human Resources Development Trade & Export Promotion Land Reforms Enabling Environment for higher Agricultural Growth

The thrust areas:

Diversification of Agriculture Inter-cropping Micro Management Water Management Organic Farming Agri-Clinics and Agri-business Centres Bio-Technology

Efforts on Policies, strategies and Frameworks

National Agriculture Policy (2000) National Seeds policy (2002) Cooperative Policy Agricultural Price policy Agricultural Extension Framework (2001) WTO/GATT agreement (1994)
In addition to, various working groups, taskforces, mid-term appraisals and plan schemes (~68)

(for further details www.agricoop.nic.in)

Reports
Agriculture Credit, Cooperation and Crop Horticulture Development including Spices Aromatic and Medicinal Plants and Plantation Crops Agriculture Infrastructure/Warehousing/Rural Godowns/Marketing/Post Harvest Management, Processing and Cold Storage, Trade and Export Promotion. Crop Husbandry, Demand and Supply Projections and Agricultural Inputs Agriculture Research and Education Animal Husbandry & Dairying Agriculture Statistics Watershed Development, Rainfed Farming and Natural Resources Management |Agriculture Development in Eastern and North-Eastern India Agriculture and Allied Sectors Organic and Biodynamic Farming (for further details www.planningcommission.nic.in)

Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Development

Biotechnology Pre & post harvesting technology Energy saving technology Environment protection technology Information and Communication technology GIS & RS technology Internet/Intranet Technology

Fusion of Technologies for Sustainable Development - A Synergy of Multiple Disciplines

Database Technology Internet/Intranet Technology GIS and Remote Sensing Image Processing GPS Artificial Intelligence Modeling

IT led Agricultural Development The beginning: (e-readiness)

A two day conference (ISDA-1995 ) was held to assess IT Infrastructure and empowerment needs for IT led development in Agriculture Sector (one of the major recommendations was about 3% of the agriculture budget should be spent on Informatics Development) IT Plan for Agriculture Sector (AGRISNET) was submitted to Ministry of Agriculture in 1997 to establish Indian Agriculture on-line and revised in 2000.

IT Applications for Agricultural Development Requires Inter-Sectoral Approach

Agricultural Research Agro-Meteorology Agricultural Marketing Agricultural Engineering & Food Processing Agricultural Extension and Transfer of Technology Credit and Cooperation Crop production & protection Environment & Forest Fertilisers and Manure Fisheries Irrigation and Drainage System Livestock, Dairy Development & Animal Husbandry Rural Development & Planning Soil and Water Management Watershed Development Wasteland Development

Ministry of Agriculture
Resource Information

Marketing Census Coop. Credit Hort PP RFS TMOP Crops PPQ

Mach.

Exten. DM

States / Uts / Districts

Fert

IRS

Attached/subordinate offices

FARMER
ICAR Institutes

DACNET
DAC Portals

AGRISNET

ARISNET

AgRIS

IT plan for Agriculture

To strengthen IT in Agriculture and creation of Databases & Information Network for Agriculture Sector : The plan was divided into three schemes by DAC

Central Sector Schemes proposed

DAC Hqrs

Networking of DAC Field Units (DACNET)

State & District and Sub-District level (AGRISNET)

Present Status of IT Scheme (s) of DAC:

Various Components emerging as one scheme:

IT apparatus in DAC Hqrs. IT apparatus in the Field offices and Directorates of DAC (DACNET) Phase II Development of Agricultural Informatics and Communication Agricultural Resources Information System IT apparatus for States/UTs (AGRISNET) and Agricultural Marketing Information Network (AGMARKNET) Phase II

Information Systems Requirement in Agriculture

GIS/RS based Systems: Soil and Land use Watershed developments Disaster management Cropping systems Agriculture Resources Information Organic farming (bio-fertilisers) Crop weather watch

Decision Support Systems

Integrated Nutrient Management Integrated Pest Management Demand-Supply Projections Soil-Water balance Credit Management Inter-cropping systems Bio-fertilizer management Early Warning System

E-Commerce Applications
Agri-Business (Agri-clinics and Agri-Business Centres) Agricultural Marketing Agricultural Trade Cooperatives Horticulture
(horticulture, floriculture, sericulture, aquaculture etc,. )

Organic farming Agriculture Statistics

Ongoing ICT Projects of DAC

DACNET (dacnet.nic.in) AGMARKNET (agmarknet.nic.in) PPIN (cib/rc) (cibrc.nic.in) VISTARNET AGRICULTURAL CENSUS NADAMS (National Agricultural Drought Advisory and Management Systems) HORTNET

Projects Under Pipeline:

AGRISNET AgRIS (Resources Information System) Development of Agricultural Informatics DACNET (phase II) AGMARKNET (Phase II) Agricultural Census 2000-2001

Other ICT projects of Agriculture

APHNET (Animal Production and Health Informatics Network) ARISNET (Agricultural Research and Information System) Water Resources Informatics System APEDA NPRE etc.,

Towards e-Government in DAC

A High Speed LAN established with more than 500 nodes (round the clock services) INTRANET/INTERNET applications are being implemented as part of e-Government Regular use of VC for scheme monitoring and plans (X Five Year Plan proposals were discussed on VC with all States) 7/24 Services provided during Orissa Super cyclone, Gujarat Earth Quake, drought mitigation Implementations of Minimum Agenda of egovernance

Towards e-Government in DAC

(Contd.)
In-house Training Centre established More than 800 officials trained in DAC NICNET based Public Information and facilitation Centre established Information Kiosk Various paid projects implemented like Integrated Crops MIS, LAN etc. ISDA Conference conducted for IT assessment in Agriculture sector IT Plan submitted for IXth and Xth Five plans

Portals developed
AGMARKNET DACNET CIB/RC (PPIN) VISTARNET* Agricultural Census*

* Under development

DACNET
A Scheme for bringing E-Governance in the Directorates and Field Units of Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC)

With a Mandate to Establish Functional Hardware/software tools Provide training Develop Application Software Assist in further system enhancement, if required Establish LAN / Network / Internet Service

Information Flow from Field Units (DACNET)

Planners / Decision makers

Directorates databases
Marketing Census Coop. Credit Hort Plan-Co TMOP SWC PP RFS Crops PPQ Mach. Exten. NDM

Fert

IC&Trade

Field Offices

Central Databases

AGRISNET envisages
AGRISNET A NICNET Based Agricultural Informatics & Communication to facilitate Higher Sustainable Agricultural productivity and Establish Indian Agriculture on-line in the Country Convergence of Core Technologies and e-Governance

AGRISNET envisages
IT Infrastructure (H/W, S/W tools and Networking) Information Networks (Web sites, portals, Vertical portals) Data Warehousing (Database, Data Mining and Mata Data) Web enabled applications GIS/RS based applications IT Empowerment (HRD)

AGRISNET components
Internet/Intranet services E-Commerce & EDI Services National & International Video Conferencing Networking (LAN, MAN, WAN) using terrestrial, Satellite, & Wireless Communication

AGRISNET components
IT Training Data Base, Knowledge Base, and Analytical Model Base development for Decision Support Disaster management

Sub-networks under AGRISNET

The following sub-networks will strengthen these portals:
FERTNET: Fertilizer Network HORTNET: Horticulture Network PPIN: Plant Protection Network VISTERNET: Agricultural Extension Network CROPSNET : Crops Information Network SEEDNET: Seeds Informatics Network ACINET: Agricultural Credit Informatics Network AGMARKNRT:Agricultural Marketing Network ARISNET: Agricultural Research Information System Network

 To strengthen these sub-networks, AGRISNET nodes will be established at National, State, District, and Block level with Internet/Intranet gateway at National and regional level. Agri-Clinic and Agri-business centres will be set up outside the Government set up to facilitate Un-employed agricultural graduates to generate income and employment through Knowledge services for farmers. The emerging technologies on last mile problems provide required technology solutions to establish Agri-clinic and Agri-business centres at sub district level

DACNET

Attached , Subordinate, Autonomous, Field Offices

State, District & Block Agricultural Offices

AGRISNET Admn. Division

Workgroups

Mail Server

INTRADAC
Internet Server

Finance Div.

NRM Division

Database Server
Crops Division

Data Ware housing

Hort. Division

GIS Server

Agriculture On-line

Agricultural Resource Information

(core group V on Agriculture and Soils (NNRMS-AC-AS)).

Arid Agro-Ecosystem, Coastal AgroEcosystem, Hill & Mountain AgroEcosystem, Irrigated Agro-Ecosystem, and Rainfed Agro-Ecosystem. The pilot project demonstration, one district each with various typologies (13) using GIS/RS based Technology

In e-Governance, electronic means support and stimulate good governance. E-Governance will mature according to the following four phases (Garter Report)
Information Presence : Websites

Interaction

Intake Process: e-mail, search engines, download forms and documents Transaction Complete Transactions: Network and Information Security Transformation Integration and Change: Virtual counter

e-Governance Imperatives
Service related

Accessibility Width of reach

Affordability by common man/ target customers

Communicability in Peoples Language

Service related

Availability of Information across multiple delivery channels

Reliability of transactions across multiple delivery channels

Viability Economic and political returns

Implementation Related

Re-engineering of Processes within Government

Collaboration among the servicing departments

Trustworthy Adequate security and auditability

Creating stakeholders buy-in through internal/external communications

Diversification for Sustainable Agriculture

Efficient use of resources (Example, crops in command area for rational sharing of water and also types of crops as per availability of water) Crop diversification in dark and grey areas where groundwater exploitation is high (less water requiring crop) For sustainable land use and in areas of depleting soil fertility (Example, Rice-wheat cropping) For efficient natural resource management

Population and Food grains Needs - The population as per latest census (2001-02), the estimated population is 1033.5 million

- Requirement of food grains for Human consumption is 174 m t (NIN, Hyderabad) and production requirement is 195 mt Therefore, our production is expected to be higher than the requirement calculated on normative method

 We have 26 per cent population below poverty who have poor economic access to food grains. Their low purchasing power may not permit them to purchase 182.5 kg per capita per annum. If they can purchase only 70 per cent of their requirements, this would imply availability of additional 15 mt in the market - Food Corporation has stocks of over 60 m t against the norm of about 24 m t - Average pulse production during IXth Plan is 13 mt, the requirement of pulses is about 15 mt - Rate of growth of consumption of Rice and Wheat is expected to decline. Therefore, the answer to first question is in affirmative. Then we need to diversify our agriculture