Breaking the communication barrier and knowledge gap is a must today
The science of communication is getting more advanced everyday.
From desktop computers/laptops and ipads to smartphones, information is just a click away.
“What our farmers need today for successful farming is the right information that can be made available to them easily. Breaking the communication barrier and knowledge gap that exists today becomes imperative.
Three centres
“From our side we have initiated the e-Extension Centre putting to optimum use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and created a website called Agritech portal” (www.agritech.tnau.ac.in) which gives an exhaustive A-Z list of of agriculture,” says Dr. S. Haripriya, Assistant Professor (Horticulture), TNAU, Vridachalam.
“Our Vriddhachalam Kendra has devised a three-day training programme to farmers of Cuddalore district with minimum educational qualification of 10th standard to make them aware about how to use a computer and browse the Internet for gathering information related to their fields,” she says.
Interested farmers in the region are asked to pre-register for this training at this Kendra. Based on the responses from them we plan to select about 10 farmers per batch usually on first-come-first-served basis.
Five desktop computers with internet connection are being used to impart the training.
During the training, basic theoretical information and hands-on training regarding what is a computer, how to operate it, browsing the Internet to get agriculture related information etc are scheduled to be imparted.
In the last two years about 200 farmers have been trained in similar programmes.
Statistics
“We kept a record on the farmers who underwent the training and were able to find that an average of five farmers accessed agricultural information using the net in a week using the computer hub in this Kendra. Around one percent of them started using computers in their households,” she says.
Recently, the farmers started gathering new information from the portal approached the specialist of this Kendra for further action oriented queries. On knowing about the prevailing weather conditions in the State from the weather network page they started to pre-plan the cultural operations, harvesting and drying of the harvested produce. Some proactive farmers have also used the portal to choose major markets in South based on the produce price data available on the dynamic market information page.
When the State is facing a power crisis for nearly 10 to 12 hours daily how can farmers be expected to use computers?
No excuse
“Presently the power cut is for 12 hours in all districts. But there is some supply for the remaining hours. And many farmers use the supply time to charge their mobiles. Wi-fi and data card for net browsing are becoming a common facility on mobiles these days. If one person in the family (college going student) has a good handset then the farmer can easily get information from it.
“Take the case of Kissan mobile services. Several farmers use the facility as and when required. And today almost all high school students have laptops provided by the government. Such computers have battery back up for nearly 4-5 hours so this is not really a problem for interested farmers. All one needs is the attitude,” she says categorically.
Both English and Tamil
The web portal has both Tamil and English versions, the regional version prepared by specialists from this Kendra. Both the manuals are designed in an illustrative format to facilitate quick and easy viewing.
More emphasis has been given on teaching methodology, particularly communicating the contents in a simple and understandable way to the farmers.
In this emerging era of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), there is a necessity to bridge the digital divide currently prevailing among the farmers, according to her.
For more information, contact Dr.S.Haripriya, Assistant Professor (Horticulture), email id: kvkvri@tnau.ac.in , phone: 04143-238353, mobile: 9952342287.
Keywords: Agritech portal, agriculture training
There is a wide gap between laboratory and farm.Many of the technologies are not in reach of user farmers.With marketting getting focus in the agriculture chain, consumers preferences and choices should be known to producer- farmers.Starting with seeds to seedlings to plants-bearing crops-harvesting-post harvest processing-value addition-products development; the knowledge gap is wide enough with the result hardily 20% percent of consumers price reaches the producer farmer.Wholesaling and retailing take away chunk of consumers price.Management of natural resources-soil,water-;pests and diseases;harvest and post harvest losses are to be at the tip of practicing farmers.Expert systems are available to find out nutrient status in the soil,plant and water.There are also expert systems to identify pests and diseases and measures to manage them with minimum pesticide residues.The current and coming centuries are knowledge intensive.ICT is now user friendly and affordable to farmers.
This is a great beginning to disseminate the fruits of agricultural scientific knowledge among farmers. In these days of entrepreneurial attitude of young and new breed of farmers and market driven agricultural economy, this initiative certainly finds sharing of the information by many.
In the context of getting the old and experienced farmers into this sharing, let us think of Kisan FM radio where you can give information along with nice and old film songs and discussions among the farmers and scientists. We can get advertisements from seeds, fertilizer and pesticide companies. As the farmers are now a days carry mobile phones, listening is not an issue. Science can reach them easily through radio. It is not out of place to mention the information through All India Radio for the past many decades.
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