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 India’s 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
India’s position in world Agriculture
Rank

 Total Area Seventh

 Irrigated Area First
 Population Second
 Economically Active population Second
 Total Cereals Third
 Wheat Second
 Rice Second
 Coarse grains Fourth
 Total Pulses First
 Oil Seeds Second
 Fruits and Vegetables Second
 Implements (Tractors) Third
 Milk First
 Live Stock (castles, Buffaloes) 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 TGA
 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  Fertilisers and
Research Manure
 Agro-Meteorology  Fisheries
 Agricultural  Irrigation and
Marketing Drainage System
 Agricultural  Livestock, Dairy
Engineering & Food Development &
Processing Animal Husbandry
 Agricultural  Rural Development
Extension and & Planning
Transfer of  Soil and Water
Technology Management
 Credit and  Watershed
Ministry of Agriculture

Resource
Information

Marketing Census Mach.

Coop. Crops States / Uts /
Exten.
Fert Districts
Credit PPQ
DM
Hort PP

RFS

TMOP
IRS

Attached/subordinate
offices

FARMER
ICAR
 DACNET

DAC
AGRISNET Portals 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 e-governance
 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 Mach.
Coop. Crops Exten.
Fert
Credit PPQ
NDM
Hort PP

RFS
Plan-Co IC&Trade

TMOP
SWC
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 Finance Div.

Internet Server
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 Agro-

Ecosystem, Hill & Mountain Agro-
Ecosystem, 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

Affordability Communicability
Accessibility
Service related by common man/ in People’s
Width of reach
target customers Language

Availability Reliability
Viability
of Information across of transactions
Service related Economic and
multiple delivery across multiple
political returns
channels delivery channels

Re-engineering Collaboration Trustworthy

Implementation
of Processes within among the servicing Adequate security
Related
Government departments 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