Digitization in Agriculture-Making of new India 147

DIGITIZATION IN AGRICULTURE-MAKING OF NEW INDIA

Meenakshi Y
B-Tech (Ag-Engg), MBA
Admin Staff
Adarsh Institute of Management
and Information Technology, Bengaluru

ABSTRACT
Agriculture is the back bone of India and a majority of Indians depend on agriculture for their livelihood. But,
Indian farmers are not getting expected income from agriculture due to many problems relating to pest and
disease, pesticides, fertilizer, processing etc. ICT is acting as a panacea to the farmersin resolving these problems.
Indian Government has implemented many schemes likee-krishi, Mahindra KisanMitra, IFFCO Agri-portal etc.and
helping farmers to get better yield and income. This paper is an attempt to get an insight into the problems faced
by the farmers and the ways in which ICT is helping them to overcome the same.e-SAP is the one of the best
solutions for solving farmers’ problems and is discussed here.
Key words: Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Electronic Solutions against Agricultural
Pests (e-SAP), agriculture &allied activities, integrated farming, Extensionists.

INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Out of 100% approximately 60% Indians derive their livelihood from the agricultural sector. 70% to 80 %of Indian
rural population depends on agriculture and allied activities. Integrated forming gives daily income to the formers
for sustain. Indian farmers are not getting the yield they expected. Indian Government working more on integrated
forming (Dairy, Fishery, horticulture etc.). Indian the limiting factors of farmers in maximizing their farm incomes
are access to technology, government endeavour, resources, markets, institutions and services. Farming community
is facing lots of problems in maximising the crop productivity. In spite of successful research on new agricultural
practices, the majority of farmers are not getting upper bound yield due to several reasons. One of the reasons is
that expert scientific advice on crop production and marketing is not reaching the farming community in a timely
manner etc.
Information and Communication Technology for agriculture is derived frome-agriculture platform. The information
need of Indian farmers across the country is varied. Introduction of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) enables the dissemination of requisite information at the right time. This revolution in information technology
has made access to the information easy and cost-effective.
Reasons of Agricultural Information delay in rural India:
The main purpose of extension is to transfer the agricultural advanced technology and research to the farmer, and
feedback of field problems to the research system. Latest information and knowledge on the subject play a major
role to fulfil this purpose. There is an information delay between farmers and agriculture researcher in India
because:
• Media, Information Management and ICT are not properly used
• Lack of sufficient extension workers
• Lack of Agricultural information literacy in India
• Lack of updated agriculture information with the farmers and most of the extension workers
• Poor technological knowledge of farmers and village level extension personnel
• Economic problems of rural people
• The top-down approach is adopted for extension activity. So the linkages between research- extension and
farmer remained weak etc.
Advantages of ICT
 Access and information is free
 The information is available instantaneously round the year and twenty four hours a day
 Communication can also be interactive
 The information is available from any point on the globe
148 Research in Digital Revolution and New India (ISBN : 978-1-5136-2964-3)

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in Agriculture

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is application of technology in agriculture. It consists of three
main technologies. They are:
 Computer Technology,
 Communication Technology
 Information Management Technology
These technologies are applied from producers to consumers for processing, exchanging and managing data,
information and knowledge.
Need for ICT in Indian Agriculture
ICT in agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural production and rural development
in India. It involves application of innovative ways to use Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in
the rural domain. The advancements in ICT can be utilised for providing accurate, timely, relevant information and
services to the farmers.
The common problems in adoption of ICT in rural segments are ICT illiteracy, availability of relevant and localized
contents in their own languages, easy and affordable accessibility and other issues such as awareness and willingness
for adoption of new technologies among the rural people.
Three important roles which ICT can play are
1. Enhancing agricultural production
2. Improving market access
3. Capacity building and empowerment.
1) Enhancing Agricultural Production
Farmers (especially small ones) often face problems from many threats like poor soil quality, drought, erosion
and pests. Key areas where ICT can help to improve this is by providing up-to-date information about pest and
disease control, early warning systems, new varieties, new ways to optimise production and regulations for
quality control.
2) Improving Market Access
- Providing up-to-date information on the market prices of commodities, inputs and consumer trends. This can
improve a farmer’s negotiating position and their livelihood, while enabling farmers to make better decisions
about future crops and commodities, and also the best time and place to sell and buy goods.
3) Capacity-building and empowerment
ICT technologies can be used to strengthen communities and farmer organizations strengthen their own capacities
and better represent their constituencies when negotiating input and output prices, land claims, resource rights
and infrastructure projects. Rural communities are able to interact with others via the use of ICT which reduces
social isolation that they would otherwise be facing. Besides that, ICT technologies are able to make processes
like law-making and land-title approvals more transparent.
Users of ICT for agriculture development
1. Government Agriculture department
2. Farmers
3. Agriculture extensionists
4. Fishermen
5. Livestock farms
6. Traders
In India,Governmentand Agriculture department implemented several methods and plans in e technology.Agricultural
practices and advancements differ globally. IT supports new methods for agriculture like computerized farm
machinery that applies for sowing, transplanting, Irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, harvest and post-harvest processes.
Farm animals are fed and monitored by electronic sensors and identification systems. Selling or buying online
began to become popular in the world. However, it’s most important role remains communication, and the Internet
has provided us with an ideal opportunity to do so.
Central, state governments and private organisations have taken ICT measures for agriculture extension which
Digitization in Agriculture-Making of new India 149

include ITC- e-choupal, Kisan Kerala, Aaqua, Rice knowledge management portal, e-krishi, Mahindra KisanMitra,
IFFCO Agri-portal, Village knowledge canters (VKCs)- M.S Swaminathan research foundation (MSSRF), village
resource centres (VRCs)- Indian Space research organisation, etc.These are the few methods introduced by
government for farmers.
An insight into a few of thèse initiatives will give us an idea about the difference ICT is making in the lives of Rural
Indians. One of those initiatives is Digitised land record maps this is a Legal Document under the Digital Document
act and can be used by farmers for getting loans from financial institutions.Supportive IT Laws can vastly enhance
the utility of IT Projects.An example of land recordsthen and nowcanbeseenbelow

Source 1–Digitalization of Land records

Other benefits of ICT to the agricultural sector
1. Providingusers Access to Communication Facilities:
Telephone, internet, email, fax and mobile phone have become a new medium for gettingmarket prices, information
on upcoming pest and locust attacks, information on weather/ rain patterns.
2. Providing Interactive Demand Based Agriculture Services:
Government Agriculture Programs and Subsidies, Online application for loan facilities, online Trading (auction
of coffee, tea, rubber), Online Agriculture Extension and call centres, which give Information on Cropping
Pattern and Fertilizer use etc.
3. Undertaking Automation of Key Agriculture Functions:
ICT is used in Digitization of Land Records, Farm Management, Milk-Fat Measurement, Agriculture Statistics
and Databases.
Commonly applied Information and communication technologies
1. Radio and Television - Radio and Television have played, and still continues to play, an important role in
agricultural extension and in getting farmers in touch with key services. The Farm Radio international has
played a key role in this regard and has documented many such use cases.
2. Videos - Videos also continue to be useful to farmer, for example Access Agriculture offers an internet-based
platform for agricultural research and development (R&D) staff and
other stakeholders including farmer organizations. Example is Digital
Green in India which trains rural communities to produce videos by
farmers, of farmers, and for farmers to exchange best agricultural
practices to boost farm productivity and improve nutrition
3. Mobile phones - There are many examples of the use of mobile phones
in agriculture, the e-agriculture platform constantly covers these
examples.Mobile phones either use voice, text or photos within the
farmer/extensionists interaction (Figure 2). There is a need to formulate
the right messages for and with farmers, addressing illiteracy and
empowering farmers to use mobile phones. This can lead to increased
adoption of new technologies and improved practices.

Source 2: Farmer and

Extensionists interaction
in the field
150 Research in Digital Revolution and New India (ISBN : 978-1-5136-2964-3)

One of the best examplesfor ICT ise-SAP, a unique IT-enabled handheld device that will provide information to
farmers in real time on pest-related problems developed by University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Raichur.
The device, Electronic Solutions against Agricultural Pests (e-SAP), has a web-based application system which
facilitates flow of information from the farmer to the farm scientist and back. “The idea behind creating e-SAP was
to help the extension worker, who is not an expert, to collect specimen right from the farmer’s field and send it to
the scientists and experts in real time
Features of e-SAP that assists the field workers for Pest identification:
This is one of the most highlighted features of e-SAP. The architecture for pest identification follows a unique
image-based branching model. High-quality images that characterize pests and their symptoms are adopted to
intuitively guide users in identifying the pest. Audio assistance in local language is provided at every step; the user
need not be literate. The user merely needs to touch a relevant image at each of the steps to identify the problem-
causing organism. The content aims at covering all known pests, so that users are able to identify all pest-related
problems in the field itself; dependency on external help is minimal. As the content can be accessed offline, it can
be used anywhere, anytime

Source 3 : e-SAP process

CONCLUSION
Now days the penetration of ICT in rural India is increasing with the diverse cultures and languages in India, ICT
provides a good platform here. Thus, in future there would be substantial upliftment and sustainable development
in rural areas.
ICTs is now acting act as an agent for changing farmer’s life by improving access of information and sharing
knowledge. The ICT tools can change the ideas, activities and knowledge of the farmers. Farmers feel empowered
and can adopt appropriate measures at the time of need. Indian agriculture has come a long way and established
several breakthroughs in terms of production and productivity.
REFERENCE
[1] https://indiamicrofinance.com/digital-india-project-and-agriculture.html
[2] https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id...assetKey..
[3] http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Young-Hans/2017-05-22/Transforming-agriculture-with-e-technology/
301765
[4] http://www.cta.int/en/article/2016-04-22/icts-for-agriculture-n-opportunities-for-youth-smart-soluti ons-for-
farmers.html
[5] http://bhoomee.co.in/Kendra/Kendra.aspx
[6] e-SAP By Dr.Prabhuraj, University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Raichur.