Agricultural Knowledge Management and Dissemination: Initiatives by Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

Almost 60–70% of more than a billion people depend on agriculture in India. One of the major constraints affecting agricultural productivity in the country is the problem of availability of timely and relevant agricultural information to the farmers. The existing ways of transfer of agri-technologies do not reach the majority of the small and marginal farmers across the country due to a large gap in the ratio of extension workers and farmers. From late twentieth century, there have been rapid advances in technology and improvisation in the ways the information is stored, processed and communicated. For faster transmission of improved farm technologies, information and communication technology (ICT) can play a significant role. The past decade has been characterised by changing patterns of rural market; hence, the role of ICT has been increased from providing the networks to setting up of the origin of modernised technical programmes in the rural vicinity. Various innovative ICT applications by both government and private initiatives have been developed for better communication and rapidly changing demand of the consumers in rural areas. This article reviews the ICT initiatives of Gyandoot, Warana Wired, e-Choupal, mKrishi project, etc., to comprehend their role in technology dissemination to the agricultural community and examining the changes in agricultural productivity due to their usage. It is found that the ICT initiatives still require significant improvements in supporting infrastructure and capacity building amongst farmers to enable them to use the information they access effectively. As ICT access continues to increase among farming communities and information services continue to adapt and flourish, the scope exists for a much better rural productivity impact in the future.