The Challenges of Utilizing Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Agriculture Extension (original) (raw)

Role of Information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture and extension

Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 2017

Information and communication technology (ICT) aids provide up-to-date information on the market prices of commodities, inputs and consumer trends which ultimately can improve a farmer's negotiating position and their livelihood. Major aspect of ICT is that accurate information should reach the farmers at the right time to make more sustainable use of on-farm resources. Now the question arises that how this information can be disseminated to such a diverse group of the farming community. ICT is going to play greater role in agricultural extension as well as private sector agribusiness, market information and market intelligence. Here this paper review the role of ICT not only in providing greater awareness and knowledge in agriculture technology and information but also in terms of farmer’s attitudes towards trying to adopt new technologies.

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN AGRICULTURE

Global Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies

Agriculture plays an essential role in the economic and social development of the country. This paper highlights the current initiatives to improve the information technology in agriculture. The major aim is to facilitate the agriculture development through application of information technology. In this paper, a framework is proposed for a systematic manner of agricultural problem solution faced by farmers. [1]

The Application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Agriculture

Apart from natural mineral resources, another important sector to the economy of Nigeria as a country is Agriculture. Nigerian Agricultural sector is one of the major backbones of the national income. Also, majority of her citizens earns their living from Agriculture. These include agronomy, horticulture, forestry, aquaculture, animal husbandry, livestock science, veterinary medicine, and food processing etc. Electronic Agriculture is an area focusing on the development of agricultural and rural improvement through enhanced information and communication methods. It plays a central role in facilitating the exposure of farmers to a variety of information. In view of the importance of agriculture to the society, it became paramount to develop different computer software packages to enhance the knowledge of the farmers and empower the rural community by fostering participatory communications.

Role of ICTs in Indian Agriculture: An Overview

The agricultural sector in India is currently passing through a difficult phase. India is moving towards an agricultural emergency due to lack of attention, insufficient land reforms, defective land management, non-providing of fair prices to farmers for their crops, inadequate investment in irrigational and agricultural infrastructure in India, etc. India's food production and productivity is declining while its food consumption is increasing. The position has further been worsened due to use of food grains to meet the demands of bio fuels. Even the solution of import of food grains would be troublesome, as India does not have ports and logistical systems for large-scale food imports.

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) FOR AGRICULTURE

An agriculture information dissemination system (IDS) was done in India to improve the crop productivity , increase profitability efficiency of agriculture input and reducing the cost of production (Reddy and Ankaiah, 2005). In the mean time Inklaar et al. (2005) concluded that the productivity in US from the year 1995 onwards accelerated due to large focus largely on the impact of ICT. The growth of ICT in developing countries offers a new technology and new opportunities for accessing information in poor countries (Aker, 2010). According to research done by Silva and Ratnadiwakara (2008) concluded that the information and communication technologies (ICT) helped in reducing transaction costs in agriculture by enabling timely and affordable communication but according to Munyua et al. (2008) the ICT had steadily grown in Africa but due to weak policies over there the capacity are among the biggest obstacles to wider use. In recent times, traceability has emerged as a new index of quality and basis for trade in agricultural products (Opara, 2002). Traceability has become a key word in the global food industry due to increased incidents of food contamination. ICT does allow a more rapid and efficient response to food safety problems, enabling quick identification of problem sources and their location in the supply chain (Setboonsarng et al., 2009). MATERIALS AND METHODS The research project was minutely piloted in ward no 1 of Kalimati VDC of Sindhuli district, first of all the base line survey was done. The base line included the production of agro-product, feasible market study and soil sample analysis. Agriculture has the two phases they are pre harvest and post harvest. Pre-harvest Agriculture Activities In the pre harvest agriculture the soil sample analysis was done form 22 different location of project site with aid of NARC. Based on the NARC recommendation the information of chemical fertilizer added was integrated to data base similarly four agriculture information centers (AIC) were also established in the project site. Farmer's information is collected and uploaded to database via AIC. Each farmer's record in pre-harvesting phase is tracked: which farmer has planted what, when etc for the traceability. Based upon that information, farmers will get automated alert SMS message about the disease that can occur in that crop, way to solve it etc. Series of these alert messages can help to grow healthy crops in the pre-harvesting stage. Apart from these if any problems gets arise then the problems were collected at the information centers and the online. Similarly to motivate farmers to commercial farming, teach about IPM (integrated Pest Management system), agriculture video documentaries were periodically screened. Postharvest Agriculture Activities After the harvest, all the farmers' record is again kept in the database. Which person has what to sell, what is his/her expected price, how long he/she wants to advertise for his/her product. On the other side in the major market areas, traders will put their demands. Like trader A is seeking what product, how much can he give (market rate), how much he can buy. Now since both the information is now in the database. SMS training and registration Firstly SMS training was given to the farmers in the mass, around 300 farmers were in the training. A special roman Nepali coding was done for some of the specific agro commodities like aalu for potato, pyaaj for onion etc. ICT based agriculture (E-Agriculture) is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically , e-Agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and information communication technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. The research was minutely piloted in ward no 1 of Ka-limati VDC of Sindhuli District. Farmers lack information and aren't able to come out of subsistence farming only because of the information gap and lack of awareness of the technology. The problems such as, farmers do not have sufficient agricultural skills to turn seed to seedlings and grow as a healthy plant, the agricultural pattern in rural areas is still traditional, after they harvest and there is exploitation by middle-traders degrading real farmers. An android version of mobile application was developed to mitigate these problems. Soil samples from 22 different sites of the target project area and tested the collected soil samples at NARC. This information was used in exploring the variety of crops that can be grown in that village. Farmers as well as the traders could easily input the price of agro commodities via android application. Potato is the major cash crop grown in the research site. The android application is had connected 355 farmers and 110 traders in research site and the farmers are trading to those whose price value gets matched or nearby their values.

Trends of ICT usage in Agriculture and Extension

In an information oriented society the information-poor have become the resource-poor. Information leads to opportunities that generate resources. This paper attempts to explore the status of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Bangladesh and the relationship between ICT and Agriculture as well as Extension. In the era of globalization, the role of extension would have to change from transferring technological innovations from research to farmers. It is a paradox connectivity constrains are developing in Bangladesh ever before. The existing information and communication environment poses new opportunities for agriculture sector. The findings revealed that the usage of ICTs in Bangladesh agriculture in an initial stage, a number of ICT project has been in existence recently. It is too early to evaluate whether it has been successful or not in a setting as enormous and complex as Bangladesh. We can simply point out that its growth for last five years is impressive.

Role of Information and Communication Technology (Ict) in Agriculture for Rural Development

FLORA AND FAUNA, 2017

If we want to convert our rural population into knowledge driven, progressive, self sufficient, self reliant, sustainable society, the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) cannot be ignored. Timely availability information is considered as most important factor in Indian agriculture. At present ICT is the technology of this millennium. Transferring the developed technology to all end users is time-consuming and tiresome task and is often not completed due to paucity of resources and lack of manpower. In India, agriculture and rural development has gained significantly from ICT due to its widespread extension and adoption. In this era of internet, ICT is committed to provide real, timely accurate authentic information to the farmers and rural peoples.

IJERT-The Role and Potential of Information Technology in Agricultural Development

International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2020

https://www.ijert.org/the-role-and-potential-of-information-technology-in-agricultural-development https://www.ijert.org/research/the-role-and-potential-of-information-technology-in-agricultural-development-IJERTV9IS070663.pdf Rural people are migrating towards urban areas to search the better opportunities for last couple of decades. Basic infrastructure facilities available in rural area are very less. Due to the lack of development and opportunities rural community will migrate to urban areas in search of jobs. This causes decline in economy of rural areas. Special focus has to be given for rural development which can enhance economy, social status and life style and living standards of the rural people. The task is to find different ways of using the ICT to assist development in activity in rural to improve living standard and achieve a specific goal or objective Agriculture is one of the major components of economy and plays a key role in the nation development. But improvements in agricultural sector are uneven and disappointing. ICT has the potential to address the challenges, however use of the technology in agricultural and rural areas is very slow. Purpose of the proposed study is to review the opportunities, potential and contribution of ICT in agricultural sector

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries. Yet yields in developing countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields and hence agricultural production is the use of improved technologies, such as fertilizers, improved seeds and cropping techniques and others. Traditional public-sector programs have attempted to overcome barriers to technological adoption by using agricultural extension services at the village or farm level. Yet despite decades of experience with a variety of extension programs and new technologies, adoption rates still remain relatively low in most developing countries. The rapid spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries over the past decade offers a unique opportunity to transfer knowledge and facilitate technological adoption via ICT-based agricultural extension programs. Numerous studies (Aker 2010, Nwachukwu 2013, Anyanwu 2013), on the effective communication and adoption of agricultural and other technologies have attempted to identify the determinants of technology adoption and potential barriers to it. While the specific determinants of technology adoption depend upon the setting and the technology type, there are some common factors that have been identified both in the theoretical and empirical literature. These include education levels, wealth, tastes, risk preferences, complementary inputs (land, labor and credit) and access to information and learning – either learning by doing or learning from others. Of these, the role of information and social networks has received particular attention.

Information Services to the Farmers in Current Scenario through Modern ICT Tools

International Journal of Advance and Applied Research, 2023

In today’s scenario famers need to be update for getting good quality production as well as better yield of the product. E-agriculture is the way that helps farmers to achieve the same. Eagriculture is formed with information and communication technology in agriculture (ICT in agriculture) to provide farmers with better and more timely agricultural information services. The main purpose of ICT is to disseminate information from one point to another point. E-agriculture (ICT) involves modern technologies like the use of smartphones and computers for mobile Apps, websites, and many things available for agricultural development. Its primary focus on agriculture is the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation, and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the rural domain.ICT or e-agriculture interventions are very useful around the world to help agriculturists improve their livelihoods through increased agricultural productivity and income with minimum risk. The role of ICT in agriculture is to provide agricultural extension & advisory services, Enhance market access, capacity building and empowerment, awareness about regularity and policies, disaster management, etc. There are many services like mkisan portal, e-choupal, kisan call centre, ekrishi, gramingyankendra, etc. available to the farmers providing enhanced agricultural information and services to them