PONDICHERRY, India –- Indian scientists are embracing the new "mantra" of technology to help the country's farmers battle the unpredictable gods of weather.
At a southern regional conference of computer professionals last week, the focus was on how technology can be used to help manage the farmer's timetable, plan crop establishment, control insects and rodents, manage water, and -- as always -- help with marketing.
"Most soil testing and reporting in the country is being done on a time-consuming manual basis," said Dr. Jugalkishor Agarwal, chairman of the Computer Society of India's division for IT applications.
"It's not a virtual reality. In some parts of Jammuand Kashmir, farmers are already monitoring their fields by sitting at home," said scientist Dattatraya Vhatkar, of the North Indian Chandigarh-based Central Scientific Instruments Organisation. "We have imported sophisticated equipment from Austria for this purpose."
Dr. Agarwal, formerly with the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University of Jabalpur, warned the conference attendees that focusing on the cost of deploying the technology would be short-sighted.
"We should not immediately start worrying about the cost of the technology for now," said Agarwal. "When the transistor was invented, it was costlier than gold. But once into mass production, costs fell."
India has already started its plan to get information to farmers by setting up a website where technical agricultural information can be shared. One agriculture portal offers information in both English and the regional Indian language of Telugu.
India is also trying to glean ideas from other countries that have successfully used technology to deal with agricultural problems.
Recently, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Mauritius set up a prototype Agricultural Information System for use by the rural community in that island nation.
It tested the use of audio files in two local spoken languages on a website that offers advice on potato growing as a means of overcoming the illiteracy barrier of villagers.
Information, which is usually available only in technical reports, is on the website with additional graphics to facilitate communication. Icons were developed by testing them with farmers, to make usability easy. The experiment is designed to have the farmers retrieve their information from audio files.
Another senior agricultural extension scientist, Dr. Sandhya Shenoy of the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management in Hyderabad, created A Gateway to Indian Agriculture. The site contains information on animal sciences, crop sciences, agribusiness, fisheries, home science, horticulture, natural resources, and sustainable agriculture.
Links lead to agriculture-related organizations worldwide, as well as to programs, publications and libraries, weather information and other agricultural issues, gender issues, infotech and human resources.
Recent news reports from Maharashtra, a province in western India, said the state government plans to link 40,000 villages using software developed especially for farmers. Called Agronet, the software will provide farmers with the latest information on agriculture, including cropping patterns.
The Ajit Foundation, a nonprofit organization from Rajasthan, is now shipping SimTanka and SimTalab, software programs to help villagers calculate the amount of water they could expect in their tanks and ponds. The calculations are based on simulations and past rainfall records from the area.
