e-Kroshok Trial launching

Hi, I am Remizius Remi from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Delivering my service as Diretor, IT Division in Win Incorporate (www.winbd.net), Recently, we have successfully launched our first trial version of our e-Krishok project under our pilot project www.ruralinfobd.com. Appreciate if you visit that which will help ourselves to make it more communicative. cheers!

Thnaks Benin to visit the site. Primarily it has been done to serve the rural farmer of Bangladesh. Necessary information is being delivered from some pilot project spot called Community Information Center (CIC), a venture of the Bangladesh's largest Mobile phone company GrameenPhone. Since the information is purely targeted for rural community, it was obvious to made up the site in Native language "Bangla". Thats why it is in that language. It is in pilot phase. Upon its success, we are planning to serve at least the with the introductory content in English also soon. As a part of the process Win Incorporate (www.winbd.net), a private business entity, is doing the necessary fact-finding, Need assessment, content development as per requirement, hosting & maintenance of the site. You will be very glad to know that the project is now achieving its result partially. We have conducted some field assessment few days back and found that a numbers of rural farmers are seeking their needed infos and some of them have already taken advantage of the process. And they are happy to have such kind of services through CIC. We are now planning to serve them through CallCenters, in joint venture with another entity in Bangladesh to serve them in better way. regd.

Thnaks Benin to visit the site. Primarily it has been done to serve the rural farmer of Bangladesh. Necessary information is being delivered from some pilot project spot called Community Information Center (CIC), a venture of the Bangladesh's largest Mobile phone company GrameenPhone. Since the information is purely targeted for rural community, it was obvious to made up the site in Native language "Bangla". Thats why it is in that language. It is in pilot phase. Upon its success, we are planning to serve at least the with the introductory content in English also soon. As a part of the process Win Incorporate (www.winbd.net), a private business entity, is doing the necessary fact-finding, Need assessment, content development as per requirement, hosting & maintenance of the site. You will be very glad to know that the project is now achieving its result partially. We have conducted some field assessment few days back and found that a numbers of rural farmers are seeking their needed infos and some of them have already taken advantage of the process. And they are happy to have such kind of services through CIC. We are now planning to serve them through CallCenters, in joint venture with another entity in Bangladesh to serve them in better way. regd.

Thanks Benin for visiting the site. Primarily it has been done to serve the rural farmer of Bangladesh. Necessary information is being delivered from some pilot project spot called Community Information Center (CIC), a venture of the Bangladesh's largest Mobile phone company GrameenPhone. Since the information is purely targeted for rural community, it was obvious to made up the site in Native language "Bangla". Thats why it is in that language. It is in pilot phase. Upon its success, we are planning to serve at least the with the introductory content in English also soon. As a part of the process Win Incorporate (www.winbd.net), a private business entity, is doing the necessary fact-finding, Need assessment, content development as per requirement, hosting & maintenance of the site. You will be very glad to know that the project is now achieving its result partially. We have conducted some field assessment few days back and found that a numbers of rural farmers are seeking their needed infos and some of them have already taken advantage of the process. And they are happy to have such kind of services through CIC. We are now planning to serve them through CallCenters, in joint venture with another entity in Bangladesh to serve them in better way. regd.

Hi Remi Thanks for your answer and the explanation on the e-kroshok project. It is indeed a good ppp model seeking to meet the needs of the farmers. and that is the most important things. Farmers' needs should be placed at the top of priorities in every innovative project (this concerns every domains where ICT is being integrated. (your response enlight me on a crucial fact. it is nice to see how the mastery of local language can play a fundamental role for the community development.) many of our farmers cannot read nor write their mother tongue it shows one of the biggest challenges awaiting for us in the development of e-agriculture and one of the crucial issues we need to address. thank you for your precious answers. best of luck for the project. As the site will be in English we will be very happy to take exemple on such a project to the advantages of our local farmers. keep connected Epiphane Benin

Hi Fred Weirowski, Greetings. Sorry for late reply. here is my answers: Is this project a typical public private partnership ( which model Joint venture?)? - It is a typical PPP. Which roles are playing the partner. who is leading the project?- Win Incorporate, a private firm leading the project; information dissemination by CIC (Community Information Center), a project of its partner organization GrameenPhone, one of the largest mobile phone companies in Bangladesh. I would be pleased to hear more about how is the remuneration of such a model. The private company Win Inc., is responsible for the most important content work, hosting and maintenance you wrote. How is the business model structured - means how Win Inc is earning money in this project in a long term perspecive?- We are gathering members (mostly farmers) through e-krishok project from locality (initially from 5 localities). They have been offered to have necessary information related to their work and also initiating a selection process to pick-up some good farmers to give Training (agri related) from a government proposed institute, almost FREE OF COST which can improve them in some way. We are also planning to do monthly or bi-monthly workshop/gathering to share views among members of e-krishok in information necessity perspective. Through these initiatives we are expecting to collect a huge numbers of members for e-krishok who will be our Brand Ambassador for our delivered content. And it is obvious for information they will visit those CICs frequently. Initially we are not charging CICs for delivered information. But after 2/3 months we are going to impose some nominal charge per center in monthly basis, which may become one of the earning points from such a model. Which role is playing the public site - is there any support from government per example in financial forms or by delivering information content, or in other form? - As stated earlier, there is a involvement of Govt. in the farmers' training process. And the content we are delivering to the centers has also connection with Govt. body. Need to mention that, in the proposed monthly or bi-monthly workshop/gathering, some Local Govt. official (like Agricultural Extention dept.) will be present to validate the process. Is the information content oriented to agriculture farmers or are there opportunities also for other branches? This, because I'm interested in information dissemination for the aquaculture sector.- We are delivering contents on Agriculture, Non-agro product (like candle making, yard gardening etc.), New Business Ideas (like pottery, medicinal plant nursery, commercial flower production etc) and Citizen Services (like education, health, culture, general health etc) to these centers. So any member can take any of this info as per their need. And we have also developed fisheries content that would cover the "aquaculture sector" that you mentioned. cheers!

Hello remi. It is a great idea to replace letters by image wchich give full explanation to illiterate who can also hear the audio version this time in their local laguage and when it is done, they can easily hace access to every kind of info they will need. Thanks

[color]Hello Remi.remi [quote]It's a great idea to replace verbal contents with visuals in the form odf animation pictures or cartoons but I'm afraid the cost would be a very profibitive factor ina business model .May be Govt. with its own initiative can think of doing this investing sufficient funds.[/quote]SIMILAR to this idea, I have n mind for my website on organic farming(www.farminggroup.org) wherein much more enquiries are on vermicomposting and a training in it. While I tried to put up an online training on this , my efforts could not gather much support from anywhere.On an individual basis I ill afford cost wise to do it with my own funds. Since my website itself managed with my own funds with no income whatsoever. A video filming of vermicomposting would do a lot of good to educate farmers as to how to do it themselves but I'm very sad that I could not do it.My site attracts 30000 hits a month , almos 1000 per day and so I wish soome one sponsor this project for the good of all farming community. Dr.Gandhi Director,Farminggroup.org :razz: New Delhi-19 09818186751

Dear Remi, It is most approrpiate that your site being in Bangla. I note you mention that you are engaged ni content development. For rice the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed about 200 plus fact sheets on cultivation of rice in Bangla. Are you tapping this source. I ask the question qs the content has the authority of the government behind it. I am very interested in content credibility. Public authorative content that is understandable by extension agents and farmers is critical in getting messages to farmers. Can you comment? Noel Magor

Dear Dr Ghandi, It would be good to have video and simple instructional material for vermi composting. There is probably good leaflets out there that have been prepared at some pont in time and then sitting on a shelf. Video is a role that government can support. I know the Rural Development Academy has the skill and ability to develop video. In 2003 and 2004 RDA developed seed health videos. the videos in English are available on Utube. The seed health videos are now available in some 20 African languages through WARDA in West Africa. The point I am making here is that government with donor support can develop materials that can then be used by the private sector for extension agents and farmers. It is a private public interface. The public link can be in two areas authorative content and development of trainig material. With internet cafes etc the maerial can then be used over and over again and ni different formats. What e krishok is diong and farming group is doing in Delhi is commendable? Noel Magor

hello, i am dipok k. choudhury. here is my opinion. To establishe the telecentre in rural area for developing agriculture related production, it is a go through in the different steps. audio version related steps are next steps. So it is better that system have to trial then finaly application. We are starting that system as early as possible.

Hi Noel P Magor Thanks for your concern inour e-krishok project ( and hence ruralinfobd.com). Yes, we have tapped 17 soruce in which BRRI is one from where we gather our information. It is now in regular updatation process. After that it will be hosted in the project site. And you will be glad to know that we have developed and modified our content to make it more accurate and farmer-friendly before delivering those. I guess you have your answers. regd

Dear Mr.NOEL MAGOR Thanks for your reflection and I do make a note of it. But being an individuals' website, probably no one Govt.department is interested to any such things like what you mentioned. : :( Mine is not a profit oriented site , it's more or less an NGO , may be individual's NGO, for the advocacy of organic farming.Even when I offered my services for launching and managing an elearning course to FAO, there was least resonse. However, I do my part on my own . :doubt: Trying to shoot the vermicomposting procedures step by step and try to explain in Engllish verbally along with some videclippings, if some day someone picks up and offers something like an etube version of video, then let's see how far my services are going to be useful to the society at large . :? If anything I can do individually , pl . guide me to enrich my website as I'm tired of running around any institution for support of this common cause.In that time,I would better do something on my own to the society. :D drg.gandhi

Dear Remy,, I am interested in what you are doing with e krishok? What is the specific facility that you are using for the computer access by your clients. Yopu metioned five localities. Is this five villages, five unions, five thanas? is it one computer? or more? Noel

Dear Noel (answering "I am interested in what you are doing with e krishok?"): Here I am sharing the brief of e-krishok activities: e-krishok has been launched to provide modern and up-to-date agro and non-agro based information (content) to the farmers in solve-and-share basis. This is the farmers' network where they will be able to solve any agro related problems through internet by visiting the website of ruralinfobd.com. For the convenience and benefit of the farmers the agro and non-agro content has been produced in native language "Bengali". The farmers can avail the information also over phone (and in near future through CallCenter). If they visit GPCIC (Communication Information Centre established by Grameen Phone, a leading cell phone company in Bangladesh.), they can receive the service. Vision of the e-krishok The main vision and mission of e-krishok network is to achieve social and financial up gradation of the rural people especially the farmers. Objective of the establishment of e-krishok • To provide urgent and necessary information to the farmers. • To build farmers' group so that information on agro based problems can be exchanged within the group. • To motivate visiting the GPCIC and hence to use the content of ruralinfobd.com. Benefit of the farmers of e-krishok • Farmers Obtain information on agro, non-agro, business plan, poultry, fisheries, education, health, governance and many other vital content through this website (ruralinfobd.com). • They can participate in training and awareness-building program, which are related to agriculture. • They can have the solution of agro and non-agro based problem over phone from expert panel of Win Inc. in emergency basis (and in near future through CallCenter). • They will be delivered necessary Training or workshop facilities offered by local Govt. office which may not availed by them. • They can get all kinds of assistance regarding ICT. • Develop own business network. • Workshop arrangement for the selected member farmers in collaboration with Govt. and non-govt. organizations for their livelihood improvement. So these are the activities and facilities we are offering through e-krishok. (answering other queries): And these five locations are mainly 5 GPCICs in 5 villages where there are 3-5 computers available for users and strictly at least one computer is dedicated for Information dissemination. Here operator communicates with the farmers about their problems and then they find out the solutions from the online database (Bengali). In case of unavailability of the particular content, the operator instantly inform the core group of ruralinfobd.com (i.e. Win Inc.) and we find out the solution from our archived database or from the help of expert panel members and deliver that to the operator sometime instantly or sometime within 1 or 2 days. Recently we are working on to set-up a "Call-Center" facility through which we can deliver the needed infos more instantly and accurately. That's it. Regd Remi IT Director Win Incorporate

Dear Remi, For e-krishok in the five localities wha tis the physical arrangement of the computers? Who manages? How is that person earning income? How much is non agriculture content in terms of income? Noel

Dear Noel Sorry for being late to reply. Physical arrangement of the computers in 5 locations based on the Centers' (CICs) own arrangements. They maintain these computers and in every center at least one is dedicated for info service. e-krishok is mainly a supporting product of ruralinfobd.com, so financial transaction through e-krishok not fixed yet. It is treated as a info customer gaining system; when a farmer become a member of the e-krishok, he tends to get info of his/her necessity from the centers where the center owner charges them a minimum amount for the info. The system we call is "MORE MEMBER> MORE INFO SEEK > MORE INCOME", and hence bring benefits to the center owner. And thus ICT related service need for farmers grows rapidly. Since no center can survive alone on the ICT info for agriculture, they have other services like e-mail, scanning, digital studio, composing etc. for fluent income generation. And beside those info service also makes them more valuable to the local farmers who are the member of e-krishok and hence user of the services offered by these centers. Both agriculture and Non-agriculture content charges are same in terms of income. But it is yet to be more synchronized with the service. regd remizius remi