Discussion Week 1: 10 – 14 March “Sharing and expanding upon experiences, successes, issues, and challenges�

Hi everyone, let me first thank manish for posing a very relevant question pertaining to e-agriculture. We can start with examples from India where e-chaupal, an initiative by a conglomerate ITC has made a place in the mind of farmers. if we stick to the partenership mode, thogh this is completely run by ITC along with the help of rural entrepreneurs, the company has tied up with state agricultural universities and extension machinery ( Govt. of India) for providing online technical advice to the farmers.It has partenered with meteriological deptt. to share the weather related information to farmers which aids them in crop sowing etc.Again, it has tied up with the district authorities for e-governance. so the partnership they are having is multilateral and utiizing the state machinery. it is assisting the farmers in providing a single window system. Further we can take example of other countries and see how PPP can be strengthened for e-agriculture in near future thanks

Hi Sapna, Many thanks for sharing the e-Choupal example. This is a great start. e-Choupal is, indeed, one of the most talked-about stories. Can you shed some more light on what makes the ITC's partnership with the government agencies you mentioned work well? For instance, what do you think were the incentives, motivation for the government agencies to collaborate with ITC? Moreover, India sure is a hotbed for many ICT innovations, so please feel free to share examples of other relevant initiatives. Thanks.

Kissan Call Centre Indeed we in India have many examples set for the betterment of our farmers and let me share rather add. Recently, government of India has introduced a Farmers Kissan Call Centre which is a toll free (1551) agriculture based advice being given to farmers pertaining to various problems which farmers confront on or off farm. This advice is being given round the clock and remains at the disposal of farmers in their own local dialect with the objective to enhance agriculture production and simultaneously to mitigate the farmers miseries as well..

Hi Manish ITC is fulfilling its job of procurement of good quality agricultural produce at competitive rates, whereas it is providing market information to the farmers and other technical advice fre of cost. its purpose is to strengthen the value chain as well as empower the farmer with market information . the farmers in India as well as other developing countries get exploited in the hands of intermediaries The Government agencies are eager to help and cooperate with iTc as e.g. land records system , farmers had to go to district authorities, stand in queues and it was a chaos for both the authorities and farmers, who are now getting all thier papers online. This has also created the interest of farmers as well as authorities. If we talk about information and technical advice, the extension deptt people , they have to go to each village to arrange meetings and throgh online, they can address the needs of a large group of farmers, which will be convenient for both. the only hurdle is how to generate awareness among the farmers regarding the services available I would be happy to take any further questions Thanks

Hi Mr. SHAH Masood, Its Arafat here. I am with Swisscontact Katalyst, Dhaka Bangladesh. We are seriously thinking of something like your refferd Kissan Call center. This Kissan Call Center idea sounds really good. Could you please enlighten me more on the issue of content for information service delivery through this call center. I mean from where this call center is sourcing content? or it is being attended by agricultural experts?

Hello Mr. Masood, This is Shehzaad Shams from Swisscontact Katalyst, Bangladesh. I am a Business Consultant. -I wanted to know if the Kissan Call Center is available and accessed from all over India or is it state specific? -Also, please shed some light on the role played by private sector in making this initiative a success. -I wanted to know what are the clear incentives for the private sector, if any, in this project. -Do the farmers need to pay for availing this service? if yes, how much? -Any website available? Thanks.

This is my responce to friends from Bangladesh, This service of Kissan Call Centre is totally free and refer to my statement- it is toll free operating communication system throughout India and that too with diverse local dialect of our countries origin. It is so simple in the way that a farmer has to just dial a number 1551 which is later directed to a concerned subject matter specialist who answers the query to the entire satisfaction of the raiser. I hope that will do. If you need more information never hesitate. SHAH Masood Kashmir INDIA.

Hello everyone I am from Benin a west african developing country. I am excited by the progress ICT is making in the agricultural life of your countries I am sorry I don't have much successful stories to share with you.However, ICT in agriculture I think has a powerful and positive impact on Agriculture with lot of challenges as well. Water control, via irrigation systems, knowledge on the nature of the soil which determine what type of seed to sow, new farming technics, wider market accessibility for farmers, speed in communication for inland villages via mobile cell and other communication devices, dissemination of research works over website, order placement possibilities, online exchange in community to share useful information for all are issues that ICT can adress with great success. Cost-effectiveness, ICTs affordabiliy by low income farmers, illiteracy rate and lack of expertise and lack of interest from private sectors concerned with return of investment to the agriculture sector which dioes not always offer groundbreaking guarantee , side effects of ICTs in big agri-entreprise which employs a considerable human labor are some challenges. My question is What advantages can e-agriculture bring to infertile countries. (desert countries?) Thanks

You said "the only hurdle is how to generate awareness among the farmers regarding the services available". Now we are talking my business, EVANGELISM!!! :D How indeed do we get farmers intersted in, no, let me restate that, DEMANDING access to technology that helps the farm more productively, make more money and have better lives? Does someone on the forum have examples where the tide changes from pushing technology TO farmers to a model where farmers are pusing technology to do more? Yours, Philip

Thanks for sharing this, Peter. This is indeed helpful. Would be great if you could please expand a little more on how the "project" went about motivating "everyone to work together" and the incentivizing the public and private sectors Since you mentioned this is a project, do you know its longer term perspective?

Hi everyone, Thanks for startng a discussion on Challenges for these initiatives further to the previous posts by Mr. ISlam and Mr. Shah masoodi would like to discuss the challenges for these initiatives Though the picture of e-agriculture initiatives seem very rosy, but my field level experience with some of these projects were disappointing. the biggest challenge in the success of these initiatives to really serve the purpose is the infrastructure; In rural areas, where there is no electricity availability throghout and internet connection, how can we expect these e-agriculture initiatives to be a succes. In fact. we need power back-ups and other infrsatructural support. Installation and Maintainence of the electronic devices is another big issue. Training of stakeholders and farmers also need to be looked into . This is one of the major challenge.As most of the rural people do not know the use of computers.they need to be trained to all this. The use of specialised and user-friendly software and other technologies is also achallenge This is where a PPP model can work out. As the public sector is having extension machinery, training support as well as scientific base, private partner can provide infrastyructural support, products and technologies needed for faming (this will be thier value proposition in the model create interest).lOcal NGO can also help in dissemination Thanks

Hi! Everyone! This is Janaki. The discussion tis really enlightening. As part of this, I would like to share some of the working PPP e-ag models in India whcih I know. 1. e-choupal of ITC ( already been shared by my friends), which I consider as worth replicating in entire Asia. 2. Agricultural Resources Information System (AgRIS) in Haryana State Here at village.Panchayats the CSCs (e-disha Ekal Seva Kendras) are being established thorugh PPP model and the SWAN is also being established to provide requisite connectivity. The appropriate agriculture local content, so developed is disseminated throguh the CSCs, In addition to the Internet, The minimal service charges are charged for the transactional services that are provided by these CSCs. 3. The v-Agri model of Byrraju Foundation It is a modified version of the e-Sagu model developed by IIIT, Hyderabad . While retaining the basic e-Sagu's concept of "taking the crop to the scientist, instead of scientist going to the field", v-Agri model is expanded to include all the important service providers to the farmers and villagers through a collaborative approach. Using information and communication technology through Ashwini platform, virtual linkages are developed with all the major stakeholders who can provide services to the farmer. This has been adjudged as one of the best models and received many awards in virtual service provding categories. These are only few examples. However, the issues that persist in any model are 1. Infrastructure: Power and Internet connectivity in rural areas 2. Capacity building: Training in running e-agri centres in the villages and awareness on the utility of e-agriculture (the complementarity benefits or the value addition it can provide to conventional praactices of agriculture (as we have no technology yet to produce tomatos from computers through Internet) 3. Data ownership and authenticity (resposibility sharing among the partners)/proprietary issues 3. Mechanism for regular updating of contents & knoledge base Thanks

Many thanks for sharing these examples with us, Dr. Janaki. They are indeed useful. The forum would benefit further if you could please share with us the aspects that make v-Agri and AgRIS effective. If you have info, please let us know specifically about the private and public sector roles in these initiatives, the challenges they are facing and the impact these initiatives have on the target groups. Thanks

Hi Its Remizius remi from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Serving as Director, IT Division at Win Incorporate. Details about Win at [url]www.winbd.net.[/url] Questions: To Mr. SHAH Masood: a. How do you generate income from call center for long time sustainability? b. How the contents are created, validated and updated? Responding Mr. Manish's discussion topic, I would like to share my views and experiences: Win is running a pilot phase of an e-agricultre based project called ruralinfobd.com with the collaboration with KATALYST since last 6 months. Our delivered contents are mostly based on local rural need. And in the process of content development, some Government officials and documents were introduced successfully (as well as non-government). For the time being, the information is disseminated through some localized centers called CIC (Community Information Centers), a project of Bangladeshs' most emerging Mobile phone company GrammeenPhone. Rural people used to take necessary information from these centers as per their need paying a little amount (sometimes none). These models have also been introduced in some other e-agriculture initiatives like Alokitogram and Ghat; those have also been initiated by KATALYST few years back. And all of the content of these projects is developed in Native language "Bangla" to communicate widely with local people. Based on our field experience I have some suggestions/thinkings: 1. Need: Information on Indigenous technology, intermediary problem solution has immense potential in the rural community. 2. Suggestion: Info can be introduced with audio and video for more understanding, success story dissemination through group activity in weekly gathering (Win has initiated in e-krishok project), problem and solution sharing through farmers in group activities which may resolve some problems instantly. 3. Recommendation: [quote]1. e-agriculture centers ( like GPCIC, RIC here in Bangladesh) can setup community radio (for weather forecast and local news) which can be maintained by localized private stakeholders . 2. Centers can organize training facility for young and energetic individuals to promote new business ideas regarding agriculture (like Mushroom, Koel raring etc.) [/quote] But above all, awareness building is a great necessity for e-agriculture centers to let the rural people know about the services these centers are offering. Question: Can any one of this forum share any real-life experience about "Market price delivery system" to the rural farmers through e-agriculture related centers?

Hi Michael Thanks for the information shared on GIEWS.could you give an examplee of some of the firms ( bith public sector and private sector) who get information through this. I would also be interested in knowing as to how these information is provided and the benefits offered to the main stakeholder, i.e. farmer. Are you having any collaboration with indian companies. sapna

Dear all i would also like to share my experience with a scheme run by Ministry of Agriculture,Government of India. the scheme is AGMARKNET ( agricultural Marketing information Network). the objective of this scheme is to empower the farmers with market information on commodity prices. This is running throghout India and connects the major mandis in each state. The govt. has provided computers at the mandis and other major nodes. data is uploaded to the main site at diffrent nodes all over India. the information users are farmers, exporters, etc.This project involves the central govt. state govt. agriculture deptt. and universities. ,directorate of marketing and inspection regards sapna

Nice feeling to join Public Private Partnership (3P's). PPPs provide benefits by allocating the responsibilities to the party - either public or private - that is best positioned to control the activity that will produce the desired result. With PPPs, this is accomplished by specifying the roles, risks and rewards will march with partnership, so as to provide incentives for maximum performance and the flexibility necessary to achieve the desired results. I the PPP meets the following points: - Expedite completion compare to conventional project delivery methods; Project cost savings; - Improve quality and system performance from the use of innovative materials and management techniques; - Substitution of private resources and personnel for constrained public resources; - Access to new sources of private capital and - Establish bondage to work together and change

Hi Sapna, this AGMARKNET sounds quite interesting as a PPP example. I am not familiar with it myself. Can you give us some specific examples of who and how the private sector has been involved in this, and what benefit or challenge that brings to the whole project? Thanks, Michael (FAORAP)

Hi! Manish! V-Agri of 'ASHWINI' Platform is the project implemented by Byrraju Foundation, Hyderabad, India. It is supported by Media Lab Asia and is being operated in 75 villages in West and East Godavari districts of Andhra Oradesh. This project developed confidence over 2000 farmers in these villages. First the data sheet is being made available to farmers to fill. This is processed into digital format fecilitated by a software developed by Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad. For reseach the aim is to find out if ICTs can be used for poverty reduction. The methodology used is Ethnographic Action Research. Queensland University of Technology and University of Adelaide will be providing the guidance for carrying out research. The major issue is the identification of right farmers/community to whom the service actually goes as 70%-90% of cultivators are not real owners of the land. The details on v-agri can be obtained from www.byrrajufoundation.org. With regard to 'AgRIS' project the details can be obtained from www.agric.nic.in Thanks Janaki

Dear Dr. Janaki Krishna, Your comments and views do reflect the ground realities and practical problems that exist. Though the constraints cited are valid, they may not be major impediments if e-agriculture models can deliver true value to farming communities. Mass popularity of television and mobile phones are classic examples, where people have opted for these services even where basic necessities were absent. Let me try and address the concerns raised by you. 1. Power and internet connectivity is an issue in some areas. However, since alternative power sources such as solar energy are available at affordable costs this is not a major constraint. The reach of Internet connectivity is rapidly increasing with the penetration of mobile telephony. Technology developments are underway, whereby mobile phones can be used to access internet content in voice format through Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. This will be a boon to illiterate people and for those who cannot or do not have access to computers. 2. Capacity building. Point taken. E-learning combined with focussed awareness creation can help address this issue. 3.& 4. Data ownership and Maintenance. The source of much of the data and information are from public entities - government or research/academic institutions (since in this region, the government is a major stakeholder in many of these institutions). This data is generally available in the public domain free of cost. Ownership of the data may remain with the source organisation and the use of data can be licensed to selected partners. The key issues are: • how can this data can be converted to information in electronic from, which is useful and easily understood by the farmers • effective dissemination of this information to a larger section of the agriculture community • cost of providing this service. The ability of public entities to be wholly and directly involved in delivering this service successfully, is debatable. Hence, the need for private organisations to forge partnerships with public entities to deliver content to farmers. It is likely that public institutions would make the effort to convert the data and information into electronic form and maintain it. But the value addition to transform this information in a format acceptable and useful to the farming community, may have to be done by private oraganisations. Working models will need to be established on how this can be achieved through PPP. Worldwide, most internet information is available free of cost and this will apply for e-agriculture too. Some of information can be charged for and farmers would be willing to pay if they perceive value. The overall costs of providing this service can be recovered through advertisements and paid services. Other value added services such as internet usage, DTP services, e-commerce would be other ways to recover the cost to make this model sustainable. Regards, Amit Dasgupta.

Dear Sapna, It woul dbe my understanding that many farmers will not have access to the internet. Getting very good information to the extension agents would be a first step. Is some of the infromation you provide in a format that the extension agent or other organisation can print off to take and use in the village. Have you thought of flyer that can be downloaded to be printed and given to farmers to advertise your services? How credible is your information? How do you ensure credibility? Noel

Dear Arafat, I think this is a good question and one I also asked Raj with ITC. I zould be interested to know the response. It woul dseem to me it is easy to get people to write bits of information but credibility is important. Noel

As I read the thread from Manish's opening question: [quote=Manish Pandey] Q: What are the partnership models practiced in different countries in Asia, where the public and the private sector actors have come together to make e-agriculture work?[/quote] To the last entry above, there were a few points raised that I would like to hear more discussion on: [quote]-> How has the private sector been courted to enter PPPs to meet needs while finding value and profit in addressing a given opportunity? [quote=Ekanath Khatiwada]Still ISP are not realizing there huge market on agriculture sectors. If ICT sector realize the importance this sector and penetrate there services, it will be beneficial to the farmers (produces) and ICT sector equally. Finally it will boost the agric industry. [/quote] -> Who are the private entities in PPPs. Are they large enterprises, small entrepreneurs, investors,...? [quote=Paolo Barattini]"private" means big companies that want to penetrate the market...[/quote] -> How can PPP models be successfully be transferred from one innovation system to another or one cultural context to another? [quote=Naimur Rahman]At the same time, our experience in LifeLines has demonstrated that an innovative ICT application or a PPP model in Agriculture will be successful only when it is adapted to local context and be responsive to farmers' needs. [/quote] -> How have value propositions been created to drive demand for ICTs? [quote=Paolo Barattini]Let me pose a very simple question how much should the small farmer increase his/her earnings in order that the adoption of ITC is self-sustainable?[/quote] -> How have intermediaries been successfully disintermediated? [quote=Sapna A Narula]the farmers in India as well as other developing countries get exploited in the hands of intermediaries[/quote][/quote]

Dear Dasgupta, Thank you for your clarifications. Issues should never detriment the introduction of new technologies. I agree that situations are improving, but still lot of progress has to be witnessed in the rural areas. Regarding non-conventional energies lot needs to be done. That's again another challenging domain. My dream is to have e-agrei-schools run on solar/wind/nuclear energy in every nook and corner in rural India. The answer might be only through PPPs, though these models are still evolving and we are learning lessons with reagrd to infrasturcture projects etc. Thank you once again for expliciting the need despite the issues in e-agriculture. Regards, Janaki

Hi everybody, The issue of costs is important whether or not the user pays for it. For example, in most cases, data in public sector is often in hard form not digitalised. That itself is a big challenge, how to do that fast and accurately. Accuracy may not matter so much for text type information. But if it is figures like x kg of urea to be applied to a plot with particular type of soil characteristics, accuracy matters. The private sector may agree to incur costs if it is assured of some positive pay-offs. Else the digitalisation itself has to be paid for by the public sector. In that case, private sector can not morally charge for the information service except connectivity. Regular updating is a real problem. But for not all types of information. Fertilser doses may not need regular updating, but price information needs to be updated probably even twice a day. here one needs dedicated people to do just that. Who pays for them? For price information, businessmen may be far more interested and they probably can be more easily charged for the service. For effective dissemination, more graphical interface and use of vernacular language are likely to be more useful. Best regards, Asad

Responding to Philip's query: [quote]-> How have value propositions been created to drive demand for ICTs?[/quote] The value proposition should be defined by the incremental benefit that the farmer is deriving out of using an ICT application. In case of LifeLines, the key differentiator is critical & time dependent knowledge on farm input, that impacted crop productivity and profit to the farmers. Even within our project villages, a direct correlation between demand for LifeLines service & crop productivity can be established. And I would argue this to be true in other rural ICT applications as well. Naimur Rahman OneWorld South Asia

Hi, This is Shahid Uddin Akbar from Bangladesh and I am serving as ICT Consultant at Katalyst-Swisscontact. I like to share one of the most successful PPP model worked in Bangldesh and that is Village Phone (VP) program jointly implemented by Grameen Bank (GB), Grameen Telecom (GTC) and Grameen Phone (GP). Under VP program, modern telecommunication services offered to the poor people in Bangladesh. The objective of VP program is "To provide easy access to telephone services, all over rural Bangladesh To initiate a new income generating option for the villagers To gradually bring the full potential of the Information Revolution to their doorsteps and thereby introduce telecommunication as a new weapon against poverty." (Source - GTC). A Grameen Bank member obtains ownership of the phone under the lease-financing program of the bank and provides the services to the people in the adjoining area, covering both outgoing and incoming calls. Role of partners in this project are - GB select members and offer micro finance support - GTC oversee the operational issues like bill collection - GP provide connectivity and offer special packages / rates Main challenge of this program was availability of electricity in rural areas to recharge the mobile phone. Around 300,000 village phone lady is now working all over the country. And in many countries the model is now being introduced. Thanks, Shahid

:( I want to share with my friends across the world through this forum that one of my ambitions is to persuade the next generation to take on climate change as a moral consideration. The enviornment is precious before all of us and we must do everything possible to preserve its beauty by all means and try to secure a better future for our progeny. Every one of us are familiar with possible solutions and we KNOW to say NO to THE COUNTRIES who are in fact responsible for hazards of climate. In this behelf, conservation, more transportation choices, cleaner and hybrid cars and fuels, renewable energy, reducing the loss of forests and farm lands. We all know how to do it in ways that expand economic opportunity. We know how to waste less and live better. SHAH Masood INDIA

Thanks to all for participating in this stimulating discussion and sharing your precious thoughts. We have been learning from your experiences and lessons. This has indeed been useful. Week I of the forum is now officially closed. A summary of the first week's discussion will be made available next week. We will announce the Week II discussion shortly and look forward to your continued participation. Thanks and best regards, Manish

Hi everyone, I am Laxmi Pant, a student of rural innovation policy studies. When I was reading through the messages this morning, a few puzzles come to my mind. 1. PPP has been experimented as a model to improve social processes of making agricultural technologies (new animal breeds, crop varieties, chemical fertilizers, mechanical tools, etc) work for poor. ICTs could be one among a long list of technologies that can help fellow farmers to move out of the poverty. Empirical examples are emerging!!!. 2. Now we are specifically interested in making ICTs work for poor through the model of PPP. Here my assumption is that poor is a generic term that apply to most farmers in low-income countries. Indian farmers are committing suicide; a sad strategy to debt relief! How will ICTs help revert this trend? Will it be an additional source of expense for them? Indian colleagues may have more insights on this! 3. Social divides, such as hierarchy, bureaucracy, divides between scientific and local knowledge, and divides between open science practices at the local level and IPR issues associated with scientific knowledge, are the biggest challenge in most South Asian countries. E-agriculture can work though PPP, but provided we address the social divides prevalent in our society. Here I am considering three types of private sector; all that is not public - non-profit private, for-profit private and informal sector. We have to be clear which category of private sector! Hope our fellow participants spare time to help me solve these puzzles. Thank you, Laxmi

Dear Epiphane, I am also writing from Benin. I am here for three weeks for conducting a training course on Seed Production for rice. It is being conducted jointly by WARDA (African Rice Centre) and IRRI (International Rice Research Insitute). I am typing fro, a tele centre of Songhai. e-agriculture can bring a lot to desert countries. If there are techniques that can be used by farmers and these are made available to NGOs and public sector extension agents through the internet then the learning can be passed onto farmers. Let me illustrate how. Imagine you are sitting in a Songhai telecentre as a technician; On a website is information that can help desert agriculture. Your organisation collects that information prints it and makes it available to your desert communities? There is no difference between a desert community and a fertile agriculture community. IRRI has been working with partern countries to build local authorative knowledge on rice; We are now using the same approach with CIMMYT. There is no reason why the approach cannot be used for desert agriculture. Visit our website knowledgebank.irri.org. Go behind a flag and see what is being done in local language. Noel Magor