Dear all I think there are some critical success factors for the success of mobile telephony projects in rural areas. cost effctive technologies and solutions Networking among all stakeholders as well as govt. institutions providing timely and relevant information training and capacity building of all involved Building telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas

Dear Michael Great ! It is really nice to see you on this virtual platform.Hope this discussion again will be a great success .

Dear All greetings I join here again to give my inputs to the questions raised by manish How can content be best developed, updated and authenticated, and delivered to the intended beneficiaries? First of all, We should actually see what content is actually needed by the beneficiaries. the assessment of needs should follow a region-specific approach.the authenticity of the content also matters. for this data should be collected from public as well as private partners. the choice of partners should also be based on authenticity and relevancy of information. Content development is a constantly evolving process.as the needs of the target groups may keep on changing from time to time . the user groups also may change ,so assessment should be done regularly. the updation of data is also very important. as was seen with my experience of AGMARKNET scheme, where farmers have to be given the price information related to different commodities. the daily updation is required. In case it is not done on a regular basis, the information is of no use to farmers. As we all know information should be SMART S specific M measurable A Accurate R Relevant T Timely The content though available on electronic media is always not completely accessible by the farmers or other target groups. in the AGMARKNET, the content is being made available through pamphelets, tickers in agricultural mandis.notice boards. ITC e chaupal is also taking help of these instruments for content dissemination. thanks and waiting to hear from you all Sapna

Dear All greetings I join here again to give my inputs to the questions raised by manish How can content be best developed, updated and authenticated, and delivered to the intended beneficiaries? First of all, We should actually see what content is actually needed by the beneficiaries. the assessment of needs should follow a region-specific approach.the authenticity of the content also matters. for this data should be collected from public as well as private partners. the choice of partners should also be based on authenticity and relevancy of information. Content development is a constantly evolving process.as the needs of the target groups may keep on changing from time to time . the user groups also may change ,so assessment should be done regularly. the updation of data is also very important. as was seen with my experience of AGMARKNET scheme, where farmers have to be given the price information related to different commodities. the daily updation is required. In case it is not done on a regular basis, the information is of no use to farmers. As we all know information should be SMART S specific M measurable A Accurate R Relevant T Timely The content though available on electronic media is always not completely accessible by the farmers or other target groups. in the AGMARKNET, the content is being made available through pamphelets, tickers in agricultural mandis.notice bords. ITC e chaupal is also taking help of these instruments for content dissemination. thanks and waiting to hear from you all Sapna

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

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 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 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 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 suport. 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 Thanks