Hi all,

 

This question was addressed through a small study we  conducted in Uttarakhand state of india; the study prioritizes the information related needs of  farmers. The link is given herewith.

http://www.agricorner.com/a-study-of-prioritisation-of-information-related-needs-of-farmers/

Thanks,

Sapna

Dear all, ICT offers great potential for agri value chain when it comes to developing countries I see it playing a great role in future by ensuring information delivery to the resource poor farmers and bringing transparency in the system. also, it can revolutionize the chains by reducing post harvest losses and empowering the farmers. More transparency will help build efficiency in the system and consumers will be benefitted. In fact, all stakeholders will be benefitted by ICT. But, I very much agree with ravi Shankar's point that we have to properly implement these solutions in terms of resouces, processes and people. The ground level implementation is the most critical success factor. The sources for evenue generation are more important.So the policy makers have to be very cautious only then it can be successfully implemented and serve for farmers as well as developing economies. Sapna

Dear all, For an exaple of networking of agricultural markets through a portal in India, see the following link: www. agmarknet.nic.in

Hi all, Under this section , many participants have elaborated the ways by which we can integerate ICTs into the value chain. Here I give my views withrespect to this question and subsequent discussions; People: All stakeholders in the value chain must be involved i.e. farmers, intermediaries, input suppliers , logistic providers, scientists etc. If all of these are involved, only then we can make ICT projects happen and can win their support. In developing countries, where value chains are more in hands of intermediaries, excluding them entirely from the chain will not help as they have some of theactivities. So their roles have to be redefined the roles of all the people i.e. actors must be defined across value chain in the ICT enabled environment The training of these stakeholders is also an important factor as mentioned above Institutions; the institutions across the entire value chain i.e. local level and national level should collaborate for data generation and updation. these could be private as well as public institutions. national level institutions i.e. research institutes, meterological departments, agricultural universities should come together to generate need-based data. in some cases, where private companies are providing services, they also need to collaborate with government institutes. processes: The system as well as processes should be developed so that itthe information delivery is reliable, speedy and need- based. Above all these aspects, the choice of technology and client -centric approach is very important . sapna

[quote="martin.dietschi"] [quote="bpopat"] Dear All, I tend to think in terms of what Services are required to have an economic or social impact and then the technology that is accessible, affordable and the degree to which it will have the desired impact. Bharat [/quote] I strongly agree with Bharat. I don't think in terms of what technology we could deliver. I think of what problem needs to be solved, what service provided, what market constraint overcome. Then I search for the best technology to solve that problem under the given circumstances. We should not let ourselves be led too much by technology, even if a lot of it is fascinating. We should think in terms of solutions or services and technology as an enabler or information distribution mechanism. Martin [/quote] Very true, martin. I also feel that a client is more interested in the solutions we offer to him rather than the technologies we use to deliver these solutions. i.e. he is more interested in the benefits a product derives rather than the product itself sapna

Dear all, Here , i would like to lead the discussion to the following important points: what is the role of private sector in spread of ICTs in agri-value chain? What kind of private companies can play part in these activities? What kind of activities can be undertaken by public sector?or the role of public sector will be limited to funding? the possible PPP mode of partenership for strengthening agrivalue chain through ICTs is also important, how? Your comments/ suggestions/examples from your own countries are welcome. Sapna

Dear Lisa, This is an important question as far as the use of ICTs in rural areas is concerned.Some heaviliy funded and fancy projects in India have failed because of the lack of proper implementation.Some major constraints as well as challenges are: lack of awareness Training of all stakeholders involved including farmers Lackof electricity Internernet connectivity data updation Design of information modules Cost factor Economies of scale These projects can be successfully implemented only if the infrastructural constraints are removed and the proper training is done. also the networking between various institutions is required regarding sharing of databases etc. Any further questions are welcome. sapna

[quote="sameera"] Hi All Let me to share with you outcomes of a interesting research done by LIRNEasia, a research organization in Sri Lanka. The research was on Cost of Information in agriculture markets, with special reference to "Dambulla" a whole sale vegetable market in Sri Lanka. Findings; Transaction cost -> 15% of the total cost of production Out of that 15% Transaction cost -> 70% is Cost of Information That is the cost of traveling and searching information, which could have minimized with the support of ICT. I do not try to generalize the findings of a research done with Sri Lankan vegetable farmers to whole world, but this research help us to understand the potential role ICT can play to minimize the Transaction cost. Sameera. Hi sameera, Thanks for this information [/quote]

Further to the discussion on the theme, there is an excellent example of ITC, india's conglomerate starting an ICT initiative i.e. e-chaupal, The company is providing computers to the farmers in villages and giving them data on all aspects of value chain i.e. weather, crop advisory and agriinputs along with data on commodity prices and arrivals.At the same time, company is procuring the produce. it has infact empowered the soyabean and tobacco farmers so that they are free to sell their produce, where they have maximum margin. The uniqueness of this project is that it is commodity-specific Sapna