ICT programmes in livestock

development, Problems and prospects

of ICTs in livestock development

By: Seema Kujur

Ph.D Scholar, IARI, New Delhi
 Overview
• India has a major share of the global population of the livestock, with rich and vast genetic resources.

• The Livestock sector contributes around 25.6% of total agricultural gross domestic product (GDP).

• Livestock sector plays an important role in the national economy and socio-economic development of our
country especially rural India.

• Over the span of, India has transformed from a country of acute milk shortage to the world’s leading milk
producer.

• But, unfortunately per animal per lactational production remains a law due to lack of adoption of improved
livestock farming practices with less scientific and traditional extension approaches.

• The traditional livestock extension technique and process have their own limitation.

• The use of ICT has potential to change the economy of livestock in India.

• But the success of ICT application in livestock extension depends upon various issues. If the issue are sorted
out, then the potential of ICT can be tapped for delivery of livestock extension services.
Limitation of Traditional Livestock Extension Method

• Expensive

• Time consuming

• Poor Communication capacity

• Neglect of extension in livestock development

• Lack of Awareness

• Less Productivity
Potential Advantages in livestock extension using ICTs

• Cut step in the diffusion process

• Save money and effort

• Instant International Reach

• Continuous availability

• Efficiency and Effectiveness

• Reaching to the un reach area (Remote Area)


Name of the App
Kisansuvidha App (2016)
Mobile App Rice Xpert
KVK Portal
Oilseed At Glance research
Pusa Krishi App
Launched on 21 March ,
2016.
ICT Application in Agriculture
Name of the Organization
ICAR-New Delhi
ICAR-NRRI, Cuttak
Agricultural Extension Division,
ICAR and ICAR-Indian
Agricultural Statistics Research
Institute, New Delhi
ICAR- Indian Institute of
Oilseeds Rapeseed and Mustard
IARI-New Delhi
Developed to Realize the Dream
“LAB to
Information/Service Provided
Weather, Market price, Seed, fertilizers, Machinery etc.
Insect pests, nutrients, weeds, nematodes and disease-related
problems, rice varieties for different ecologies, farm implements for
different field and post harvest operations.
Information and advisory to the farmers and facilitate online
monitoring of the KVK activities
Comprehensive information 9 oilseed crops, i.e. Groundnut,
sunflower, Soybean, Safflower, Sesame, Niger, Cater and Linseed.
Crop information, Released varieties and hybrids, State-wise preferred
varieties and hybrids, AICRP centres contact information, ICAR seed
Project centres dealing with oilseed crops, Mandis/selling markets for
each state.
New varieties of crops developed by Indian Council of Agriculture
Research (ICAR), resource conserving cultivation practices as well as
farm machinery and its implementation
Cotton mobile app CICR Nagpur Cotton cultivation, planning for cultivation, selection of BT varieties, cotton
sowing, seed treatment, nutrient management, weed and water management,
cotton growth management, pest management, picking and storage

mKisan SMS Portal Department of Enables all Central and State government organizations in agriculture and
July 16, 2013 Agriocultural and allied sectors to give information/services/advisories to farmers by SMS in
Cooperation their language, preference of agricultural practices and location.

IFFCO Kisan App IFFCO Information related to mandi prices,weather forecast, agricultural advisory,
best practices tips related to agriculture, Animal Husbandry, horticulture; a
buyer and sellerplatform, and all agriculture related news and govt. schemes.

mKrishi TCS Information on microclimate, localmarket price,enables farmers to

sendqueries specific to their land and cropto receive personalized replies
fromagricultural experts, on their phones.

Agri Market Brinvik This app is for agriculture traders and farmers in india. Farmers can see the
commodity prices on their mobile anytime. App is covering most of the
farm products from all over the indian agriculture markets, market yard.

Digital Mandi BSNL Allow farmers to call up a (BSNL)number and get the rate ofcommodities,
like vegetables, grains,pulses or fruits in any mandi (market)across the state
 ICT projects in Agriculture
Warna’Wired Project
• Project was initiated in 1998 Warana Nagar in the Kolhapur and Sangli districts of the state of Maharashtra.
• Connects 70 villages with 150 computer networking nodes and also provides the internet facilities to the rural
community
• Objectives
• To make available agricultural, market and educational information in local languages
• Provide information on Govt. schemes
• To create a database of villagers on various socio-economic aspects
• To establish GIS of 70 villages
• To simplify operations of the Sugar Co operative
• Benefits of the Project
• Increased efficiency of Sugarcane growing and harvesting as time is saved in administrative transactions
• Transparency of payments
• One visit to the Kiosk –Saves 2-3 days
• Fertilizer stocks are now smaller and better managed
 Kisan Sanchar Nigam Limited (Green SIM)
• Green SIM card for farmers is an initiative of the IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL)

• Developed by IIFCO with Bharti Airtel & Star Global Resources Ltd. as a joint venture in 2008.

• SIM Card is used for communication, relevant & free information is provided to framers.

• Provide information to farmers with best package of practices on various crops, mandi information,
weather information, expert advice & advisories.

• It provide 5 daily voice messages to farmers

• IKSL covering 108 zones in19 states

• Respond queries in 22 local languages

• Uses both push and pull based approach

 ITC’s e-Choupal
• Launched in June 2000, now the largest initiative among internet-based interventions in rural India

• Initially, a few soybean growing villages of Madhya Pradesh state of India were selected for the pilot phase of
the project

• Real-time information and customized knowledge enhance farmers ability to take decisions and align their
farm output with market demand.

• Aggregation of the demand for farm inputs from individual farmers gives them access to high quality inputs
from established and reputed manufacturers at fair prices.

• As a direct marketing channel, virtually linked to the ‘mandi’ system for price discovery, ‘e-Choupal’
eliminates wasteful intermediation and multiple handling. Thereby it significantly reduces transaction costs

• 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to over 4 million farmers growing a range of crops -soyabean, coffee,
wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp etc.

• More than 35,000 villages linked through 6,100 ‘e-Choupals’ across 19 states.
n-Logue: Building a Sustainable Rural Services
Organization
• Location: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh

• •Application/Service: Multipurpose telecentres, Community development and tele-administration

• •Technology: Fixed Wireless Access

• Building a scalable model

• Technology used: Cost effective, Affordable, robust and scalable

• Business Model: Each participant should earn from the efforts

• CorDECT Technology –Jointly developed by the TeNet(Telecommunications & Computer Network group of
IIT Madras) and Midas Communication Technologies Pvt Ltd

• Capable of offering simultaneous voice and internet access and can deliver around 35/70 kbps connectivity to
villages
 Application of ICT in Pest Management: eSaAP
• Electronic Solutions against Agricultural Pests (eSaAP), an ICT dedicated for crop health management system
developed at UAS Raichur in association with TeneAgricultural Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru

• The project initiated in 2013 in Chikkaballapur and Ramanagar districts in Karnataka

• Developed on an Android platform it is an offline solution that exchanges data with the cloud server under
any telecommunication network

• It has a unique image & voice-based diagnostic architecture, a mechanism to capture field data and is updated
remotely

• Temporal and spatial information gathered out of crop-pest surveillance for quicker requirement based
management actions to be disseminated

• eSAP is supporting user with 53 agriculture & horticulture crops capable of resolving over 1000 problems.
 Bhoomi
• Bhoomi is an online database & viewing system for management and access of land records for Karnataka
launched in 2000.

• Main objective of the programme is 'to develop a modern, comprehensive and transparent land records
management system in the country,

• with the aim to implement the conclusive land-titling system with title guarantee, which will be based on four
basic principles,

• A single window: to handle land records

• Mirror principle: which refers to the fact that cadastral maps mirror the ground reality

• Curtain principle: which indicates that the record of title is a true depiction of the ownership status, mutation
process is automated and happens automatically following the registration, and the reference to past records is
not deemed necessary

• Title insurance: which guarantees the title for its correctness, and indemnifies the title holder against loss
arising on account of any defect therein
 GYANDOOT
• Low cost rural intranet project based on e-governance started in the year 2000 in Dhar, MP
• Aim is to harness ICTs to improve governance at village, block and district levels
• Project linked around 35 kiosks with district HQ
• Kiosks include a networked computer, printer, Software in Hindi & touch screen applications designed to
encourage maximum utilization and access by rural farmers
• Gyandoot provides many information services to the farmers like best practices related to agriculture, prices
of agricultural produce in different markets, Ask the Expert

• Provision of a database that stores information regarding the best practices for crop cultivation
• Online registration and provision of land records, information and application formats for rural development
schemes
Provided Services are: 1.Agriculture Produce Auction opening/closing rates of ~34 commodities

2. Land Records and Online Public Grievance Redressal

3. Online Registration: certification for income/ caste/domicile/loan-passbook
 iKisan Project
•Agri-Informatics & Services Division of Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (NFCL)was initiated in 1999.

•Provides online, detailed content on crops, crop management techniques, fertilisers & pesticides and a host of
other agriculture related material.

•Offline services related to Market information, Crop insurance information, Information regarding cropping
patterns and systems.
 Digital Green
• Digital Green incubated by Microsoft Research India in 2007

• Approach: 1. Assess & Diagnose system, 2. Integrate technology, 3. Build community, 4. CoCo(Connect
Online Connect Offline)

• Digital Green partners with seven NGOs and work in six states (Jharkhand, MP, Orissa, Bihar, AP &
Karnataka)

• Received core funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

• Videos, features local early adopter farmers or farmer groups describing a technology or practice

• Videos are about eight minutes in length and shown using handheld picoprojector or CD player

• Farmer participatory video recordings facilitate the aggregation of scattered information into systematic and
comprehensive format with a localized context

• Digital Green villages, 85 % of farmers adopted at least one new agricultural practice, whereas only 11 % did
so in the control villages
 e-Sagu(Cultivation)
• Launched in 2004 by International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, funded by
Media Lab Asia

• e-sagu tested on 5,000 farms in 35 villages in more than six districts of Andhra Pradesh

• Uses medium of digital photos of farmers‘ fields to provide expert advice

• Photographs are captured every 15 days by a local coordinator employed by e-Sagu

• e-Sagu experts at main center examines photos and provide advice which is sent back to the local coordinator

• Advice is provided on a regular basis (typically once a week) from sowing to harvesting

• Advice delivery is in around 24–36 hours

• In case of pests and diseases requiring urgent treatment, the advice is sent via SMS directly to the farmers and
the coordinator
 e-Arik
• Launched in 2007, Adi tribal community, Siang river valley and foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, Arunachal
Pradesh

• Organization(s) Involved: Centre for Development Informatics (CDI), International Development Research
Centre (IDRC), University of Manchester, UK

• To provide better information about climate-smart agriculture in order to raise awareness and adoption of
practices that are sustainable.

• The aim of such practices is to increase productivity, resilience, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and
enhance food security and development

• Expected Results: Adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by the beneficiaries

• e-Arik approach is 3.6 times cheaper than a conventional agricultural extension system and that farmers can
access information 16 times faster
 e-Nam (National Agriculture Market)
• e-NAM or the e-trading platform launched on April 2016

• Pan-India electronic trading portal that nets the prevailing APMC Mandis for making a united national market
for agricultural commodities

• e-NAM operate via the online portal that is linked to the states’ Mandis (Wholesale markets)

• Over 90 Commodities Including Staple Food Grains, Vegetables and Fruits

• Some key points related to e-NAM

✓ GOI offering grant of Rs.30 lakhs to participating mandis

✓ ‘Farmer helpline services’ 24×7 to help about portal

✓ Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead promoter of eNAM

✓ SFAC through open tender selects a Partner to develop, operate, and maintain the NAM e-platform
 Agropedia
• Originally titled "Agropedia Indica", Agropedia is an online knowledge repository for information related to
agriculture in India launched in 2009 by IIT Kanpur with NAIP funding.

• Collaborative project of seven consortium partners' viz. ICRISAT-Hyderabad, NAARM-Hyderabad, IIT

Kanpur, IIT-Mumbai, GBPUAT-Pantnagar, UAS-Raichur and IIITM-Kerala

• Knowledge models for different crops developed on agropedia provide general idea about all the aspects of
crops and specifically about each crop

• Provided interaction platform though forum and blogs

• Agropedia has developed in two phases

Phase- I concentrating on content & development of the web platform

Phase-II on the delivery platform for extension services

 Village Knowledge Centers
• VKCs of MS Swaminathan research foundation, initiated in Villianur, a village in Pondicherry in 1998

• VKC is gateway of technical information related to agricultural inputs, price of outputs, crop rotation, fertilizers &
pesticides

• Cost of project is completely borne by MSSRF

• MSSRF Village Knowledge Centres work quite differently. No technology is introduced until a village has been
thoroughly appraised of its social needs and aspirations.

• If a VKC is established, it is accompanied by intense training of chosen volunteers, called as Knowledge Workers,
plus any other villagers who want to learn

• Initial training can take up to 15 days and will continue in the future with regular visits from MSSRF staff

• The hub and spoke model gives the strength to the system, as it introduces accessible expert support

• VKC Hub & Spokes model: Hub is a “Village Resource Centre” Which is typically connected to 20-30 VKCs
spread over a 60Km radius
TARAhaat at a Glance Development Alternatives

• DA group in September 2000 set TARAhaat rolling in two areas—Bundelkhand (MP and UP) and Bathinda
(Punjab)

• It uses the power of IT to bring knowledge, services and products to rural masses

• TARAhaat utilizes fine graphics and animations to convey general introductory information about their
services

• The site also uses voice effectively for dissemination of information

• TARAhaat has overcome its target audience’s hesitation to use this new technology to enhance their quality of
life
Agricultural Marketing Information Network
(AGMARKNET)
• AGMARKNET commenced in March, 2000 by Ministry of Agriculture, GoI

• •Aimed at empowering decision-making ability of the farmers regarding selling of their produce

• •Portal provides both static and dynamic information relating to agricultural marketing

• •Static information is about infrastructure-related (Warehousing, Cold Storage, grading & packing
facilities,marketfee/ charges),

• •Dynamic part comprise Price-related information comprising maximum, minimum and model prices of
varieties, total arrivals and dispatches with destination

• •Portal broadcasting information about influx of agricultural commoditiesin the market and their prices to
producers, consumers, traders, and policy makers transparently and quickly
Kisan Rath: Facilitating Transportation of Agri-produce
• Launched in April 2020

• Kisan Rath mobile app facilitates farmers, FPOs and traders for transporting Agriculture & Horticulture produce

• Allows posting requirements of part-load as well as full-load

• App interfaces with major transport aggregators and also allows individual transporters to register their vehicles and
provide services to farmers and traders

• Kisan Rath -which will bring together 5 lakh trucks and 20,000 tractors on mobile platform for transporting farm
produce to markets from farm gate

• Primary transportation would include movement from Farm to Mandis, FPO Collection Centre and Warehouses etc.

• Secondary Transportation would include movement from Mandis to Intra-state & Inter-state mandis, Processing
units, Railway station, Warehouses and Wholesalers etc.
 Farmers’ portal
• Farmers’ Portal launched in 2015 is an endeavor to create ‘one stop shop’ for meeting all informational needs relating to
Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries sectors production, sale/storage.

• Farmer get all relevant information on specific subjects around his village/block /district or state through the Map on
Home page

• Block level details related to soil fertility, storage, insurance, training, etc. are available in an interactive map Information
delivered in the form of text, SMS, email and audio/video in local language he or she understands

• Farmers will also be able to ask specific queries as well as give valuable feedback through the Feedback module specially
developed for the purpose

• Users can also download farm friendly handbook, scheme guidelines, etc.
 Kisan Call Centres
• KCCs were commenced on January 21, 2004 by the Ministery of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

• A Single Window Delivery System

• There are 21 KCC working in the country

• Timing of Service is 6 am to 7 pm all days in a week.

• Agency looking after the KCC operation is IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited

• Intend: endowing extension services to the farming community in the local languages

• Queries of farmers tackled by agricultural graduates on help line, toll free number 1551 or 1800-180-1551

• KCC working in 14 different locations covering all the States & UTs

• Countrywide common eleven digit number has been allotted for Kisan Call Centre

• Replies to the farmers' queries are given in 22 local languages

• Kisan Call Center infrastructure is placed at three locations namely

❖ A professionally managed Call Center (Level-I): Agrigraduates response to the query

❖ A Response Center in each organization, where services of Subject Matter Specialists are made available (Level-II)

❖ The Nodal Cell (Level-III): Experts (Scientist) identified by state govt.

 ICT Projects in Livestock Sector
Dairy tool box
• Implemented by ILRI- International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya and International Crop
Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad.

• End users for this ICT tool are Front line extension agents of public sector, NGO workers and
progressive farmers.
Automatic Milk Collection System (AMCS)
• Automate milk collection procedures at the collection centres to reduce the time required in collecting milk from
members.

• Use electronic technology to weigh the milk and to measure fat content in the milk.

• Automatically calculate the amount payable to each and every milk collector.

• Maintain regular records at the Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS).

• Integrate data at each primary milk society with the District Milk Coop (DMC) through use of ICT

• Currently AMCS is being used by 25+ milk unions across India

• The integrated AMCS solution has the following major Applications / components.

1. DCS Application: Common, multilingual AMCS Application at DCS Level which works on Windows / Linux and
Android Platform.

2. Portal: Common Centralized AMCS Portals at Union, Federation and National Level.

3. Android Apps: Multilingual Mobile Applications for Society Secretary, Dairy Supervisor and Farmer
Dairy Information & Services Kiosk (DISK)
• Developed by NDDB-Amul-IIMA

• Provides timely messages and educating farmers on the care for their milch cattle and enhance the
production of quality milk.

• It has two major components -

• DISK-application running at the society level that could be provided Internet connectivity.

➢ DISK software maintain databases of members, their cattle, AI, veterinary, feed and other service transactions
in addition to the daily milk transactions.

• Dairy Portal at the district level serving transactional and information needs of all members and staff in the
district cooperative structure.

➢ Dairy Portal gas two-tier architecture, with database software hosting and maintaining the data and the web
server delivering static as well as dynamic the contents.
 Akashganga (milky way)
• Established in 1996 under the banner of Shree Kamdhenu Electronics Private Ltd. (SKEPL) by a group of young
entrepreneurs

• Automate the milk collection process in village dairy cooperative societies.

• It not only minimizes handling and increases efficiency, but also increases transparency, and creates a basis for improving
the quality of the milk produced.

• It was established at a time when ICT was almost unknown in the villages of India

• Simple technology enabled timely milk collection and higher earnings for producer, paid well in time

• A basic milk collection comprises: AMCS, electronic weighing scale, DISK, and milk analyzer that tests for levels off at
and SNF, Capture of unique member ID by software, Multilingual printing of payment slip

• AKASHGANGA’s experience indicates that even illiterate or semi-literate people can adopt IT-based systems when they
see substantial benefits and when the systems are deployed in purposeful, easy-to-use

• Providing direct benefits and expanded opportunities to poor communities in developing countries can be profitable
 ICT for Livestock Productivity (Nandini)
• The ICT for Livestock Productivity project, implemented in two blocks Jagatsingpur and Balikuda of
Jagatsingpur district, Odisha

• Popularly called Nandini it aims to improve productivity of livestock by establishing a system of animal
identification, registration, performance recording and monitoring

• Project Nandini involves the use of ICT in veterinary science for effective service delivery to farmers and to
systematise the productive life cycle of crossbred cows

• A Web based portal facilitates a decision support system (to government departments and functionaries for
planning of different interventions and assured service delivery to dairy farmers

• There is a provision for data capturing, warehousing and analysis capabilities with public animal husbandry
institutes, such as semen banks, district artificial insemination centres, veterinary dispensaries, diagnostic
laboratories and university
 Livestock Guru
• Tamil Livestock Guru is a touch screen technology, which provides guidance on animal health and husbandry
issues

• Touch screen option, rather than a key board was often easier by illiterate users

• Content displayed by livestock species. After choosing species of interest, user can choose modules from
Feeding, Housing or Disease.

• With in each disease module, all of the learning information proceeded in the same sequence: Causation,
Symptom, Treatment and Prevention

• The functionalities of the Tamil Guru related to two areas:

• Software enabled users to access livestock-related information

• Capture user choices for information & transferred this to decision-makers

 Fisher Friend
• Qualcomm India, TATA Indicom Astute and MSSRF have started a joint initiative called Fisher Friend” in
2009.

• Mobile application which provides vital real time information to fishing communities when and where they
need it the most, at mid sea.

• Relevant information on wave height, speed direction, potential fishing zones, news provided in local
language.

• Mobiles allow fishermen, to get timely price information and decide the best place to land and sell their daily
catch.
✓ Over 16000 Users
✓ GPS Navigation
✓ Avoiding dangerous water
✓ Rescues fisher man from bad weather condition
✓ Increased Income
 Agromet Advisory Services
• ICT to Reduce the Climatic Risk in Agriculture

• Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) is the umbrella organization for Agromet Advisory Services (AAS)

• It intends to link AAS to sources of knowledge and innovation to respond to climate change at root level
Farmers.

• GKMS operates within the framework of India Meteorological Department (IMD), which seeks to enhance
the livelihoods of farmers

• GKMS aims to create efficient, effective and synergistic linkages to improve the delivery of these services to
the farmers
 IMD Mobile Apps
• MAUSAM: observed weather, forecasts, radar images and be proactively warned of impending weather
events

• MEGHDOOT: District and crop wise advisories issued by AgroMet Field Units (AMFU) every Tuesday and
Friday with the forecast and historic weather information

• DAMINI: monitoring all lightning activity and alert if lightning is happening near you by GPS notification
under 20KM and 40KM