Technical Background for IT Action Planning
March 25th, 2001
Overview
Our working group is developing an IT Action Plan that proposes to scale up Internet and web-delivered Extension programmes in India. The plan provides rationale and details key players, phases and logistics. The plan is driven by information and communication needs of small farmers and ties to recent Extension initiatives within the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) such as ATMA. Broader IT initiatives driven by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) provide an important foundation as well.
The initial goal is to create and evaluate a set of village-level Web sites to integrate existing resources for practical use. There are high quality resources for farmer use already online but it is distributed across the sites of government agencies, NGO's and the sprouting dot.coms. Such resources can be integrated in one site to provide single point of contact access to farmers. When needed content is in-hand but not on-line, we can facilitate its posting. The burgeoning ag-related holdings on the Web constitutes a nascent agricultural information system, but impetus is needed to integrate and to expand such holdings.
We will partner with private sector concerns when appropriate to achieve our goals. For example, partnerships with dot.coms in Indore and Dehli have been established. Grammandi and Agriwatch will supply feed market prices on a trial basis. DAC already provides market information on their rich and attractive portal but the dot.coms can provide highly localized pricing information in near real-time. Fact sheets on seed varieties, planting tips and soil and pest treatments will be sought to supplement the materials that DAC or ICAR has produced. For example, SOPA has agreed to provide fact sheets on growing soybeans.
Project
Test Beds
When initiating this working group, Dr.Swaminathan
suggested that a representative set of locations for test beds
within each of the four major eco-regions of India be selected. An
appropriate set of village test beds will strengthen the generalizability of our
results. The Working Group has begun to select areas and villages for local test beds.
We will prototype Web sites portals for each selected locale, evaluate their
effectiveness and make changes accordingly.
Local portals will deliver practical content to farmers in each selected village. Localized content will include markets, weather, and agronomy fact sheets. The portals will be designed using technologies, language and graphics appropriate for the locality. Control of local portals will eventually transfer to village oversight groups. Ideally too, groups of farmers at block and district levels would coordinate information of mutual importance and capture the efficiencies and synergies at these levels.
Some models of community Internet projects provide guidance. For example, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation supports "village knowledge centers" in Pondicherry near Chennai. The TARAhaat portal and Babhaleshwar KVK are excellent examples of rich community Web portals.
Our local portals will resemble these existing sites but will be enriched by the integration of all the relevant content and interactive capabilities that can be acquired. Multi-lingual content, rapid download and accessibility provide important guidelines for site design. Farmer decision tools and databases will support practical planting, soil and pest treatments and other needs during the growing season. Indeed, in one sense we aim at the creation of an online "India Agronomy Handbook" that provides practical guidance, decision tools and databases. Coverage of all major crops with attention to local and regional variation would be necessary.
A national portal will provide a gateway to the local portals as well as regional and national content. Content from each local portal will be aggregated into a digital library and knowledge-base. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at Illinois has offered to provide to provide Knowledge-Management and e-Learning technologies for the national portal prototype.
For both local and master portals, our overriding strategy is to integrate available content needed by farmers from both public and private sources. After deploying and marketing the sites, we then must engage the farmers in a thorough evaluation of whether their needs were met and how we can better meet them. Sivakumar (2000) says the farmer asks for four main things: " Knowledge of farm practices, accurate weather information for planning operations, pricing information that helps them buy inputs low, and pricing information to help sell yields high." To insure we are meeting these and related needs, we must truly enlist the collaboration of farmers as partners in the effort.
University of Illinois Portals
Similar portals for extension have been successful at UI. The
Interactive Agronomy Handbook site offers a variety online decision aids that
extend the value of the original print version of the Handbook.
The Agriweather Tool Bench is based on a 100 year of database of Illinois climate information
that helps farmers predict planting times, growth stages of crops, and emergence
of common pests. Other decision aids
cover seeding rate, corn borer management, soil fertility treatments,
optimal feed ratio, and weed identification. Selected features of the project are provided over the
Wireless
Web for access by cell
phones and other devices.
Related projects include IPM Online, which offers information on the identification and management of pests in the field or garden. Especially important are their Crop Development and Pest Management newsletter on the Web, offering timely state-wide scouting reports of pests and other problems. Map Illinois provides access to GIS (Global Information System) data over the Web, including hydrology, land cover, topological, soil type, and climate and other types of spatial data. This project is expanding to include many other spatial data types of interest to farmers such as locations of producers and processors of specialty crops, processing facilities, likely markets, and wholesale and retail outlets in those markets. Finally, a group of leading agricultural economists created the FARM.DOC site to provide a variety of sophisticated financial management tools for farmers as well as highly regarded overviews on market trends and their implications for buying and selling commodities.
These examples came into being through the impetus and funding of CFAR (Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research). CFAR funding allowed busy faculty and Extension staff to hire web designers to adapt existing content into practical, interactive web resources for Illinois farmers. Feedback on these projects has been positive, but there is more to do. Farmers tells us they want one-stop shopping for needed information; they do not want to search for sites to find needed resource. So the next stage of CFAR work is to merge the above examples into an integrated portal and farm management system called FARM.edu. Another key goal of FARM.edu is to help integrate on-line resources from partner Land Grant Universities to break the artificial state boundary barrier.
A key component of FARM.edu is a Midwestern Agronomy Handbook that accommodates regional differences in crops, growing conditions, and recommendations. It will also include a multi-state digital library of crop science and natural resource publications from participating institutions. Other elements include a corn and soybean variety selection tool that combines variety-testing results into a comprehensive database of variety testing results and a nutrient management tool covering all aspects of fertilizer applications. Field-level support is an important goal of the system, allowing farmers to view and manipulate precision agriculture data about their own operations. More ambitious is the planned simulation capability. A crop simulator would model alternative planting scenarios. Land management simulation would project the effects of crop rotation, fertilizer amounts, pesticides, planting methods, and run-off on the land.
Appendix
Figure
1 - Candidate Areas for Village Test Beds by Eco-region
| ECO-REGION | AREA / CITY / VILLAGE | CROPPING SYSTEM |
|
PUNJAB |
WHEAT & RICE | |
| DECCAN PLATEAU | INDORE | SOY / WHEAT |
| MAHARASTHRA | SOY / WHEAT | |
| EAST INDIA | WEST BENGAL | RICE / WHEAT / VEGETABLE |
| ORISSA | RICE / WHEAT / VEGETABLE | |
| SOUTH INDIA | TANJOR DELTA | |
| PONDICHERRY | ||
| DARWAR | MAIZE / JOWAR / COTTON | |
| COASTAL ANDHRA | RICE / RICE | |
| MADURAI | ||
Figure
2 - Possible Content for Local Portals
| CONTENT | PROVIDER(S) | NOTES |
| Local market information | AgriWatch
Grammandi ITC, Ltd (Soya Chapauls) |
|
| Local weather and climate | NIC |
|
| Local agronomy fact sheets | Indian Govt, NGO's, Private | |
| --Soybeans | SOPA | |
| --Rice |
Multi-lingual
Audio Files Sandhya Shenoy, NAARM |
|
| --Wheat | ||
| --Maize | ||
| --Cotton | ||
| --Groundnut | Fact
Sheet Sandhya Shenoy, NAARM |
|
| Transaction Processing | Private - Grammandi & ITC Ltd | |
|
Communications
Center
|
Multi-Lingual software | WebDunia.com ? |
| Community Ag Education Modules | Micro-Enterprises; Production, Marketing and Distribution of Specialty Crops; Sustainable Ag; IT for Farming; Systems Thinking; Nutrition & Functional Foods | |
| General Resources | Maps |
Figure
3 - Possible Content for National Portal
| CONTENT | PROVIDERS | NOTES |
| Agronomic Decision Tools | UI, Private | Prototype of small grain seed drop decision aid for India |
| Databases: Climate, Hybrid Varieties, Soil Types, Weed and Pest Library, Herbicides and Insecticides | NIC
(Climate) NGO's, Private |
|
| Remote Sensing Data: Soil types, vegetative growth, drought, monsoons | Indian Got (IN-RIMT) | Contact: Pavan Jain |
| Complete set of agronomy fact sheets | Indian Govt, NGO's, Private | |
| Research
Base: Abstracts, Papers, Proceedings |
NIC WFSA, UI AGI FAO... |
Could be a joint digital food and ag library for India and USA covering overlapping crops and issues |
| National Weather Overview | Indian Climate Agency, INSAT | **Monsoon prediction and monitoring*** |
| National Market Overview | DAC, AgriWatch, Grammandi, ITC Ltd, Indian Business Press, SOPA | Soybean Crop Estimates |
Figure 4 - Additional Portal Features
| DESCRIPTION | NOTES |
| Search Engines | Enable search of external and internal content |
| News | On government programs, grants, business opportunities and employment listings |
| Media library with Audio, Video, Streaming Media & Flash |
Media "jukebox" that serves up same media object optimized for patron's bandwidth |
| Project promotion & Web site marketing | Community-centric, Gender |
| Weekly reports |
Crop, pest scouting, drought... |
| Emergency Information Center | Flooding, Earthquakes, |
| Systems thinking | Concept-mapping tutorial supporting farm and community planning (Connors & Shenoy) |
| Utility Tools | Illustrated time and unit conversions |
| Professional Development in IT for Extension Staff | --Land Grant Training Alliance |
| Education and Career | http://CareerDoWell.com Atul Kumar, President |
Figure
5 - Technology
| TECHNOLOGY TYPE | OPTIONS | PROVIDER? |
| Internet connectivity to rural areas |
Wireless Local Loop (corDECT) |
"n Logue" |
| 2 Way Geosynch Satellite | Starband | |
| Wireless Web* over cell phones | ||
| Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOS) | 'Revived' Iridium System? Teledesic? Globalstar? | |
| Web-accessible Databases | Cold Fusion/Access, mSQL | |
| Web-accessible GIS Data | ARC IMS | See Map Illinois |
| Decision Aids | Javascript, CGI | |
| Digital Library & Knowledge-Base | Cold Fusion, XML, Dublin Core Meta-Data, | |
|
*Wireless Web --Unit Conversions |
WAP
/ WML AIM Lab example |
|
| Devices | "Simputer" |
Figure
6 - Web Design Guidelines
| NEED | STRATEGY | OPTIONS |
| Minimize download time | Ultra-Low K graphics | |
| Accessibilty: Sight and Sound | Test pages with BOBBY utility | |
| Multi-lingual text with Local Dialects | Hindi/English text example: http://tarahaat.com/ Hindi/Telegu audio example: 1. 2. Multi-lingual Audio Files |
|
| Exploit existing public domain code whenever possible | ||
| Scalability |
Figure 7 - Government of India: Selected Agencies
| NAME | CONTACT |
| ICAR
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research NATP - THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY PROJECT See also ITD (NATP) |
Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi Pin - 110 001. India Phone :+91-(0)11-3382358, 3388991, 3388539 Fax: +91-(0)11-3387293, 3382358 Email : aalam@icar.delhi.nic.in |
| DAC - Department of Agriculture and Co-operation | |
| NIC
- National Informatics Center IT Taskforce |
|
| Natl. Institute Rural Development | |
| Remote sensing (e.g., INSAT) & meterological agencies | |
| Educational institutions (ICAR List) | |
| Organization list |
Figure 8 - Selected Existing National and Community Ag Portals
| SITE | SPONSORS | NOTES |
| TARAhaat | Many | |
| Babhaleshwar KVK | Babhaleshwar KVK: Pravara Institute of Research & ICAR | KVK Directory |
| AgriWatch | ||
| Grammandi | ||
| Khetibaadi | ||
| Kisan | ||
| Krishiworld | ||
| Krishi Udyog | ||
| India Agronet | ||
| Agriculture
Gateway to India Extension Audio InfoTech Crop Sciences Maps General Ag Economics Engineering Animal Sci Fisheries Gender Issues Horticulture Issues Libraries Nat Res Organisations Programmes Publications Sustainable Ag Tools |
NAARM and AIM Lab, UI | Dr. Sandhya Shenoy, |
Figure 9 - UI Resources
| PROJECT | URL |
| Interactive Agronomy Handbook | http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/iah |
| Integrated Pest Management | http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/ |
| FARM.DOC | http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/ |
| Weed ID | http://Web.aces.uiuc.edu/weedid/ |
| Livestock and Dairy | http://il-traill.outreach.uiuc.edu/ |
| Map Illinois | http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/watershed/maps.html |
| Stratsoy | http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~stratsoy |
| NAT | http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/ |
| Specialty Crops | http//web.aces.uiuc.edu/value/ |
| Corn End Use | http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/corncalc/ |
| FARM.EDU | beta version coming 2002 |
| AIM Lab | Meta-Port DataPort Hotlist Digital Library Icons |
| Knowledge and learning Systems Group, National Center for Supercomputing Applications | e-Learning
and Knowledge Management Systems |
Figure
10 - Project Stages
| PROJECT STAGE | LOCATION | NOTES |
| Technical Background | ||
| Rapid Site Prototyping I | ||
| Brainstorming | MSRF, Chennai | |
| IT Action Plan | Planning Commission, New Dehli | |
| Rapid Site Prototyping II | ||
| Formative Evaluation | ||
| Site refinement and continuous expansion of content | ||
| India-wide implementation? |
Figure
11 - Current Members of
Working Group
| NAME | POSITION & UNIT | NOTES |
| Dr. M.S.Swaminathan | Chair of the Extension Planning Commission, Government of India UNESCO Cousteau Chair in Ecotechnology, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) |
Director of MSSRF Past Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation Past Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Past as Chairman of FAO Council More on MSS |
| Dr. Kauffman | UI
Team
Leader Assistant Dean for International Agriculture, Office of Research, ACES, UI Professor, Crop Sciences, UI |
Leads
international agriculture office:
ACES Global Connect
Co- Convener of ISF
2001. |
| Dr. Pai | Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, UI | Former Dean of Research and Development,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur. Creator: Indusscitech |
| Dr. Swanson | Professor,
Agricultural and Consumer Economics, ACES, UI
World Bank Consultant
|
Expert
on Indian Extension, Systems Approaches & Specialty Crops ATMA project Creator of INTERPAKS |
| Dr. Wentling | Professor,
Human Resource
Education, College of Education, UI Director, Knowledge & Learning Systems Group, NCSA, UI |
HRD expert with extensive Asia
research and distance learning work. FAO monograph on IT. Director of new NCSA group on e-learning. |
| Dr. Schmitz | Founder, Agricultural Instructional Media Lab (AIM Lab), ACES, UI | Lab
began in 1993 by supporting faculty use of Mosaic for teaching and
extension 1999 Ag Gateway to India Portal, w/ Dr. Shenoy, NAARM. Led IT Action Planning at ISF 2001. |
Links On-Deck
http://hindustan.net/Agriculture/
http://indiagriline.com/
http://www.indusscitech.net
http://www.the-week.com/21apr29/life2.htm
http://katha.org/ Nice
web site
http://www.india-today.com/btoday/20001121/cover3.html
http://www.webdunia.com/homepage/
Hindi Portal
http://www.tenet.res.in/rural/sari1.html
http://www.envirocircle.com/
Contact for Document
John Schmitz, University of Illinois
jschmitz@uiuc.edu