Icrisat Plans Virtual Varsity To Reach Out To Farmers

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) and MS Swaminathan Foundation today announced an initiative to set up a semi-arid tropics virtual university (SAT-VU) to reach correct, timely and location-specific knowledge to rural communities as part of drought management.

Six states -- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Tamil Nadu -- have come forward to collaborate with Icrisat in this project.

This is the first-of-its-kind attempt in the country to directly involve and empower the farming communities on a demand-driven basis.

Interacting with mediapersons here today, William D Dar, the director-general of Icrisat, said Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was likely to launch the SAT-VU on June 5, the World Environment Day Icrisat had organised today a meeting of 30 vice-chancellors and heads of various universities and research institutions to chalk out an action plan for the virtual varsity project.

As a first measure, it had been decided to foucs on management of drought conditions currently widely prevalent in India, he said.

The virtual university project is based on the experience gained by an Icrisat pilot project in Adakkal in Mahbubnagar district, where rural people were empowered with timely knowledge through V-SAT connectivity on crop and livestock management under inadequate conditions of rainfall and groundwater inadequacy, explained SP Wani, a scientist at Icrisat.

Dar said respective state open universities would be roped in to reach out to the farmers in local languages.

The project in later stages would expand to South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and sub-Saharan Africa.

Swaminathan observed that absence of drought for a long period since late eighties had led to complacency at drought management.

The collaboration with Icrisat attempts at increasing productivity and providing sustainable income through market-related support as well, he added.