The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), near Hyderabad, is launching two new initiatives to utilise modern information and communication technology to speed up agricultural development and help farmers combat drought.
These initiatives include setting up of a technology innovation centre (TIC) and a computer based distance learning module for farmers on coping with drought.
While the TIC will provide services to develop agribusiness enterprises with innovative ideas, the computer-based distance learning module will aim at harnessing information and communication technology to share knowledge with villagers on combating drought.
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Both the projects will be formally launched on December 13 by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at the ICRISAT campus at Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh. The Institute will also celebrate the completion of 30 years of its existence on that day.
The concept is based broadly on the information and communication technology (ITC) centres set up in the rural belt of Pondicherry by the Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Agricultural Research Foundation to disseminate information on market opportunities, prices and weather conditions.
To be called ICT for Development (ICT4D), the ICRISAT's Internet-based project for farmers will be confined to Andhra Pradesh to begin with but will be extended later on to most other drought-prone regions, including western Madhya Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan and northern Karnataka.
According to ICRISAT director-general William D. Dar, who was in the capital in connection with the ICRISAT donors' meeting on December 5, the ICT4D is a viable programme for the Indian agriculture.
The ICRISAT and its national and other partners are working to promote ICT4D for drought preparedness in the water-scarce areas where the poorest and the most vulnerable communities live.
The partners in this programme included India Meteorological Department, the IIT Mumbai and the MIT's Media Lab Asia programme.
The ICRISAT was also collaborating with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and several national research and education institutes to develop modern information and communication technology as an effective tool for promoting drought preparedness, Dar said.
The project will adopt a hub-and-spokes model, where the hub will be a rural township with access to electricity and public services and the spokes will be the surrounding villages that will gain access to the knowledge centre at hub via Internet.