Waiting for IT to happen

Ambitious plans by NGOs and companies to take technology to farmers are not always successfully executed.

Corporate foundations, NGOs, and IT companies are coming together to take technology to the farmlands and to empower farmers and other rural resource persons. However, not all are achieving their goals, due to lack of coordination, leaving the farmers virtually unaffected.

In Uttar Pradesh, Intel had made an announcement of training farmers in technology, but the project never took off and now, the company denies it ever had such plans.

In Maharashtra, Multi Commodity Exchange and Microsoft have gone beyond announcements and have actually launched a programme to take technology to the farmers' laptops.

But a visit to villages near Pune reveals that the programme remained a non starter, with the computers safely kept in sealed boxes.

MCX and Shetkari Sanghatana, a farmers' organisation, decided to set up a total of 48 centres across Maharashtra. MCX decided to equip each centre with a computer, a laptop and a printer and as of now, 18 such centres have come up in 16 districts.

In Sanasar village, near Baramati in Pune district, the truth is that no such centre exists. Pandurang Rayate, a member of Shetkari Sanghatana, who has been given the responsibility to run this centre, has received a computer, a laptop and a digital printer from MCX. But he has kept these inside a godown. Rayate received the equipment on October 2, last year, but has failed to initiate the rural information centre.

"I have just hired a godown in Sanasar village and the computers are lying inside. A boy has been asked to take care of the same. However, training and other activities are yet to begin," Rayate told Business Standard. Farmers in Sanasar village were also unaware of this centre. "We have heard of some computer centre coming up here. But nothing has happened as of now," a villager said.

MCX has a fund allocation of Rs 30 lakh for this project, which will run in-hand with Microsoft and ISAP's rural technology skills training programme worth Rs 2.50 crore. Business Standard spoke to a number of centre in-charges to find that only eight to nine centres were fully functional.

Anil Chavhan, who is in-charge of Navi Gar centre in Pune district said, "Some six boys in the village are using computers. However, training activities are yet to begin. People here are not computer literate, which is a major problem in initiating the activity."

MCX had organised a workshop to train the persons in charge of the centre in October last year.

"All the farmers who are supposed to run the information centres have been trained. All of them now know how to use computer, how to use the Internet and other facilities," said Sanjay Jagtap, who conducted the training programme.

When contacted, New Delhi-based MCX official Sunil Khairnar told Business Standard that MCX would take a review of the project.

"MCX's role in this project is to provide computer and printers to Shetkari Sanghatana officials. They should make sure that persons handling the information centres are using it properly. We will talk to Shetkari Sanghatana to find out the actual status," Kahirnar stated.

He pointed out that more than 15,500 people have been trained for this project and as of now, 24,000 people are using the facilities in 18 centres.