ict enabled models for technology dissemination

6th National Extension Education Congress, Dec.17-19, 2011 at ICAR Res. Complex for Goa, Old Goa | 191

Society of Extension Education, Agra

Major Themes and Sub Themes : III

ICT Enabled Models of Technology Dissemination∗ Use of ICT for improving livelihood∗ Efficiency and effectiveness of networking∗ Case studies on successful models

192 | 6th National Extension Education Congress, Dec.17-19, 2011 at ICAR Res. Complex for Goa, Goa


Community Radio Service: A Novel Approach forTechnology Dissemination

Ashok Kumar Sharma, S.K. Jha and Vinod KumarDirectorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Bharatpur (Raj.)

[email protected]

Information or knowledge of an existing innovation or a technology by the farmers is pre-requisite foradoption of that innovation or a technology. There is no dearth of innovations in the field of agriculture but theirtransfer to the needy farmer is very important. A number of technical information or innovations for increasingagriculture production and productivity have been generated by our research system. The farmers have adoptedsome of them but still there are many, which have not reached to our farmers. To increase production andproductivity of crops, there is an urgent need that developed technologies are made available to the farmers.Keeping in view of these aspects in transfer of agriculture technology to the farming community, it is an urgentneed to identify an effective mechanism for technology delivery to the ultimate users. What radio can offer tofarmers through farm radio programmes cannot be accomplished by any other media. Radio is cosmopolite inapproach and is suitable for communication to millions of people widely dispersed and situated in remote areas.Radio is suitable for creating general awareness amongst the people, help change their attitude & reinforcelearning. Farm radio programmes enjoy wide popularity and a high credibility in the minds of farmers.

Majority of the farmer respondents expressed favourable to most favourable attitude towards “School onAIR” programme run by NRCRM. The 93 per cent farmers said that programme listening would greatly benefitall the listening farmers. Likewise, 87 per cent farmers expressed most favourable attitude towards importantmessages on pests, diseases, weather condition, etc. and said that they were of much use to them. Further, 85per cent farmers strongly agreed that regular programme listening led to increased rapeseed-mustard yield. Themajority of the farmers (84 per cent) strongly felt that the programme disseminated latest useful technology andthe recommendations were applicable to their farm, therefore, they would certainly advise other fellow farmersto adopt the recommendations. The 84 per cent farmers considered the radio programme as a credible sourceof information and would advise their friends to listen to the programme and 83 per cent farmers opined that theprogramme disseminated latest useful technology. The “School on AIR” programme run by NRCRM wasconsidered to be an effective vehicle for getting technical messages. Since the programme was found to be veryeffective in disseminating messages among farmers, they suggested, it should be broadcasted every year.

School on Air programme named Akash Se Khet Tak broadcasted by NRCRM from All India Radio, Agrawas based on the problems being faced by the rapeseed-mustard farmers during the crop season. The specialfeature of the programme was that recordings of the programme were done by scientists in the different villageswith direct participation of the farmers. The questions related to the rapeseed-mustard cultivation practicesraised by the farmers were answered by the scientists and included in the programme. This programme alsocreated a lot of awareness and interest among the farmers of the area. Keeping this importance of radio, a newconcept of Community Radio Service may become an innovative approach to bridge the gap between theinformation generation and its dissemination to the ultimate users.

What is Community Radio? : Community Radio means radio broadcasting with the objective of serving thecause of the community in the service area by involving members of the community in the broadcast of theirprogrammes. Community Radio is radio which is of, by and for the community. (Community is defined here asa group of people with common interests in a defined geographical space) Community Radio (CR) is operatedover the Frequency Modulation band and has a short broadcast range. It affords a unique advantage of receivingtransmission through low cost, battery operated portable receiving sets. The following category of institutions/organizations is eligible to apply for establishing community radio service station:-



∗ ‘Non-profit’ organizations like civil society and voluntary organizations registered under the societies actand having a proven record of at least three years of service to the local community at the time ofapplication.

∗ State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), ICAR institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.∗ Well established educational institutions.Programme which can be broadcasted from a Community Radio: ∗ The Programmes of Community Radio should be of immediate relevance to the community and focus on

issues relating to education, health, environment, and agriculture and rural and community development.∗ At least 50% of content shall be generated with the participation of the local community, for which the

station has been set up.∗ Transmission of sponsored programmes shall not be permitted except programmes sponsored by Central

& State Govts. and other organizations to broadcast public interest information.∗ Not to broadcast any programmes which relate to news and current affairs and are otherwise political in

nature.How the CRS can be funded? :∗ Applicant can seek funding from multilateral aid agencies.∗ Applicant seeking foreign funds for setting up CRS will have to obtain FCRA clearance under foreign

contribution regulation Act, 1976.∗ Revenue generated from advertisements & announcements can be utilized only for the operational expenses

& capital expenditure of CRS.∗ Permission holder shall be required to submit their audited annual accounts to the Govt. showing clearly,

the income, expenditure incurred, assets & liability in respect of CRS.Benefits of Community Radio:∗ CR is the ideal communication medium for agricultural news and information which are largely ignored by

the mainstream media. For instance, agricultural news about sowing time, preventions from insect-pestand diseases, natural calamities, the prices for the local crop; etc.

∗ CR has the great potential for development at the grassroots level as it facilitates easy access toinformation on the rights of the community.

∗ Cuts across the language and the literacy barrier – CR uses the local dialect that allows for the participantto contribute to the programme in ways that is comfortable for them.

∗ CR enables the community to participate directly/indirectly in governmental and non- governmental projects.∗ CR has a limited range of broadcast of roughly 15-20 kilometers. This ensures proximity for the community

who can spend more time at the local station.∗ CR can be used as a two way participatory communication process. Hence, there is a strong possibility

for sharing information amongst the community members. Also this facilitates a feedback from the listeners.Programmes made by the community can also be broadcast, using existing spaces on AIR and local radio.

∗ Lastly, the cost of setting up a CR station is not huge. It does not involve expensive equipment or othercosts for infrastructure.

Conventional methods for awareness building have been local newspapers, pamphlets/handouts, folk mediaor on a larger scale, the use of radio, television or video. While these do allow for the dissemination of information,several factors such as poverty, illiteracy, socio-cultural differences, geographical distances often act as barriers.In these circumstances, Community Radio has the advantage to reach across the community and provide for theplatform from where everybody can access information.



Advances in Collaborative Extension and e-learning inSemi-arid India

P.N.KallaS K Rajasthan Agricultural University Bikaner, Rajasthan-India

[email protected]

Arid and semi-arid regions of India occupy about 38.5 mha area which is most potential region for expandingAgri-horticultural production. Besides the traditional production technology, several hi-tech crop production systemsare being utilized at commercial level. The extension has been the among major impact factors to realize thegoals of Green revolution. In post green revolution scenario the agri-horticultural is experiencing new needs andfacing new challenges, especially in the realm of extension and transfer of technology.

The hi-tech production systems also need a matching extension system- the Cyber- Extension. In general,cyber extension depends upon the Collaborative Knowledge Management (CKM) through application of computers,specially the internet for dissemination of information, but with advances in Info- Communication –Technology(ICT), it includes, digital technologies like data warehousing, GIS, remote sensing, multimedia, decision technologysystem and digital virtual libraries. Globally CAB international, National Agricultural Library (NAL), USA,British Library and FAO libraries (Rome) are providing valuable information on Agriculture through CD-ROMand digital libraries. The Extension Directorate Central Sector schemes, NATP, MANAGE, Regional ExtensionInstitutes, Centers of excellence, and NIF and NICNET are leading the endeavors of popularizing cyber extensionin India. Presently the number of internet connection in India has crossedthe two million mark and telephoneconnection is over 22 million, yet It has been estimated that among developing countries the use of internet infarm decision is much less (12%) in comparison to radio (77.3%) and print media (11.3%).

The FAO report (1996) emphasized the rushing need of joining internet age. The concept of Villageinformation shops and Kiosks is being discussed and experimented at several places in India, e.g. MS SwaminathanResearch foundation (MSSRF), information village of MANAGE (A.P.), warna wired village (Maharashtra), e-chaupals (ITC), e-mitra (Rajasthan), video-conferencing, VSAT-van (MANAGE) and WLL (Maharashtra) arethe budding success stories of cyber extension.

The idea of a Universal Digital Library (UDL) is also gaining momentum. The endeavors of learning,specially for the educational empowerment of less literate farming community, are getting geared up for usingdata technology along with that of print, audio and video modes. The State Agricultural Universities like Tamilnadu,Maharashtra and Rajasthan have pioneered to establish e-learning portals (e.g.www.krishisikshaonline.org) fortaking knowledge capsules to the door steps of seeking target groups. The paper reviews all the upfront areas ofcollaborative technologies in relation to e-extension and e-learning for distance education and infers that in timesto come the cyber-extension should greatly complement traditional extension to promote hi-tech agri-horticulture,vis-à-vis real and virtual class rooms shall coexist.

Mobile Telephony for Livelihood and Rural Development in IndiaH. R. Meena

Division of Extension Education, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, [email protected]

Access, efficiency and affordability of animal husbandry information continue to be a major impediment forraising animal productivity among smallholders in India. Recently information and communication technology



(ICT) has provided a possible pathway to ameliorate this scenario. A variety of innovations that integrate ICTsinto the dissemination of agricultural information to farmers (Farmers Information Services –FIS) have beendeveloped at local, national and regional levels. They have currently demonstrated a promising field of newresearch and application in e-agriculture whilst bringing new sources of information and new tools for localknowledge dissemination. This paper reviews and discusses the role of mobile telephony and its practicalcontributions to livelihood and rural development in India. Data from various sources-animal husbandry/agriculturaldepartments, ICT providers, NGOs and grey literature reviews were used. Results indicate use of ICTs especiallymobile telephones is currently widespread in the rural areas of India. Approximately one member of smallholderfarming households own mobile phones.Extension service providers have harnessed this technology by putting itinto profitable use in rural India. For example, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, also known asIFFCO. IFFCo-Airtel, Reuters, Fisher friend program provided by Qualcomm-Tata Tele and also ITC- e-choupalmodel. Offering a voice message service to its members, this provided agricultural advice in the form of minute-long voice messages in local languages. There is also a helpline service, which gives farmers access to expertson farming and veterinary medicine. "One advantage of this helpline is that the farmers can tell the symptomsfrom the field,"The content of the messages varies from how to use certain pesticides to information on marketprices. For example, an English translation of one message on treating mastitis, or the inflammation of themammary glands, in cows, says: "This disease is very common disease of Cows and occurs due to impropermilking method and unhygienic conditions. Diseased animal will have swelling in the Udder and blood clots arefound in milk. To cure this disease, follow proper milking method by applying equal pressure. Clean the handsbefore milking and also clean the udder before and after milking with disinfectant. After drying the udder,injection to control the swelling should be given to each teed by consulting nearest Doctor." This paper recommendsadoption of such technologies by institutions such as Animal husbandry Department to enhance provision ofupdated data on animal health care /disease, feeding and management for appropriate decision making by livestockfarmers. This paper is critical to enhancing awareness on appropriate transferable technologies of 21st centurythat are still compatible to diverse cultural perceptions.

A Study on the Attitude of Farmers Towards Use of InformationSources Relevant to Agricultural ExtensionDilip Kumar, P. Shrivastava, K.K. Shrivastava and R.K. Shori

Department of Agricultural Extension, IGKV, Raipur, [email protected]

The people normally accept new idea, practices, and innovations after several exposures with differentmedia and information sources. Mass media including both the electronic as well as print media if effectivelyutilised can be very important instrument in provision of agricultural information. A research was undertaken tostudy the farmer’s attitude towards use of information sources relevant to agricultural extension. Hundredfarmers were randomly chosen from nine villages of Aarang and Dharsiwa blocks of Raipur district ofChhattisgarh, and personally interviewed with the help of structured interview schedule to collect the primarydata. The results of the study revealed that most of the farmers were in the age group of 34 to 56 years old,educated upto primary school, belonged to schedule caste with medium sized joint family and had no membershipin any rural social organisation indicating very poor social participation. They had small sized land holdings andmore than half of them (57.00%) had other sources of irrigation i.e. other then tube well, pond, well, canal etc.Majority of them had agriculture and labour as their primary occupation with just below half of them recordingtheir annual income in between Rs. 35,001 to Rs. 60,000/-. Nearly fifty percent of the farmers interviewed sold



their agricultural produce in the nearly mandi i.e. agricultural produce market. More than seventy per cent ofthem had medium overall use of information sources. As regards scientific orientation it was observed that majorityof them had medium scientific orientation and moderately favourable attitude towards use of information sources.The variables education, size of land holding, sources of irrigation, annual income, marketing, contact with extensionpersonnel, sources of information, use of information and scientific orientation were found positively and significantlycorrelated with attitude towards use of information sources. Whereas the variables education, sources of irrigation,contact with extension personnel, sources of information and scientific orientation was found to contribute positivelyand significantly towards attitude regarding use of information sources and all the fifteen variables jointly explainedthe variation in attitude towards use of information sources to the extent of 94.00 per cent.

Integrated Knowledge Sharing through ICTJ S Yadav, D S Srivastava and Himanshu

Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, New [email protected]

Information Communication technology (ICT) involves application of innovative ways to use information inpublic domain. ICT provides need-based information in a demand-driven mode. The agricultural stakeholdersneed information and knowledge to manage them efficiently. But when we talk about information, it should beaccurate, complete, concise information in time or on time and must be in user-friendly form, easy to access,cost-effective and well protected from unauthorized accesses. The ICAR research journals are available inopen access mode and have been downloaded by across the country and its global visibility is increasing day byday. A Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) is available for online access to e-journals andresources in over 120 libraries. The librarians need to evolve strategies to meet knowledge and informationalrequirements of the agricultural scientists in particular and the entire scientific and knowledge community inlarge. Many high yielding varieties of different crops and implements have been developed and their productionand post harvest technologies developed. The transfers of these varieties and technologies to the farmers’ havelaid a strong foundation of agricultural and socio-economic development in the country. It is therefore importantto ensure that the farmers and disadvantaged communities learn to benefit from the use of ICT in the mainstreamsociety. Farmer Mobile Advisory (FMA) service is also an important tool for need based information delivery onmobile phone. The adoption of rural technologies by farmers through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) is a bigleap in this direction. Our next footstep should be to build up a common ICT platform for different Science andTechnology disciplines mainly Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Medical Sciences, Pharmaceutical Science andNanotechnology and allied sciences. Our extension system identified by the policy makers need to be enhancedvia different ICT tools involved in the extension process for sustainable production and productivity.

Contemporary Relevance of Vedic Agriculture: Context of Role of ITin Livelihood Security in Rural India

Lata Vyas

Govt. Girls College, Sriganganagar (Raj.)[email protected]

The agriculture in India and Asia has witnessed several paradigm shifts. The pre green revolution scenariois often portrayed as period of low productivity and that of dependence on imported food grains. People still



remember the bitter taste of wheat imported under aid PL-480. This change was driven with the help of highyielding cultivars of wheat and rice, better fertilization with urea and phosphatic fertilizers, improved crop protectionpractices and effective extension for rapid adoption of new technologies. The health of environment started toshow signs of deterioration and crops also manifested saturation to chemical application. This brought health ofenvironment on horizontal plane with the priority of enhancing production to feed increasing population. Scientistsalso started to recommend balanced applications and advocated integrated crop management practices.

The present paper shall address two questions, 1. Whether entire pre green revolution period was that ofpoverty, hunger and malnutrition? 2. How ancient agricultural practices are relevant in modern contemporaryagriculture? It would be reckoned that the ancient India, particularly the pre slavery vedic India was addressedas golden bird abounding in food, milk and wealth. The mythological history depicts that rich and wealthy Indiansociety was an agrarian society, as evident by names like Nand (Owner of large cow herds),Gopal (Cowkeeper) and Kisan (Farmer). The sages like Susruta and Surpala were agricultural scientists who had authoredtreatises like Vriksho-upnishad. The relevance of vedic agriculture would be discussed in the context of eco-reverential attitude and sustainable technologies.

Web Based Information System of Aromatic Plants UsingIT Tools for Agri-Rural Development

A.K. Rai, Bharati Dass, Ratnesh Sahu, Akhilesh Raghuwanshi

Head, Instrument Development & Service Centre, J.N.KVV, Jabalpur, [email protected]

Abstract : India is having a vast treasure of aromatic plants grown in the forest areas as well as field crops.Selecting the importance of above products for theorepatic perfumes and flavor industries with economic importanceis the necessity of the day. We need to develop multi dimensional data base in Indian languages. Presently theknowledge of aromatic plants grown at different level is limited to botanist, horticulturist, Ayurvedic practitionersand industries engaged in the Ayurvedic production. The knowledge of ayurvedic and aromatic plants naturallygrown in forest is also known to agri-rural & tribal as they use these products in the treatments of some diseases.This knowledge is slowly disappearing due to non availability of information at larger level. Now a day, there aremany knowledge centers of aromatic plants by way of books, websites and annual reports of different organizationworking in this field. However, comprehensive database covering most of the aspects of aromatic plants has notbeen prepared. A comprehensive database of each plant variety, its location, identification, productivity, marketingand industrial uses needed to be augmented. Agro climatic condition of central India is suitable to grow aromaticplants. Almost all aromatic plants can be cultivated by the farmers provided knowledge of latest package ofpractices can be made readily available to them. The data base should contain the information of importance ofeach aromatic species, their visualization in industry, productivity figures and shortage if any along with exportpotential of each species. It should also highlight the recent technological development for the cultivation ofaromatic plants as field crops. The most important aspect of the information to be collected and to be updated onday to day basis regarding availability and requirement aspects of these products in different market. Keepingthis in view, authors are developing a web application which will be useful to farmers, growers, Ayurvedicpractitioners,agri- rural and tribal’s, planners, industries etc. The web application will be bilingual i.e. in Hindiand English. This is being developed using PHP & MYSQL for 18 types of aromatic plants grown in centralIndia.



Influence of Communication Networks of Agriculture Informationon Adoption of Improved Farm Practices

S. P. Singh, P. K. Tyagi, V. K. Singh and K. C. ShuklaCollege of Agriculture, Kundeshwar Road, Tikamgarh (M.P.)

E mail- spsingh_ [email protected]

Communication has substantial role in the adoption and diffusion of the advanced technologies in theagriculture for regular growth and development of the farmers. The study aimed to evaluating socio- economicstatus and effectiveness of communication networks and their relationship. The study was undertaking in Aligarhdistrict of U.P. Out of 17 blocks, Dhanipur, Akrabad and Gangiri were selected randomly. Out of ten randomlyselected villages, 30 respondents were selected from each villages on randomly basis, thus the total 300 respondentswere selected for this study. The study has been laid on the basic issues viz. socio- economic characteristics ofsmall farmers and effective communication networks of personal cosmopolite channels and their relationship.Majority of the farmers belong to low socio- economic status, 31.33 per cent to medium status and rest 18.67 percent belong to high status. In overall usefulness of interpersonal communication channels 27.67 and 24.67 percent respondents considered the channels as useful and less useful. In interpersonal communication channels tuseful channels were he most widely used channels are radio, film and printed media with 1.17, 2.50 and 2.67pool rank order and in reverse least useful channels were wall painting, banner and tea shop board with 9.33,8.92 and 8.83 pool rank order respondents were not more faith on these channels.

Utilization of Agriculture Service of e-Choupal by RuralPeople of Rajasthan

Simple Jain

Faculty of Management Studies, Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur (Rajasthan)[email protected]

ITC’s e-Choupal is internet kiosk, village gathering place and e-Commerce hub all rolled into one. It catersto the information needs of the farmers at their doorstep by bridging the information and service gap of ruralIndia. Thus the present research was undertaken to study the utilization of e-Choupal services by rural peoplewhich will be useful in improving present effort. The present study was conducted in four districts namely SriGanga Nagar, Kota, Bharatpur, and Chittorgarh of Rajasthan. Two panchayat samities from each district andtwo villages from each panchayat samiti were selected on random basis. The sample consisted of 160 womenand 160 men users of e-Choupal. Personal interview technique was used for collecting data. The data wereanalyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean percent score and Z test. The findings of the study clearlyindicated that majority of the users were using e-Choupal website to access information about market price ofagriculture products (74.1%) and weather forecast (67.8%). Findings further revealed that the utilization ofChoupal Pradarshan Khet and Choupal Hub was good. Rural people utilized these services to get high profit ontheir crops. Thus e-Choupal has helped in socio economic development of rural people in terms of increase inagriculture production, adoption of improved technologies, marketing of agriculture produce and timely access toagriculture inputs.



Community Radio: Community Action to Fight to Climate ChangeMs. Arpita Sharma

Dept. of Agricultural Communication, G BPUA&T, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand)[email protected]

Climate Change is any long term conspicuous deviation from usual prevailing climate bringing variations innormal temperature, rainfall, atmospheric circulation with abnormal expression in extreme climate such as floods,droughts, extreme temperatures etc. India is an agricultural Country. India is facing high degree of climatevariability and may face additional challenges because of climate change. Climate change is reality an importantpart of global warming due to human activity. Almost half per cent of the population dependent on Agriculture asthe main occupation. Environmental factors and Agricultural activities are known to impact each other. Agriculturehas been a science and an art and now more and more food production has been the main goal of agriculture asseen in the earlier days by integrating crop cultivation with livestock, forestry, water and energy. A significantpart of the annual variation in India’s GDP growth over the past half century is attributed to yearly variations inrainfall. Farming is significant source GHG accounting for a sizable share of the estimated 20 per cent of totalemission. There is urgent need to aware the rural people about the climate change and its consequences. Thisis Information Communication Era. In the present time Community radio is one of the effective ICT tool forgiving the information about the climate change and its consequences.

Knowledge of Agricultural Officers on SustainableAgricultural PracticesSarju Narain and A. K. Singh

Lecturer Agril. Extension, BNPG College Rath, Hamirpur and Director ZPD, Unit IV (ICAR) Kanpur [email protected]

Extension worker play a pivotal role in technology transfer process related to agriculture and ruraldevelopment. Knowledge is one of the important component related to technology transfer. To know the knowledgelevel of agricultural officers (AO’s) on sustainable agricultural practices a study was planned for testing ofresponse analysis in Hamirpur districts in Bundelkhand region. For this purpose purposive sampling techniquewas applied for the selection of respondents i.e. AO’s. The knowledge of AO’s on sustainable agriculturalpractices was measured with the help of a test developed and standardized for the purpose. Based on theknowledge level three groups were formed for showing clear-cut preferences of AO’s about their knowledge onsustainable agricultural practices. The study revealed that about 33 percent agricultural officers (AO’s) showedlow knowledge level, 52 percent AO’s showed medium knowledge level while the percentage of high knowledgelevel is very low i.e. about 14 percent. To gain more insight on the knowledge of AO’s on sustainable agriculturalpractices, an item wise response analysis was carried out and the result are furnished separately for five identifiedareas viz-knowledge item related to (i) soil and water conservation; (ii) Integrated Nutrient Management &cropping system; (iii) Water Management; (iv) Integrated Paste Management and (v) Integrated WeedManagement.



Aurora Project: Integration and Education of Family Farmers in RuralAreas Using WIFI Connectivity and Computers of Plan CEIBAL

Jorge Ortiz Ramos and Edinson AldaoTraining Area, Agricultural and Livestock Extension. Rural Development Society Tala. Route 7 km 79. Tala,

Canelones. Uruguay. C.P. 91400 [email protected]

This project located in the northeast of Canelones, Uruguay (South America) is carried out by the RuralDevelopment Society Tala (SFRT) and the Support Network Plan CEIBAL (RAP-CEIBAL) two non-governmental organization. The SFRT began in 1944, aiming at comprehensive development of rural area; itscatchment area currently covers 600 km2, with 860 members, all family farms with an average size farm of 20hectares, dedicated to horticulture and livestock mostly. The project aims at creating an internal network betweenpartners to allow greater interaction between them, better communication, transfer of knowledge frommultidisciplinary technical team SFRT (through online courses, distance lectures, teleconferences) and Internetaccess. The SFRT is organized into 28 groups of producers who actively participate in making decisions of theorganization; this has been allowed before this project, which began in 2008 managing a network of antennasthat have the WiFi signal free zones telephone connection. Previously been trained to producers and stakeholdersin the use of home PCs and in their management CEIBAL then has turned the tools offered by informationtechnology and communication in order to make extension to associate producers. In this sense SFRT has aportal (internal website) which provides the internal Chat service, multimedia library and information activity ofthe organization. DOKEOS platform is used for distance learning and teleconferencing VYEW platform, wherethe team interacts directly with producers. So far we have created 2 training rooms in rural areas, made 2 onlinecourses and 2 teleconferences for rural producers and their families in technical aspects of production. In theshort term is intended to cover the entire area of influence and inclusion of all partners within the internalnetwork, incorporating more training and tools for outreach and distance learning.

Attitude of the Farmers Regarding Use of IT in AgricultureN. M. Chauhan and N. B. Chauhan

Programme Co-ordinator KVK, RRRS, NAU, Vyara, Dist.Tapi- [email protected]

Agriculture continues to be the major occupation and way of life for more than half of the total population,in agrarian country like India. Thus, overall development of our country is not possible by ignoring the agricultureand farmers in the process of development. Since major segment of our population are being lived in the ruralareas, quick dissemination of technology information from the agriculture research system to the doorstep of theultimate users and reporting their problems to research system are the critical inputs in transfer of agriculturaltechnology. It is observed that the information and communication support during last few decades has mainlybeen conventional. Amongst the various means for information communication are available, satellite basedinternet communication found very efficient, accurate, quick and somewhat cheaper in the field of disseminatingthe information from research system to farmers. Internet communication has touched almost all the district inour country and is mainly down up to the village levels. Internet offers a means for bridging the gap between



developmental professional, rural people and agricultural producers through the initiation of interaction and dialogue.Keeping all the views in mind the study entitled Judgment of the farmers regarding internet facility was carriedout in Anand district of Gujarat state, India. Four village having more than 5000 population and comparativelysound infrastructure facilities were selected purposively. A list of progressive farmers was prepared with thehelp of village level worker from all the selected villages. Finally, 25 farmers were selected from each villagesusing simple random sampling technique. Thus, the study was confined to 100 farmers.

The results showed that majority of the farmers understood that internet is a rich source to collect worldwide information on agriculture and it is the fastest way to exchange information in shortest time. Majorityfarmers completely or to a certain degree felt that though internet is costly affair for the farmers but it is the bestmean to collect information on market prices of agricultural products. 82.00 percent of the farmers were wishingtheir children to make positive use of internet at the same time 81.00 per cent of them had opinion that farmersshould make use of internet. Out of the 10 independent variables, five variables like Education, Land holding,Contact with NRI's, Experience of internet use and Mass media exposure were observed positively significantwhile, remaining five variables such as type of the family was observed negatively significant with the judgmentof the farmers about the use of Internet for farming community. The independent variables like Age, Occupation,Animal wealth, Modern agricultural equipment, Type of family, Extension contact and Organization participationwere observed non significant with the judgment of the farmers about the use of Internet for farming community.

e-Extension: Future Face of Indian Extension for AgriculturalDevelopment in India

S.R.K.Singh, Sandeep Chouhan, Pawan Panwar, Alka Singh and U.S. GautamZPD Zone VII , JNKVV, Jabalpur, 4SMS, KVK Chhindwara

[email protected]

ICTs play a very important and crucial role in agriculture transfer of technology. Information technologycan be helpful in providing the interaction among the researchers, extension workers and farmers. It helps inproving up to date information services to the farmers, such as package of practices, market information, weatherforecasting, credit availability, diseases / pest early warning systems, information regarding rural developmentprograms, crop insurance schemes, post harvest technology etc. Hence, ICTs can create new opportunities tobridge the gap between information Haves and Have-nots in present time. The role of ICT to enhance the foodsecurity and support rural livelihood is increasingly recognized. Its play a crucial role in addressing the agriculturalproblems and offer numerous opportunities to sustain and uplift the livelihood of rural poor. ICTs can be used toincrease the effectiveness and efficiency of extension work and also help the farmers to utilize such informationin solving their problems. The agricultural research institutes launch the successful ICT projects such as Warnawired village projects, Information village projects of MSSRF, Gyandoot project, Kisan Mobile sandesh, ikisanetc. ICT approach in addition to the traditional approaches has built trust between farmers and scientist and hasstrengthened the bond which help in effective transfer of technology. Adoption of innovation is also possiblethrough ICT based extension. It will save money, time, effort, cut step from extension process. It is an emergingfield focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development. They are so many importance tools ofICTs such as Television, Computer, Radio, multimedia, Community radio, Internet etc.



Mobile Telephony : A Catalyst of Agricultural DevelopmentArpita Sharma

Deptt. of Agricultural Communication,, College of Agriculture, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand)[email protected]

The ongoing information and Communication technology revolution has influenced life to an extent beyondimagination. The ubiquitous of these technologies the mobile phone has emerged as one of the most essentialtools for modern human being. People used various Information Communication technologies for the ruraldevelopment. Rural development is only possible if the updated information is given to the rural people. Thechange is more visible in countries like India for the geographical penetration and adoptability of the mobilephones is very high compared to other Information and Communication technology and services. There are563.73 million mobile phone subscribers and more than ten millions are added every month. The wide penetrationof mobile phones in India is fundamentally because its use opens up new socio economic opportunities. Previousresearches have confirmed that mobile phone play a very important role in the development of the farmingcommunity. Information asymmetry acts as one of the major constraints on the growth of agricultural productivityin India. The more rapid growth of mobile telephony as compared to fixed line telephony and the recent introductionof mobile-enabled information services provide a means to overcome existing information asymmetry. It alsohelps, at least partially, to bridge the gap between the availability and delivery of agricultural inputs and agricultureinfrastructure. Present paper describes concept of mobile technology, its importance, factors affecting the mobiletechnology and role of mobile technology in agricultural development.

Kisan Mobile Advisory Service Facilitated By Krishi Vigyan KendraR.S. Sengar, S. Limje, M. K. Chandraker and H. S. Tomar

Programme Coordinator, KVK Rajnandgaon (CG)[email protected]

Farmers need the right information in right time to the right person at right place for increasing agriculturalproduction. The kisan mobile Advisory Service (KVK-KMAS) a unique programme of information delivery foradvising the farmers with need based timely information along with objective of such service is to reach out alarger section of farming community. Under this programme, message are delivered twice in a week(everyTuesday and Friday) to the farmers by the KVK Rajnandgaon. Krishi vigyan Kendra has launched an internetbased mobile message service named “ Kisan Mobile Advisory Service” for farming community of the district.Under this programme considering some gap in the transfer of technologies by various extension functionariesthis initiative was taken up by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra. Need based weather based and marketing basedtechnologies and service information are being sent to the farming community. Collecting the feedback on statusof crop and other agro based enterprises directly from the farmers and allied departments, recommended andinformation are fixed priorities and formulated to send through mobile messages. All the nine block of this districthave been covered through this programme and approximate 600 farmers have already been registered underKMA programme. The message were delivered to farming community of entire district covered with fallowingtopics related with Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on the basis of farmers need viz. large no. of messageswere delivered viz. Plant protection measures fallowed by Integrated nutrient management, Production technologyof various crops were covered (like Preparation of Land, Soil Testing, Selection of HYV) Irrigation, BalanceUse of Fertilizer and lastly Animal husbandry aspect. Now the farmers who benefitted by this programme theydo not go to the input supplier for technical information as they had visited earlier



ICT- based Transfer of Technology by Krishi Vigyan KendraC. Ravindran, N.S. Venkataraman, C. Karthikeyan, and B.J. Pandian

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Madurai, Tamil [email protected]

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (K.V.K.) is a noble concept developed by ICAR which was rest upon a solid baseof transfer of technology from laboratory to famers field with respect to agricultural, Horticulture, AnimalHusbandry, Bee keeping, Mushroom cultivation and allied subjects. Given the problems that extension agents/researchers face in facilitating direct contact with farmer clients due to the physical distances involved and thelack of transportation needed for their mobility, the applications of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) offers excellent possibilities to render cost effective and quality extension services to farming community.The proposed model is aimed to provide timely and appropriate technical advice to the needed farmers on needbasis, thus overcoming the inadequacies experienced in the earlier technology transfer models and achieveagricultural development in the region. E-velanmai through of modern information tools viz., mobile, lap top andinternet, agriportal system through internet, market price information system through mobile phone are the keyICT based technologies delivered to the formers in Madurai district.

Farmers’ Perception about Agricultural Advertisements in NewspapersManish Kanwat, R. Bhagawati, S.V. Nagachan, V.K. Choudhary and B. Mishra

ICAR RC for NEH Region AP Centre, Basar, Arunachal Pradesh,College of Horticulture (CAU), Passighat, East Siang, Arunachal Pradesh

[email protected]

Evidently, the agricultural sector is attracting numerous investors who are learned but have little or notechnical knowledge of agricultural production. Potentials of agricultural production are yet to be explored inprint media to disseminate agricultural information in order to promote success of agriculture as an enterprise.The study therefore investigated readership of agricultural advertisements in leading newspapers in Siang regionof Arunachal Pradesh State, India. A list of four hundred and one (401) farmers was obtained from the localgovernment office and thirty percent (30%) (122) of the farmers were randomly selected. A structuredquestionnaire guide containing open and close questions was used to elicit information from the respondents. Theresult of the analysis revealed that majority (79.50%) were between the age of 30 to 50, also indicates high(67.2.00%) literacy level above primary education. On marital status, (83.00%) were married, 78.6% of thefarmers practiced farming as prime occupation, appreciable number (27.5%) have above 26 years farmingexperience. Quite high (63.11%) level of readership is recorded among respondents with larger percentage(43.4%) reads newspaper daily. Respondents’ perception and attitude (66.4 and 74.6%) were favourably disposedto advertising respectively. The inferential statistics analysis shows education (chi-square=21.07:p=0.01)significantly related with respondents’ perception of agricultural advertisements. However, marital status (chi-square=10.48; p=0.57) and farming experience (chi-square=25.25; p=0.11) were not significantly related.Correlation analysis of farmers attitude and perception of agricultural advertisements in newspapers was foundto be significant (r=0.385; p=0.000). Agricultural advertisements are a vanguard for awareness creation, boostagricultural enterprise and dissemination of agricultural information will receive wider reach within and outsidefarming population.



Usage of ICT between Female Researchers and ExtensionistsBhanu Prakash Mishra and Manish Kanwat

College of Horticulture (CAU), Passighat, East Siang, Arunachal [email protected]

Information and communications technology (ICT) has become a very important feature in the Indianagricultural sector in contemporary times. Even though it is still a new concept, an increasing number ofprofessionals are appreciating its use for development work. Female researchers and extensionists are importantstakeholders in the development of agriculture in the context of India. They are important because they arerequired to provide support to the female farmers who ordinarily would be more comfortable with femaleresearchers. It is therefore pertinent that female researchers and extensionists be abreast with modern informationand communication technologies so as to discharge their duties more effectively. This study examines awareness,access and utilization of ICT among female researchers and female extensionists. Data was obtained from 106female researchers and 27 female extensionists in NEH Region of India, with the aid of a questionnaire. Informationcollected showed that female researchers and female extensionists are aware of ICT; both categories ofrespondents know how to access Internet on their own. Respondents do not have adequate access to IT. Also,65.7 and 74.7 per cent of female researchers and female extensionists respectively used ICT for between 3 to5 times a week. The types of ICT needed by female researchers and female extensionists include; World WideWeb, Electronic Mail, Word Processing, CD-ROM, Use of Projector, Use of computer, Web Design, Chatroom and Video Conferencing etc.

Effectiveness of Tata Kisan Sansar in Technology Advisory andDelivery Services in Uttar Pradesh

Anirban Mukherjee, Ram Bahal, R. Roy Burman, S. K. Dubey and G. K. Jha

Division of Agricultural Extension, IARI, New [email protected]

The effectiveness of an organisation can be defined as how well it performs its activities to attain thepredetermined objectives. In this present context of agriculture where public, private and collaborated public-private organisations are working in India, it is necessary to study how effective they are in their respectivegoals. In general private extension agencies deliver inputs, some provide advisory services and some othersprovide both to the farming community. For the study purpose a private organisation Tata Kisan Sansar wasselected that provides both the inputs and services to the farmers. The study was conducted in Aligarh district ofUttar Pradesh where the Tata Kisan Sansar is working since 2002. An ex-post facto research design was usedfor this study. The data was collected from 50 Tata Kisan Sansar member farmers. The Tata Kisan Sansar, theprivate initiative provides inputs, services, which is better in accessibility, quality and timeliness to the farmers.Extent of overall adoption of recommended practices of wheat was found to be very high by 43 per cent and highby 42 per cent of the farmer. The constant advisory support in addition leads to better adoption of technologieswhich further leads to increase in yield and income and ultimately satisfaction of the farmers. It was found that72 per cent of farmers are highly satisfied and 28 percent are very highly satisfied with the inputs and servicesrendered by Tata Kisan Sansar. The effectiveness of the private organization in technology advisory and deliveryservices was measured by effectiveness index developed for this purpose. The study revealed that the extension



services rendered by Tata Kisan Sansar were found to be medium in effectiveness by majority of the farmers(54 per cent) and 46 per cent of farmers found the extension service to be high in effectiveness.

Kisan Mobile Advisory Service- An Effective ICT Tool forTechnology Dissemination

Jagannath PatraProgramme Co-ordinator, KVK, Mayurbhanj (OUAT)

[email protected]

The shifting emphasis of Indian agriculture towards diversification, commercialization, sustainability andefficacy has made it necessary for the state extension organizations to critically examine their extension approachesin relation to livelihood of rural masses. The frequent suggestion for food import ignores the fact that agricultureis not food producing machine, but is the backbone of the livelihood security system for over 60 percent population.Development in science and technology in general as well as information and communication technology inparticular endorses with ways of facilitating a wide range of communication, information and advisory servicesin process of technology transformation. Actually extension official are grappling with the question of how bestto harness information and communication technology to improve rural livelihood wit sustainability. Sustainabilityemerges out of shared human resources objectives, knowledge, decision, technology and organization. A Kisanmobile advisory service (KMAS), which is a part of the ICT tools, is employed by the most of the Krishi VigyanKendras in Orissa. Likewise KMAS was launched during May, 2010 by the KVK, Mayurbhanj. In the programmethe mobile numbers of progressive farmers, extension officials, were registered and grouping is done as per theenterprise/activity basis for facility of filtering purpose. Till July, 2011 about 1701 numbers were registered. Theusual messages are being serving twice a week and timely information/advices are communicating as per theneed of the situation. From the list of progressive farmers, fifty farmers were selected for the study with theobjective to know their preferences and utility in their field situation. Majority of the farmers opined that timespecific advisories are most important followed by marketing information. The messages on climatic informationare most suitable followed by management of disease & pests are found to be most suited as per the result inlocal language.

Transformation of Sericulture through Women Seri-entrepreneurshipDevelopment in India -An Overview

J. Somireddy, P.Deepa and G.SrinivasaNational Silkworm Seed Organization, Central Silk Board, Madivala, Bangalore

[email protected]

Women in India constitute around half the country’s population and as such they play a major role in thefield of sericulture, by contributing about 55% of the total sericulture activities. Silkworm rearing due to itssimplicity and sensitivity in maintenance and handling, better suits to women folk as silkworm care and child careare compared. Sericulture is being practiced in the traditional sericulture states as a subsidiary enterprise by thewomen at home practicing parallel to domestic activities. The production of silk, which is not gradable in theinternational market, continues to be produced due to non-adoption of improved silkworm rearing technologiesstarting from mulberry cultivation to silk reeling. The problem further multiplies due to non-availability of area



specific bivoltine silkworm breeds. Bivoltine yarn is sturdier and is used by the power loom industry. But Indiaproduces hardly 5% of its production in the form of bivoltine silk. Technically sound and professionally qualifiedwomen should be encouraged for managing the much talked about qualitatively superior bivoltine silk. Theunexplored talents of young women can be utilized for modernizing various sectors of sericulture industry toincrease the productivity through training. The entrepreneurial values may be inculcated in women and involvethe trained women greatly in seri-business development.

Role of Market Intelligence Center for Maize MarketingVilas Jadhav, C.P. Gracy, V.A Ramachandra and Nagashree, N.

Department of Agricultural Economics, UAS GKVK. [email protected]

Maize is both a food and commercially important cereal crop whose origin is traced to Mexico about 7,000years ago. Worldwide, corn ranks behind only wheat in total production. 80 per cent of the produce goes tolivestock and poultry feed, while 20 per cent is used in food and industrial application. Among coarse grainsmaize accounts for 70 per cent. The U.S.A is chief exporter of maize with 74 per cent export share in the worldmarket. India stands at 5th position with 3 percent share (16.68 million tonnes). Very often, farmers lose out ongetting good yields and price due to lack of timely information and proper scientific knowledge on critical agriculturalpractices. Market intelligence center has a tremendous potential of delivering such crucial information to farmersand help them learn new agricultural practices perfected in research labs. The market intelligence center has avital role in enhancing food security and sustains rural livelihoods. The market intelligence center makes use ofa wide data base, computers, internet, agro-climatic information, mobile phones, as well as mass media such asradio, TV, mobile SMS for providing price and market related information. Market intelligence center can providefarmers with useful and beneficial information related to maize production practices and market outlook, such asnew farming techniques, weather reports, and crop prices. This is also referred to as e-agriculture and thefollowing are some practical examples of this use of market intelligence centers: Rural radio: Information andknowledge play a key role in addressing prices. The radio has a fairly wide coverage and is relatively inexpensivecommunication medium that can provide farmers with information about farming conditions regularly. Farmerscan receive market information on commodities (market price, supply and demand) as text messages on mobilephones. This service reaches millions of farmers every week. In rural areas, information can also be madeavailable to farmers through community kiosks. Farmers can use these services to enhance communication withpotential buyers and to access information on improved farming techniques.

Potentials of ICTs in Indian AgricultureSurinder Pal Singh, Berjesh Ajrawat, Manu Parmar and Ajay Kumar

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, SKUAST- J, [email protected]

There is a wide spread belief that information and Knowledge is vital for rural and agricultural development.Today generation of new and various information and knowledge sources need new information and communicationchannels. New information and communication technologies can decrease poverty by promotion of rural accessto education, health, government and financial services, overall they can improve livelihood. ICT is playing animportant and vital role in agricultural production and marketing. It allows farmers to save time on order and



delivery and getting feed back. In the existing competition, there is a need to rapidly attract new customers aswell as retain existing customers. The purpose of this study was to identify potentials of new information andcommunications technologies (ICTs) in agriculture and rural sector. Documentary research and literature reviewwere used as research methods. Findings revealed that the most applications of these ICTs in rural and agriculturesector were trade of inputs and outputs through e- chaupal, extension and trainings activities for rural people,advantages of agri-tourism, knowledge transfer from cities to villages through e-kioks and geographical informationsystem (GIS) for management of natural resources.

e-Governance Initiative : Pioneering Development in Rural BiharPunam Tiwari and Achala Gakkhar

Vanasthali Vidyapeeth, Tonk, Raj [email protected]

Information technology (IT) doubtlessly contributes much to agriculture and rural development. Firstly, itcan facilitate rural activities and provide more comfortable and safe rural life with equivalent services to those inthe urban areas, such as provision of distance education, tele-medicine, remote public services, remoteentertainment etc. Secondly, IT can initiate new agricultural and rural business such as e-commerce, real estatebusiness for satellite offices, rural tourism, and virtual corporation of small-scale farms. Thirdly, it can supportpolicy-making and evaluation on optimal farm production, disaster management, agro-environmental resourcemanagement etc., using tools such as geographic information systems (GIS). Fourthly, it can improve farmmanagement and farming technologies by efficient farm management, risk management, effective informationor knowledge transfer etc., realizing competitive and sustainable farming with safe products. The challenge ofdevelopment in Bihar is enormous due to persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactoryinfrastructure, and in many situations, weak governance. These problems are well known but not well understood.SAHAJ Vasudha Kendra is an e-governance pioneer project endeavouring to upgrade economic growth, socialindicators, and poverty reduction requiring multi-dimensional development strategy. SAHAJ is bringing in e-Governance at their doorsteps, sensitizing their women about RCH, educating the villagers in computer education,which in turn is making the young age band techno-savvy and equipped with technical expertise so that theycould face the challenges in the real world. SAHAJ Kendras are working in collaboration with the local Panchayatto make health, education, and railway reservation related services available in their locality and thereby infiltratingtheir life with comfort and happiness. Many young men are even becoming entrepreneurs with SAHAJ VasudhaKendra with the hope of changing the fate of themselves and their fellow people suffering from feeble agriculturalgrowth and abysmal poverty.

Cell Phone Mediated Audio Conferencing as an Effective InformationDelivery Tool among Women in Livestock Rearing

Elizabeth AbrahamDeptt. of Vet. & AH Extension, Shimoga Veterinary College, Shimoga, Karnataka.

[email protected]

The evolution of ICTs in the last few decades has seen its advent in delivering information related toagriculture and livestock development among farmers. With more number of people even in rural areas usingcell phones, an opportunity to apply its potentials in disseminating information that would help in improving the



socio-economic conditions of the rural poor was noticed. With this in mind, Cell phone Operated Mobile AudioCommunication and Conferencing system (COMBACCS) was developed under Development Partnership inHigher Education (DelPHE) project of DFID, led by Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences,Puducherry. Since it was envisioned that a tool like this would be particularly useful in bringing information to thedoorstep of the women, who are bound to their homes due to the family chores, it was decided to study itseffectiveness among the Women self Help Groups (WSHGs). A study on Effectiveness of cell phone mediatedaudio conferencing system was thus carried out among livestock rearing WSHGs in Thrissur district of Keralastate. The objectives were to understand the effect of Cell Phone Mediated Audio Communication andConferencing System (COMBACCS) among WSHGs as a knowledge dissemination tool, to study the perceptionsof the WSHG members, resource persons, and other stakeholders about the use of COMBACCS and to identifythe problems in its use among WSHGs. Statistically significant change in the knowledge level of the members’pre and post audio conferencing was noticed. All members were convinced about the advantages and use ofCOMBACCS. Some of the important advantages mentioned were a scope for better interaction and clarificationof personal doubts from home/neighbourhood, saving money and time both for group members and resourcepersons, more people trained in less time and promoters can directly interact with the group members. COMBACCSwas especially helpful in reaching members of WSHGs in rural remote areas, and addresses constraints offormal training. Cost of equipment, noises, and maintenance of equipment were cited as some of the limitationsby WSHG members, resource person and promoters respectively.

Role of ICT’s to Enhance the Farmers Adaptive Capacity forClimate Resilient Agriculture

R. Senthil Kumar, B.S. Meena, Prasad Babu, S. Subash and V. Babu

Dairy Extension Division, NDRI, [email protected]

Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Climate change places new and more challengingdemands on agricultural productivity. And generally crop and livestock productivity, market access, and theeffects of climate all are extremely location specific. Research organizations and Govt. policies should focustechnical, financial, and capacity-building measure to support the local communities. They should also encouragecommunity participation for enhancement of their adaptive capacity. Community-based adaptation strategiescan help rural communities strengthen their capacity to cope with disasters, improve their land-managementskills, and diversify their livelihoods. In order to enhance the adaptive capacity, ICT mediated applications areplaying crucial role for effective reach to the last mile. Adapting to climate change requires information that isUseful, Meticulous, Meaningful and Timely. Knowledge platform represents a key strategy in climate changeadaptation and building resilience. The adaptation and mitigation related information shouldbe collected, packaged and availed to the public for preparedness. Recent ICT tools like InteractiveCD-ROM, Early Warning Systems, Climate Information Kiosk (CIK), Internet, Climate information &communications network, Mobile telephony systems etc has been linking the research system to end users. So itwould develop a framework for functional climate change database as an interactive repository model andcapturing novel crop management practices in response to extreme climatic patterns and sharing the informationto the farmers.



ICT for Technology DisseminationSujeet K. Jha, Nandani Salaria and Ram Datt

Division of Dairy Extension, NDRI, Karnal, [email protected]

Now-a-days, the dissemination process (pertaining to idea(s), innovation(s), technique(s), practice(s),technology(ies), etc.) has become faster, thanks to the tools of ICT…albeit, the same cannot be said about the‘adoption process’ in toto. In fact, the ICT has made the jobs of the government as well as the extensionpersonnel relatively easier, as the time taken for propagating a message among the intended clientele has reduceddrastically; while, at the same time, the choices and options vis-à-vis means of communication to be utilized forthe purpose of dissemination have increased manifold. Further, the ICT has made it possible to involve differentcommunication strategies for different groups of end-users… a sort of a-la-carte menu, to choose the suitableones from the available alternatives. Apart from the traditional means of ICT, like Radio, Television, Print andElectronic media, these days the mobile/cell phones (including the hand-held devices and smart phones) arethought of as the herald of information-revolution. Inother words, this can be easily stated, categorically, that theway these tools ofICT are being used by the current generation with so much alacrity probably these signs maybe construed as a harbinger of the things to come, especially field of ‘technology-dissemination’… thereby,indicating the importance of ICT in term of ‘technology-transfer’.

Empowering Women through Self Help GroupR.F. Thakor and M.R. Bhatt.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ambheti, Dist. [email protected]

Women play an active role in the economy of their family. Group approach is a viable get up to empowerwomen socially, economically and technically. Role of SHGs are emerging as promising tool in this context.Thus, the study Empowering Women Through Self Help Group was taken up with 118 women and six groups ofthree villages- Ambheti, Kothar and Sukhala formed by KVK in Kaparada block of Valasad distract. It could beconcluded from the case study that the significant impact of skill training was observed among the SHGmembers .Group efforts has enhance leadership and managerial ability of members as they have procure rawmaterial ,prepared product and market the same.The average sale of the produce goes to Rs.2.30 lacs.The netannual income earned by the group was ranges between Rs. 12190 to 16250 . Whereas, the average incomeearned by the individual group is Rs. 3695 per month. Active participant of members, literacy status of the groupleaders, cosmopolitans and higher socio-economic status of the members, more leisure time, higher mobility forpurchasing raw materials and marketing of the products are found to be the important factors for active involvementand profitability of the groups. Tendency to avoid economic risk., Lack of motivation-from family, Lack ofconfidance, Lack of specialised skills, Lack of marketing experience, Lack of managerial skill, Non co-operativeattitude among members, difficulty in maintenance and repairs of machine and inadequate and interruptivepower supply are the major constraints faced by the tribal women members of groups.



Mass Media Utilization by Sericulture Extension FunctionariesM.T. Lakshimnarayan, K.G.Banuprakash, V.Govinda Gowda and M.T. Lakshminarayan

University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, [email protected]

Mass media are the tools or technologies that facilitate dissemination of information and entertainment tothe large audience in quick time. Mass media channels such as radio, newspaper, magazines, television, motionpicture, slide shows, exhibits and printed materials are used by the extension personnel for disseminating farminformation to reach large number of farmers quickly, promptly and with high fidelity. Sericulture extensionpersonnel (Assistant Director of Sericulture, Sericulture Extension Officer, Demonstrators etc.,) teachessericulture know-how to farmers using a variety of mass media. The success of sericulture developmentdepends to a larger extent on the ability of extension functionaries to utilize the mass media to deliver and ensurea steady flow of right information to the sericulturists at appropriate time. Against this background, a study wasconducted to know the selected mass media used by sericulture extension functionaries in communicatinginformation on improved technologies to sericulturists. Thirty sericulture extension personnel in Chikaballapuraand Kolar Districts of Karnataka State were interviewed using pre-tested interview schedule. The results revealedthat the most important mass media used by the sampled respondents were leaflets (66%), posters (63%),extension folders (60%), photographs (56%), wall newspaper (51%) and farm journals (33%). The other massmedia like newspaper (18%), campaigns (18%), sericulture exhibitions (15%), sericulture films (12%). radio(12%), television (9%) and puppetry (3%) were used to a limited extent by the sericulture extension personnel.It can be concluded that the Karnataka State Department of Sericulture should advantageously use mass mediaon a very large scale for rapid communication of sericulture technologies to the sericulturists.

Measuring Empowerment of Women in DairyingPrem Chand and Smita Sirohi

Zonal Project Directorate, Zone-VII, JNKVV Campus, Jabalpur (MP)[email protected]

From times immemorial, women have played a pivotal role in our agriculture, in general and dairy, inparticular. However, the role-played by women and their contribution to various economic activities in ourcountry has yet to be given due importance. As women play predominant role in dairy farming, this enterprisecan be sustainable from the social aspect if it is associated with empowerment of women. Therefore, the presentstudy was conducted to measure the empowerment of women in Rajasthan. The study is based on primary datacollected from Jaipur district of Rajasthan during 2006-07 for three seasons. The degree of empowerment wasmeasured by using Empowerment Index calculated by Weighted Average Method by using 5 proxy variables.The results study showed that more than 3/4th of females (78.33%) were engaged as main workers in dairying.The literacy status was found to be very low as only 34 percent adult females were literate in the study area.Nearly 2/3rd of the respondents were belonging to nuclear family while remaining 1/3rd were belonging to jointfamily. The decisions in domestic, financial and social matter related to dairying were mainly taken by malemembers of the family. The overall average Women Empowerment Index (WEI) was around 50 and varied inthe range of 39.66 to 73.43 and low coefficient of variation of 13.59 percent. The mean WEI values across herdsize categories show very minor increase in the average index as herd size increased. The predominant number



of women (97.50 %) concentrated in moderate WEI range (range of scores middle 1/3rd). The studysuggested for providing better education, particularly through adult education and ensuring access to resourcesto women.

Role of Decision Support System for Indian AgricultureAnjani Kumara, Rajni Jainb, Raj Kumar Raic and Pankaj Sharma

National Centre for Agricultural Economics & Policy Research (NCAP), Pusa, New [email protected]

Agriculture is an important sector with the majority of the rural population in developing countries dependingon it. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a potential to contribute in achieving significanteconomic, social and environmental benefits (Gelb, 2008). The role of Information technology to develop agriculturalresearch, education and extension to improve quality of life in rural areas is well established. IT can be a bestmean not only to develop agricultural extension but also to expand agricultural research and education system.For better agricultural research and policy making different government departments are still dependent onseparate centers and their specific IT staff for making particular report which often takes long time in collectionand compilation of data. To address these problems a data warehouse has been developed at National Centrefor Agricultural Economics and Policy Research under National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP). Thispaper presents the framework and functionality of the database repository named as Commodity Market OutlookStatistics (CMOS). It has been developed to provide comprehensive updated database on various items likeproduction, consumption, price, income, trade, resources etc. CMOS provides quality time series data coveringdifferent spatial level hierarchy like country, state and district level. It has regular updating mechanism to ensureavailability of most updated recent data and information. This attempt has been found very useful and wellappreciated by various stakeholders and researchers.

Impact of Agricultural Information Based SMSs on the FarmersKiran Pant

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, GBPUA&T, Dhakrani, (Uttarakhand)[email protected]

Agricultural information is a key component in improving small-scale agricultural production and linkingincreased production to remunerative markets and ultimately leading to improved rural livelihoods, food securityand national economies. Farmers from Dehradun District were registered under this programme and receivedSMS on agricultural aspects and it was observed that this SMS technology has facilitated the development andgrowth of the farming community in many ways. The paper examine the diffusion and perceived impact ofImpact of agricultural information based SMSs on the small- to medium-size limited-resource farm holders inDehradun District, of Uttarakhand . Farmers registered with the aAqua and agropedia were interviewed to findout the impact and it was observed that information received through these SMSs is somewhat useful. Informationon suggestions on agricultural practices were followed by the few farmers and got benefited. This study showsthat use of phone was appreciated by farming communities as easy, fast and convenient way to get informationon different aspects of agriculture. There is generally more use of phones by male than female farmers.



Migration in Command Area of ChhattisgarhM.L.Sharma, A.L.Rathore, A.P.Singh and J.D.Sarkar

Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.)[email protected]

In this study, migration is termed as temporary/ seasonal shifting of landless, small and marginal farmers forsearch of jobs during off-season. Migration is not harmful if migrant earns money without loosing health, socialreputation, property and education of the children. In general, the migration becomes a sign of poverty in mostparts of eastern India where majority of the farmers are tied with rice cultivation. As a consequence of migrationthe migrants though earn some money but loose many things like education of their children, deterioration insocial respect, partial loss of properties and insecurity in health and hygiene. Data were collected from 684respondents belonging to various 51 Waters Users associations (WUAs) of selected 30 medium and minorirrigation systems of entire state under ADB funded collaborative research project.

Data indicates that in the command area, out of total (684) surveyed households, about 25 per cent (172no.) of the households migrated from the canal command with little variations in different parts (i.e. 23% fromhead reach, 28% from middle reach and 25% from tail-end) of the canal system. In general, migration startsfrom October and continued till April every year. December, January and February are the months when morethe 75 percent migration occurred.

The migrants migrated for search of employment for the period of 15 days to more than 6 months dependingon the unemployment period in the villages or job of interest got in the place of migration. They migrated toanother village in the district or another district in the state. Most of them, carryout agriculture work, earthwork,bricks making, construction and repairing work during the period of migration. Out of the total migrants, 50%were male plus female or whole family whereas, 35% male and 15% only female were migrated during theperiod. Among the males 83% were migrated for 3 to 4 months whereas 94% female & 87% male + femalemigrants migrated for 3 to 4 months among the migrants’ respondent’s families. During migration, female wasgetting about 22 per cent less wages than male. When the information regarding income from migration wascollected, respondents told that male migrants earned around Rs.6740 and female earned about 5580 annually.Thus, average earning was Rs.6162 per family from migration.

Better wages, lesser employment opportunities in local level, no/less employment opportunities in own farmduring the season, to search of job and getting additional income, etc. are found some of the causes for migrationamong the migrants. Employment and earnings are found major causes for migration, which is justified withinverse relationship between cropping intensity and per family income from migration. Therefore, increasing incropping intensity (excluding relay cropping) is one of the most important variables to reduce the migration up tosome extent in the area. In addition to this a strategy should be frame out for generation of additional employmentat village level after harvesting and threshing of rice for increasing the earning of the farming community fortheir sustainable livelihood.

Accessing Agricultural Information Through Mobile PhoneAshutosh Das, Debabrata Basu and Rupak Goswami

State Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute/ ATC, Narendrapur, [email protected]

Agricultural information is a key component for increasing agricultural production and productivity thatleads to improved rural livelihoods and food security. In order to counter recent decelerating growth rate of



agriculture the challenges of infrastructural constraints, supply chain inefficiencies, and diffusion and access toinformation are to be addressed. In this context, increasing penetration of mobile network and widespread use ofmobile phones, voice mail and SMS solutions could be an opportunity to make the useful information available atthe farmers’ doorstep.

In West Bengal, IFFCO Kishan Sancher Limited (IKSL) made an endeavour to disseminate informationand knowledge amongst the farmers through voice messaging system in local language. However, its relevance,quality and timeliness have been an issue of serious concern to the farmers. The present study was undertakento explore the potential of this mobile based voice messaging services provided by IKSL Green Card, to knowthe frequency of its messaging, lacking in the information provided and to put forward some suggestions toimprove the efficiency of the service.

The study was conducted on sixty randomly selected farmers, who were using IKSL Green Card, from twoblocks of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal. The result of the study revealed high contact of farmers withthe progressive farmers (43.3 per cent) followed by IKSL (40.0 per cent) and input retailers (28.3 per cent). Inrespect of frequency, quality and timeliness of the information provided by IKSL, farmers ranked fertilizer,pesticide and seed as Ist, 2nd and 3rd. Market information of agricultural produce was rarely covered by IKSLservice.

Farmers were benefited from voice mail mostly in adopting better agricultural practices followed by increasedrevenue, change in cropping pattern and connection to market. The respondents suggested sending the messageseither in the early morning or in the afternoon. Similarly, most of them needed weather forecast in every morningfor better planning of farm activities. They also suggested sending messages on eco-friendly pesticides. Fewsuggested providing SMS in addition to voice mail as it could be stored, followed and shared with fellow farmers.

Farmers' Opinion Regarding Use of IT in AgricultureN.K. Sharma and M.L. Menna

SKN, COA, Jobner (Jaipur)[email protected]

Internet offers a means for bridging the gap between developmental professional, rural people and agriculturalproducers through the initiation of interaction and dialogue. Four villages having more than 4500 population andcomparatively sound infrastructure facilities were selected purposely. A list of progressive farmers was preparedwith the help of village level workers from all the selected villages. Finally, 30 farmers were selected from eachvillages using simple random sampling technique. Thus, the study was confined to 120 farmers. The resultsshowed that majority of the farmers understood that internet is a rich source to collect world wide information onagriculture and it is the fastest way to exchange information in shortest time. Majority of farmers completely orto a certain degree felt that through internet is costly affair for the farmers but it is the best mean to collectinformation on market price of agricultural products. Eighty nine per cent of the farmers were wishing theirchildren to make positive use of internet at the same time 83.45 per cent of them had opinion that farmers shouldmake use of internet. Out of the independent variables like education, land holding, experience of internet useand mass media exposure were observed positively significant while, remaining five variables such as type of thefamily was observed negatively significant with the opinion of the farmers about the use of internet for farmingcommunity.



Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Through ICTKapur Singh, Himmat Kumar Jeenger and Ajay Raut

KVK, Rampura – Rewari (Haryana)[email protected]

The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a tool for development has attractedthe sustained attention of the India over recent years. Information and Communication Technologies comprise acomplex and heterogeneous set of goods, applications and services used to produce, process, distribute andtransform information. The ICT sector consists of segments as diverse as telecommunications, television andradio broadcasting, computer hardware, software and services and electronic media (for example, the Internetand electronic mail). Information and communication needs can be met by more traditional means, such as printmedia and fixed telephone lines, or by satellite technology, mobile phones and the Internet. Traditional technologiescontinue to be important for large numbers of people around the world, particularly in rural areas. However, newtechnologies have a vast potential for empowerment which needs to be fully exploited.

While there is recognition of the potential of ICT as a tool for the promotion of gender equality and theempowerment of women, a “gender divide” has also been identified, reflected in the lower numbers of womenaccessing and using ICT compared with men. Unless this gender divide is specifically addressed, there is a riskthat ICT may exacerbate existing inequalities between women and men and create new forms of inequality. If,however, the gender dimensions of ICT-in terms of access and use, capacity-building opportunities, employmentand potential for empowerment-are explicitly identified and addressed, ICT can be a powerful catalyst forpolitical and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality. In addition to physical accessto the technology and the ability to utilize it, access also refers to the ability to make use of the information andthe resources provided. The factors identified as constraints to access and use, i.e. poverty, illiteracy, includingcomputer illiteracy, and language barriers are particularly acute for women. ICT have been applied to systemicimprovements important to poverty reduction such as education, health and social services delivery, broaderGovernment transparency and accountability, and helping empower citizens and build social organization aroundrights and gender equality.

Extension of Technological Support for Textile IndustryChitranayak, N.Shanmugam, A. Yadav and D.N.Moon

AICCIP Section, QEID, CIRCOT (ICAR), Matunga, [email protected]

With the globalization of economy and the need to meet stringent quality norms particularly for export, thecotton trade and spinning industry have come to realize the importance of objective testing and quality evaluationof the raw material, i.e. the cotton fibres. The quality of cotton varies considerably among the different varietiesavailable. It is not easy to define quality in absolute terms. However, attempts have been made to evaluate it interms of different physical parameters like length, weight, maturity, strength etc. Methods have been evolved todetermine these charaters with an adequate degree of accuracy. In the years, several methods of tests weretried and the test equipment had been designed accordingly.

Grading and evaluation of Cotton lint: Grading and evaluation of cotton could be done by taking into accountvarious factors and by matching the sample against certain prepared standards. Grading could usually be carried



out on the lint obtained after ginning the seed cotton (Kapas). The grade of cotton lint may be determined by threfactors namely colour, foreign matter and ginning prepration. The colour grade information concerning theweathering or exposure undergone by the cotton and, in some cases, information concerning attack by fungi,insects etc. The amount and type of foreign matter are dependent on the conditions of harvesting and storing aswell as on the weather conditions before and during picking. The ginning prepration can give information concerningstorage or handling conditions prior to ginning and also how carefully and efficiently the cotton has been ginned.Inmany countries like USA, marketing of cotton takes place only after ginning. On the other hand, in India, farmersmarket their produce, without ginning, as kapas, or seed cotton in the primary market: the trading organisationwhich purchase kapas get it ginned and then sell the lint to the textile mills and other consumers. Hence, in India,grading has to be done at two stages, viz. (a) in the primary market and (b) at the terminal market.

Sources of Information on Improved Crop Production TechnologyJitendra Kumar and Anil Kumar Sachan

. Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Extension, C.S.A.U.A. & T., Kanpur (U.P.)[email protected]

A study was conducted to assess the sources of information on improved crop production technology andits valuation in Uttar Pradesh. The present study related to Sitapur District of U.P. the farming was observed tobe the main source of livelihood. A largest number of respondents gave first priority to the information related tothe price of the product, followed by improved varieties, information related to the sowing times and qualityseeds of different crops. The less expenses incurred by the large farmers for information from extension agentsmay be on account of frequent visit of these agents to their door steps, radio and television were also found to bethe important sources of information but it was difficult to quantity on account of the farmer’s response thatlistened, watched of programmes of these sources during leisure time.

Constraints in Adoption of Soybean Production TechnologyIshwar Singh, K K Singh and U S Gautam

KVK, Burhanpur, [email protected]

The study was conducted in the eight villages of two blocks (four each) of Burhanpur district of MadhyaPradesh during the year 2009-2010. The finding of study reveals that the constraints related with personal matterfarmers reported that lack of education (67.72%) and lacks of knowledge (54.05%) were the major constraint.Problem of non availability of credit at proper time and non availability of proper amount in credit were importantsocio-economic constraints .The study also indicated that the lack of social participation and lack of risk bearingcapacity were major socio-psychological constraint. As far as the communicational constraints were concerned,lack of information at proper amount was found a major constraint followed Lack of information in proper timeand non availability of information media. The study also shows the technological constraints due to which therate of adoption is low. It was observed about 91.72 per cent respondents reported the lack of irrigation facilityas the major constraints.



Impact of Front Line Demonstration on Consumption of VegetablesVinita Singh, Y.R. Khare and P.K.Mishra

KVK, Sagar (MP)[email protected]

Vegetables are an integral part of our diets. They act as a major source for most of the vitamins andminerals. India ranks second in the production of vegetables and fruits in the world. Besides this, the per capitaconsumption of these vegetables and fruits are very low when compared to their respective dietary allowances.The underlying cause may be unavailability, low purchasing power, unawareness about the nutritional facts andso on. Keeping into consideration the low consumption of vegetables, the Front line demonstration on nutritionalgardening was planned and executed in two villages of Sagar district namely Baddaua and Semadhana. A totalof fourty families were randomly selected for establishment of nutritional garden. Data was collected throughpersonal interview method. Diet survey was done by using 24 hour recall method before establishment ofnutritional garden in order to calculate the per capita consumption of vegetables. Total production of vegetablesthrough nutrition garden was also measured. The results showed that the average per capita consumption ofvegetables before establishment of nutrition garden was 196 gm/person/day where as it was increased to 242gm/person/day after the present FLD was carried out. The percent increase in consumption was 23.46. So, thefindings of the present demonstration concluded that the rural families must be encouraged for nutritional gardeningto ensure round the year availability of variety of vegetables in their diets for better nutrition.

Revitalizing Natural Resources through ITKSeema Jasuja, I. M. Khan, D.S.Bhati and J.R.Verma

S.K. Rajasthan Agricultural University), (Rajasthan)[email protected],

Immediately after Green Revolution era, the Agricultural Scientists shifted their approach from laboratoryresearch to farming systems research and operational research involving farmers, farm women and farmingconditions. Efforts were made to move towards participatory research which of course could not be achieved upto desired level under Indian conditions due to farm women illiteracy and Scientist’s conveniences. Reversal oftransfer of technology and farmer participatory research was conceived not only to understand the farmerconditions but also to revitalize the natural resources. Especially farm women have developed their strongknowledge system which is based on numerous informal experiments through generations and rigorous testing ofknowledge in their farming system. This indigenous knowledge of farm practices has been embodied and integratedculturally in the farming system and the practices have been taken the shape of social norms to be followed byeach and every farmer in the village social system. The alternative to participatory research could be integrationof indigenous knowledge system with modern scientific knowledge for conserving the natural resources withmaximum sustainability, eco-friendly and profitability. In the present study, ITK in agriculture has been collected,documented and scientifically validated. Most of the ITK’s in agriculture are being proved valid efficacious andcomparable to the modern technologies which are definitely oriented towards natural resources. The provedITK’s could be used for their specific characteristics and could be blended with the modern technologies forrevitalization of natural resources. This study revealed out the utilization of these modified practices and technologiesby the farm women up to the medium level (65%) of Bikaner district which should be enhanced by furthermodifying their attitude towards conservation of natural resources.



Impact of ICT on the Yields of Crops in Northern KarnatakaS.N. Upperi, B.M. Chittapur, and S.N. Hanchinal

Extension Education Unit, [email protected].

The mobility and availability of soil nutrients to the crops depends on the moisture content of the soil.Drought conditions leads to boron deficiency which manifests bud necrosis in green gram and sunflower. Whereasexcess rainfall or irrigation during the crop growth leaches out nitrogen, calcium, boron and other nutrients whichretards the yields through pests and diseases. To mitigate the problems field demonstrations were conducted bysupplementing the specific nutrients with need based training in farmers fields for a period of two years. Theresults on green gram and sunflower indicated that the crop was recovered immediately soon after spray ofcalcium and boron and yields were increased about 60 per cent and 32 per cent respectively, in dry land eco-system. Similarly the results of demonstrations in irrigated condition in groundnut, cotton, red gram and watermelonincreased to the extent of 35, 18.6, 30 and 48 per cent respectively by application of calcium and boron. The fieldvisits and field day were conducted to create awareness about the technology.

ICT Uses : Exploring Student’s Motivation and Pattern of UseR.P.Singh, O.P.Mishra and A.K.Singh

Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, [email protected]

The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use various information and communicationtechnologies to get specific gratifications. The main idea of the uses and gratifications model is that people arenot helpless victims of all powerful media or ICTs, but use media to fulfill their various needs. These needs serveas motivations for using media. Students also use various ICTs to satisfy different kind of needs. Keeping thisbackdrop in mind the present study was conducted to explore the motivation and ICTs use pattern of the undergraduate agriculture students of BHU. The findings of the study reveal that magazine was the most preferredmedia followed by radio, television, tape recorder, newspaper and internet. Major chunk of the students usednewspaper, magazine and television for satisfying their need related to news. Radio was used for satisfyingentertainment need, and internet was used for satisfying e-mail need.

A Case Study on “Trash to Cash” : Vermicultureand Vermicomposting

D.M Chandargi, Shashidhar K.K. and Moulasab

College of Agriculture, Bheemarayangudi

Smt. Meenakshamma belongs to Shimoga district of Karnataka state is an enthusiastic farm women witha small holding of 2 acre land. Realizing her never ending interest in innovative agriculture the then joint Directorof Agriculture of Shimoga. Dr. Gollar introduced her to KVK, Shimoga later on she was inducted into KVKScientific advisory committee as a member. Upon seeing her interest in the sustainable agriculture arena KVK



scientists briefed her about the effective way of attaining sustained crop production through complimentary useof organic manure along with inorganic fertilizers. At this point the idea of vermin-culture was borne and KVKstaff extended her the necessary assistance required. She was given the required training for a week by KVKand at the end of the day she could realize that all the available organic waste material can be converted intovermicompost by using quick biodegraders called “earthworm”. With this backup knowledge she procured 1000earthworms from KVK and straight away got into vermin composting enterprise. Even she tried to persuadeother women folks of her self help group (SHG) to get into the venture, she took up the challenge and started theventure on her own with unending support from KVK. Today she is using vermin compost in her crop productionprogramme and also built her small venture into a commercial one. This venture not only brought her a name butalso fetching her additional income. The enterprise is three year old and attracting many visitors also. Seeing herprogress many other farm women are new started approaching her to learn the trade secret. Presently she isselling 60 qtls of vermin compost per year at a cost of Rs. 400 per qtl. And about 50000 worms at a cost of Rs.250 per 1000 worms which totally fetches her income of Rs. 36,500 per year. Indirectly she is getting organicallygrown produce and on her way to maintain sustainability not only in crop production but also achieved selfsufficiency with respect to organic manure production, thus keeping away the inorganic fertilizers out of herfarm. In nutshell she has become a path founder for other farmers to follow the vermin composting and the suitof organic agriculture.

Farmers’ Perception and Adoption of Drip Irrigation SystemNirmal Kumar, Vijay Agarwal and Mukesh Singh

CIAE, [email protected]

Sustainable water management should result in high productivity per unit water through uniformity, timelinessand precision of water application. The major opportunity in increasing irrigation efficiency at the farm level liesin adopting micro irrigation systems, which helps in the achievements of twin objectives of high productivity andwater management. Drip irrigation is an efficient method of providing irrigation water directly into the soil at theroot zone of plants and it permits the irrigation to limit the watering closely to the consumptive use of plants.Thus, micro irrigation minimizes conventional losses like deep percolation, runoff and soil evaporation. It alsopermits the utilization of fertilizer, pesticides and other water-soluble chemicals along with irrigation water withbetter crop response. A survey of drip irrigation systems (DIS) was conducted in Bhopal district of MadhyaPradesh through direct interview with the system users. The data on both social and technical aspects werecollected form the farmers to know the perception, acceptability and constraints and also the performance of thesystems were evaluated by collecting discharges at the first and last drippers of the plot, irrigation scheduling andoperation maintenance of the DIS in the field. The survey findings indicated that drip users in general have goodknowledge about the advantages and technical issues of the system. However, the extent of adoption of systemcomponents like by pass assembly, fertilizer unit, maintenance of the system etc. was observed very low.Farmers do not have knowledge about the irrigation scheduling. The pressure and discharge variations werefound within the recommended values in the field in most of the systems. All most all the users were usingsecondary filters with discharge ranging 10-20 m3 / h. The constraint analysis of DIS indicated that maintainingpressure in the system was major constraint followed by availability of after sale services and high initial cost ofinstallation. Majority of the system users were having favourable opinion towards DIS regarding water andlabour saving technologies. Field economics indicated that the DIS is economically feasible in all orchards basedon the data collected from the users as the B: C ratio was more than one. On the basis of the study findings it is



recommended that training for the stakeholders, field extension officers (Rural Horticulture Extension Officers)should be organized on different aspects of micro irrigation systems. Information on irrigation scheduling of cropmust be supplied to the users in local language at the time of installation of system along with maintenanceschedule of various components of Drip Irrigation Systems.

Role of Mobile Phones in Rural Development in IndiaLavleesh Garg and Ashok Kumar

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ferozepur, Punjab [email protected]

The telecommunication scenario in India has undergone a spectacular change since independence. Indiahas been witnessing a revolution in communication technology. As Indian economy is predominantly rural, therefore,rural uplift has always been remained a key concern of all governments in India. More than 3/4th of the Indianpopulation resides in villages and rural areas, and government is making continued efforts to provide equitablegrowth opportunities to empower and upgrade the information infrastructure in rural and remote areas. Ruraltelecommunication has been an important area on which government has been giving sustained emphasis sinceseventies. As telephone gets cheaper and accessible to rural areas, it would definitely initiate tremendoustransformation in various aspects of rural society, particularly in rural economy. The latest form of communicationis mobile telephony, introduced in India in the year 1995. As per the data, total numbers of telephone users (bothlandline and mobile) in India are 861.48 million and mobile phone users are 826.93 million as on April 2011. Outof the total users approximately 35% are rural people. Furthermore, projections by several leading globalconsultancies indicate that the total number of subscribers in India will exceed the total subscriber count in theChina by 2013. The strengthening of rural communication services is an important component for the welfareand development of rural India. as it has many advantages like: It helps the farmers in access to the latest andtimely information about agriculture practices, price of the commodity, market and demand of the particular cropwithin few minutes. It can help the farmers to communicate with the other progressive farmers of the adjoiningregions to share the latest information in farming through video conferencing through internet which can furtherenhance the farmers to link with the global market scenario and weather forecasting for a particular season etc.It can be a great financial tool in the remote and undeveloped areas where banking facility is not accessible.

Impact of Mass Vaccination to Manage the NewcastleDisease in Rural Poultry

Alok Kumar Deshwal, Sriram Dadhich, R.S. Tailor, Dinesh Paliwal and D.K. MishraK.V.K., Kasturbagram, [email protected]

Poultry industry in India has registered a phenomenal growth during the last four decades making it oneamong the world leaders in poultry production. The development of organized poultry has in fact masked thecontribution of backyard poultry or house hold poultry in rural sector. As per the latest livestock census, ruralpoultry constitute about 52% of the total poultry population at national level though statistics are not available,backyard poultry is significantly contributing to the nutritional and livelihood security amongst rural poor. The



products from rural poultry are always ranked higher by the consumer due to delicious taste. The control of NDin village chickens is much more than the control of an animal disease. It can make a vital contribution to theimprovement of household food security and poverty alleviation in villages. Protection provided to there existingpoultry birds through mass vaccination has increase the confidence in them to upscale the poultry production.As farmers increase their chicken numbers, some will use surplus birds to invest in small ruminants and eventuallylarge animals. Mass vaccination can be done in cluster of villages so villagers can produce large numbers of eggsand meat to improve his economic and nutritional status.

Yield Gap Analysis of Mustard Through Front Line DemonstrationP.S. Naruka, Sanjay Kumar, S.S. Sarangdevot and C.P. Pachauri

Krishi Vigyan Kendra , Neemuch (RVSKVV Gwalior) [email protected]

The high yielding varieties of mustard played key role in enhancing the production and yield, as these aresown under low input cultivation. The present study was carried out by Krishi Vigyan Kendra Neemuch duringrabi season from 2009-10 and 2010-11 in the farmers fields of adopted villages Piplon and Amlikheda. In thesevillages 12 farmers per year were selected as per Front Line Demonstration laid out criteria. The total areaunder FLD was 5.0 ha. Per year (Total 10.0 ha.). The raw data was collected in prescribed Report Proforma ofFLD. The average two years data revealed that an average yield of demonstration plot was obtained 22.57 q./ha. Over control (14.09 q. /ha.), with an additional yield of 7.48 q./ha. and the increase in average mustardproductivity by 60.47%. The average technological gap and technological index were found to be 2.42 q. /ha.and 9.5 % respectively(Katare et.al.2011).

Awareness of the Dang Tribals about the “Safed Musli" CropG.G. Chauhan, R.M. Naik, B.A.Desai and S.B. Desai

Agriculture Polytechnique, Navsari Agricultural University, Waghai, Dist: Dangs (Gujarat)[email protected]

Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is now considered to play vital role in addressing the health care,needs of developing countries and indigenous people. The Dang region of Gujarat state is a rich source ofmedicinal plant. Safed Musli is common medicinal plant cultivated on a small area by most of the tribal farmersand getting good income in comparison to their traditional crop. Therefore, an investigation was carried out toknow awareness and experience of tribal farmers of Dang about Safed Musali (Chlorophytum borivillianum L).For attaining the objective the present investigation was carried out in Dang district of Gujarat state. Fifteenvillages from the district and ten Safed Musli growers from each village were selected. The study was confinedto total 145 respondents. Keeping in view the objectives of the study interview schedule was prepared and therespondents were interviewed. Distribution of tribal farmers according to their level of awareness about SafedMusli cultivation was worked out. Majority of the tribal farmers had medium level of awareness about SafedMusli cultivation.



Multi Agency Intervention in Popularizing Backyard Poultry RearingM.P. Nayak and L. Pradhan

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bhadrak, Ranital, [email protected]

Technology dissemination has always been treated as a public sector responsibility. Accordingly higherfocus has been given on technology dissemination activity as compared to the technology development. Eventhen, the availability of quality technology both material and non-material at the farm house hold level is constrained.The present case study is based on an experience in participatory technology assessment and multi agencyeffort in dissemination of material & non-material technologies in adoption of backyard poultry rearing in BhadrakDistrict of Orissa.

During 2005-06, front line demonstrations were conducted on rearing of back yard poultry var . Vanrajainvolving 20 farm families. The average weight of birds achieved at 6 months age was 3.5 Kg which could earna net income of Rs300/- pre bird from sale of meat. Even through the performance of technology was highlyappreciated 16 out of 20 participating farmers discontinued the practice. The farm families those who kept thefirst batch of bird for more than1 year, hatched some of fertile eggs with local broody hens & continued thepractice. Even then the growth rate of F1 generation was lower i.e. 2.3 kg during 6 months period. The reasonof discontinuance by other farmers was non availability of chicks. Considering this problem Krishi VigyanKendra during the year 2006-07 conducted four front line demonstrations on brooding of back yard poultrywhere in the backyard poultry chicks mere brooded for 21 days with schedule vaccination, feed and diseasemanagement. These birds after 21 days were sold to interested farmers in the area. This brooding activity wasappreciated as the involved farmers could earn about Rs1000/- from sale of are batch (200birds) within onemonth and also the farmers who were interested to rear these birds could get the same at their door step. Duringthis process of demonstration with active involvement of farmers one thing could be standardized that one farmfamily can profitably rear 5 birds in back yard feeding them with kitchen waste & allowing the birds to feedrange. Secondly the farmers while brooding the birds could prepare starter feed using locally available agrobyproducts and mineral mixture. These learning brooding and backyard poultry rearing was shared with thedepartment of animal resource development & few NGOs in the district. At the first instance Animal ResearchDevelopment department with the help of KVK trained selected NGOs in the activity. Two NGOs and twoprivate entrepreneurs took interest & developed chick brooding centers involving SHGs. During the year 2007-08 four brooding centers were established which could brood and supply 2200 numbers of chicks, During 2008-09 department of animal resource conducted six numbers of trainings for the NGO and SHG members engagedin the activity. During that year numbers of brooding centres were enhanced to 8 in three blocks and 62,400chicks were brooded and supplied to farm families. During subsequent years 2009-10 and 10-11 65,720 and72,113 chicks respectively were brooded through 14 and 22 brooding centers respectively.

Socio-economic Empowerment of Women Through ICTHimmat Kumar Jeenger, Kapur Singh and Gopal Sankhala

KVK, Rampura - Rewari (Haryana)[email protected]

The importance of ICT today therefore lies less in the technology advancement itself rather than in itsability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations and disadvantagedgroups. ICT today is a means of bridging this digital divide helping disadvantaged women increase their participation



in the civic, social, political, and economic processes. ICT has the potential to reach those women who have notbeen reached by any other media, thereby empowering them to participate in economic and social progress, andmake informed decision on issues that affect them. ICT can put a greater control in the hands of women frommanaging water distribution at the village-level, to standing for local elections and having access to lifelonglearning opportunities.

ICT can therefore be used to either exacerbate or transform unequal power relations. ICT cannot creategender equality, or end poverty, but it can be a tool for social action and positive social change. Having said this,what is the role of ICT in the economic and social development of women? How can technical knowledge andexperience among professional women be widened and promoted? What policies need to be put in place andwhat steps need to be taken to expand the reach of good practice examples?

ICT has been a powerful tool for women to use to overcome discrimination, achieve full equality, well-beingand participation in decisions that impact the quality of their lives and the future of their communities. Forinstance, ICT is a catalyst in achieving all Millennium Development Goals (MDG), promoting poverty reductionand improvement of quality of life in developing countries. Some MDG goals include eradicating extreme povertyand hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducingchild mortality and improving maternal health, combating Aids and ensuring environmental sustainability. ICTenables them to be exposed to telecommunications services, media and broadcasting services which in returncreate markets for their products and services. Better access to information and the ability to tap into thebenefits of ICT enabled women to be more competitive.

Agro-met Advisories Dissemination through ICTsB.S. Meena and B.S.Yadav

Agricultural Research Station, SKRAU, Sriganganagar [email protected]

Weather and climate are one of the biggest risks factors impacting on farm performance and management.Extreme weather and climate events such as server droughts, floods or temperature often shocks farmingcommunity leading to decline of agricultural production, particularly in arid and semi-arid zones. Factors such asexcessive rainfall variability and varied changes in temperature contribute to the vulnerability of individual farms,as well as on whole rural community. District level Agromet advisory bulletins are issuing for the farmers twicea week viz. Tuesday and Friday. Previously dissemination of agro bulletins was made through print media andfax. The potential of Information Technology is not fully tapped in the Indian Agriculture sector. While IT opensup possibilities ranging from precision farming at farm level to support for efficient decision making to thepolicymakers. It can play a significant role in maintaining the above mentioned properties of information as itconsists of three main technologies. They are: Computer Technology, Communication Technology and InformationManagement Technology. The role of internet as an instrument for development and prosperity has been widelyacknowledged and is expected to bring in major social and economic benefits for mankind and accelerateprocess of development in order to take benefits of computer based information technologies and mobile phoneservices, IMD has started uploading these bulletins through its website (www.imdagrimet.gov.in) to be used byvarious agencies and farmers directly. Agro met bulletins issued from ARS, Sriganganagar twice a week for thefarmer of agro climatic zone 1b is being made available through email to various developmental agencies functioningin the field of transfer of agricultural technology to the farmers including print media. Using IVR (InteractiveVoice Response) and SMS (Short Messaging Service), agromet bulletins are disseminated to farmers regularly.The brief summary of agro met bulletins of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts is prepared and same is



delivered to farmers of the area in the form of voice message through mobile SMS by IFFCO Kisan SancharLimited and Nokia Life Tools. It has become very useful services for the farmers of the zone. Efforts are beingmade to form Mobile Clubs in the villages to disseminate agro met bulletins in the form of SMS to the memberfarmers.

Use Pattern of Source of InformationP.K Tiwari, K.N. Pandey, De. Dipak, D. Tiwari and J. Basavprabhu

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Korea, Chhattisgrah, CISH, Lucknow, [email protected]

The challenges offered by agricultural globalization, revolution in information and communication technology,rising population and the consequent demand for sustainability have prompted a re-look on the existing extensionsystem in India and re-orientation with proper direction. Keeping in view these points a study was carried out inVaranasi district of eastern U.P in India during 2005-06. Five villages from each CDB in two CDBs of thedistrict were selected purposively. A list of the vegetable growers (potato & tomato growers) was drawn andrespondents were selected proportionately for the investigation. Personal interview method was fallowed tocollect the data with the help of well structured schedule and computed statistically.

The study reveals that personal socio-economic attributes of the farmers viz. age, education, land holding,social participation, annual income, annual income through vegetable cultivation, credit orientation and marketingfacilities were highly exerted their positive and significant relationship on the use of various sources of informationwhereas caste, material possession did not influence much on the use of sources of information. The attributefamily size was found in significant with use of sources of information. The perception of any individual towardsany object or technology will be influenced by his motives, past experience, knowledge and other attributes. Thesource of information can play major role in increasing the awareness among the people. Improvement in theirstandard of living is only possible with improved form of knowledge which could only be obtained through varioussources of information. Therefore, dissemination of information on various aspects of vegetable productiontechnology is essential to bring the changes in their behavior, attitude and life style.

Attitude of Farmers towards Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva KendraRamakant Sharma, S.K. Sharma and A.K. Sharma

K.V.K., Tabiji, Ajmer; SKRAU, [email protected]

The Government of Rajasthan has rightly modified T&V system since 1st January 1993 and renamed it asKisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendra. Kisan Mandal is a group of 20 progressive farmers who voluntarilyorganized for their overall agricultural development. At every Village Extension Worker level, eight such KisanMandals are formed.The Village Extension Worker is designated as Agriculture supervisor in Rajasthan .TheKisan Mandal meeting is scheduled to be held once in a fortnight at a scheduled day and at fixed place in whichKisan Mandal members share their experiences and problems with extension worker.

Besides this a Kisan Seva Kendra is established at every Village Extension Worker’s headquarter to solvethe urgent problems of farmers regarding input arrangements, insect and pest control etc. Taking a step aheadRajasthan Government modified this T&V system in to Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendras. This new



system of Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendra has visualized having favorable attitude of farmers towards it.So an effort to measure attitude of farmers towards this new system of Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendrawas studied in this investigation along with the association between selected independent variables and attitudefactor. The study was conducted in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. A sample of 90 mandal farmers was selected byrandom sampling method. The data collected were tabulated and analyzed in light of above objectives.

The results indicated that more than half of the respondents i.e.60.00 percent had favorable and 26.66percent farmers had most favorable attitude towards Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendra. Remaining 13.33percent respondents had unfavorable attitude towards Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendra. It shows thatfarmers in general were happy with the working of Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendras. There appears tobe a positive contribution of extension personnel in motivating the farmers to take benefit of the programmes.Further the response of the farmers to individual items indicated that attitude towards the statement ‘Kisan SevaKendras is really working on every Thursday as an agro-clinic centre for the farmers’ was on the top mostposition according to relative importance in the scale followed by ‘Kisan Seva Kendra helps to solve the urgentproblems of farmers regarding input arrangement, insect and pest control etc’. This showed that farmers hadfavourable attitude towards the Kisan Seva Kendra. The third position was ranked to ‘information providedunder Kisan Mandal meeting is beneficial for the farmers’.

It was also observed that attitude of the farmers towards Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendras werepositively and significantly associated with knowledge about Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendra's, participationin extension activities, social participation, level of education, size of land holding and social-economic status atone per cent level of probability.There was 70.70 percent contribution of all the six independent variables onattitude of the farmers towards Kisan Mandals and Kisan Seva Kendras.

ITK for Insect Pest Management in Different Communities in IndiaSunil Kr. Ghosh

Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West [email protected]

In India, a tropical country with rich biological and cultural diversity, there are about 80 % rural people ofdifferent ethnic groups inhabiting various terrains the tribal, in particular have their own culture, religious rites,food habits and a rich knowledge of plant genetic resources in their surrounds. Unfortunately this indigenousknowledge on the properties utilization and conservation aspects of plant resources available with the tribal andremotest village folks is on the verge depletion due to various developmental activities which are adverselyaffecting the cultural and traditional life of these groups. It is essential that the knowledge now available withthese people is properly documented and integrated. Traditional farming systems are the reservoirs of a hugevariety of crops, many of which are still un-documented. The indigenous practices are interlinked with animal-forest-farm resources. This traditional knowledge is used in weather forecast, soil and water management andmanagement of insect pest and disease. Sustainable planning of pest management is one of the most importantaspects of modern agriculture. Synthetic chemicals are causing tremendous harm to the environment by poisoningmen and animals and by killing useful and beneficial insects. Pests are getting resistant to the chemicals used andthese are getting too expensive for poor farmers. High technologies lead to problems of resource managementand pollution besides developing the remedial measures like use of bio-fertilizers, integrated pest managementincluding biological pest control methods. In this aspect our country has assets. Traditional pesticides include notonly substances derived from plants but also from animals, inert materials and by-products of plants also. Todayabout 2000 plants containing insecticides are known. These are mostly wild plants barring a few domestically



used. Traditional methods of pest control which have been used for hundred of years are still of effective.Moreover, they do not at all normally pose any pollution hazard. This paper is an attempt to document some ofthe indigenous farming practices of management of insect pests followed by traditional farmers.

Sustainability of Farmer Groups for Agricultural DevelopmentC. S. Arneja and V. K. Rampal

Department of Extension Education , Punjab Agricultural University, [email protected]

Farmers Self help group is a people’s institution which provides the poor with the space and support necessaryto take effective steps towards greater control of their lives in private and in society. It grows on the resourcesand management skills of its members. It is not a static institution. As the members are empowered economically,politically and socially in a holistic way developing their own institution for common benefit. They are mobilizedgroup of people of different category for development activities by imbibing collective strength and vitality tothem. From sustainability of farmers group we mean: to keep its existence, to support from below, to keep fromfalling- sinking and to keep it up. There are basically three phases to mobilize and sustain the farmer groups, i)Group formation phase (0-4 months), ii) Building up or stabilization phase (4-15 months) and iii) Self –helpingphase (15-36 months). The phase one includes rapport building – visit to panchayat, interaction with farmers togather information, awareness creation about the programme activities and identification of farmers evincinginterest in the programme during initial contact. In the second phase regular/fortnightly group meetings on needbased manner for carrying group activities with participation of extension staff. attendance is to be maintainedand training of master farmers on production, credit and marketing aspects and in the third & final phasedevelopment of fortnightly action programme by master farmers in consultation with the other members, collectionof fortnightly programme of other self help groups by extension staff to develop site calendar and organization ofgroup meeting for sharing experiences of group members for farmer to farmer technology transfer are carriedout. To see the impact of the self help groups, the different indicators of success are as Size of group, Basis ofgroup, Number of meetings held, Time of meetings, Attendance of members, Repayment of bank loan, Interloaning of group members, Awareness about govt. schemes, Awareness about rules and regulations, Maintenanceof records, Linkage with development agencies

AADHAAR based Extension System- An InnovativeMechanism of Extension Delivery

Sujit Sarkar, R.N. Padaria, R.R. Burman and Nintu Mandal

Division of Agril. Extension , IARI, New Delhi [email protected]

Today the failure of the various extension delivery approaches in our country to effectively engineersignificant and sustainable agricultural growth has become a major concern to all stakeholders, including thefunding agencies and donor community. Despite a wide range of reform initiatives in agricultural extension inIndia in the past decades, the coverage of, access to, and quality of information provided to marginalized andpoor farmers is uneven. Our present extension system is facing multiple problem like- improper identification ofbeneficiaries, multiplicity of technology transfer system, lack of feedback, gender sensitiveness, inadequate



technical capacity, lack of local capacity to validate and refuse technology, weak research-extension linkage,poor communication capacity, inadequate operating & financial sustainability, poor accountability and evaluationetc. So, we need a technology transfer system which will provide readymade access to farmer in which we caneasily identify target categories and deliver our technology or service to the needy person timely and moreefficiently. Keeping in mind the above, the goals of technology dissemination components have been set forth todevelop a technology transfer system which is built on three interrelated concepts viz. to develop an effectivepublic extension system that is interactive, amalgamation of both top down and bottom up extension system, wellintegrated with research and financially sustainable. Thus, we develop a conceptual technology based newmodel i.e AADHAAR based extension system to remove the present fallacies of extension system and tostrengthen research and extension capacity to disseminate location specific technology.

ICT : Tool for Rural DevelopmentKalyanrao, Santosh H.B and Sadanand G.K.

IARI, New [email protected]

ICT has been recognized as an infrastructure in developed countries and its use has shown the path of rapidsocio-economic development. Imbalance in socio-economic development and urban-rural divide can only bearrested if the infrastructure in rural areas is made sustainable, qualitative and a growth oriented businessenvironment is created, however in developing countries, especially in India. ICT interventions are still on aconcept stage. While major initiatives in removing this imbalance are yet to take momentum, there exist certaindeterministic steps towards achieving the goal. Many pilot projects are experimented in isolation and scaling upstrategy is yet to be formulated. Learning drawn for research on the basis of these initiatives clearly indicateneeds for business models that are commercially self sustainable & are independent of external supports &influences, however this ideal scenario cannot be achieved in the absence of a convergent strategy betweenthree important stakeholders i.e. the individual, business and the government. The convergent strategy needs topay emphasis on sustaining efforts directed towards reducing rural-urban divide with a clear vision to increaserural wealth. The task can only be completed by aligning & putting thrust on all levers, crucial for providingsolutions to existing challenges of desirability, affordability, accessibility & acceptability among the rural masses.Extension organizations have a key role in brokering between communication technologies, providers of thosetechnologies and services, and the client groups they serve. In this role, they must be able to examine theappropriateness of various ICTs, the accessibility of ICTs in rural and remote areas, how to best to reconcilecosts and benefits, and how to insure that ICT access includes a diversity of cultures, languages, social strata,and age groups, and is gender sensitive.

Enhancing the Adaptive Capacity of Women through ICTsSavita Aggarwal, Geeta Punhani and Sakshi Saini

Department of Development Communication and Extension, IHEco., University of [email protected]

Water is one of the most important natural resource required for multiple uses across societies and cultures.The role of women as water managers is undisputed in most parts of the developing world. It is estimated that



over two billion people in developing countries will move to the cities by 2030 (UN 2005), further pushing thedemand for water. Communication is the key to promoting sustainable development and climate change adaptation.Isolated studies conducted on a small scale in different parts of the world indicate that Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) as well as traditional media can be very successfully used to enhance theadaptive capacity of communities to climate change as well as disaster preparedness. Keeping the above inview, the present study has been conducted on a statistically defined sample of urban poor women residing in theslum areas of the five major zones of Delhi. A pre-test was conducted to gauge the level of awareness ofwomen to climate change and impact on water resources. A communication campaign was developed based onthe informational needs of urban poor women. The campaign comprised of ICTs such as short films, documentaries,public service announcements and camera mediated exercises. These were combined with print and traditionalmedia such as posters, flip charts, flash cards, and puppetry. The campaigns were administered to poor urbanwomen and change in knowledge was gauged immediately after the campaign and after a period of four weeks.The results indicated a significant retention of knowledge in the women about climate change impacts andadaptation strategies with special emphasis on water. The study has shown that ICTs when effectively plannedand delivered can be used to enhance significantly the adaptive capacity of communities.

Problems and Suggestions for Usage of ICT by Staffand Students of UniversitiesSmaranika Parida and Uma S. Hiremath

College of Rural Home Science, UAS, Dharwad (Karnataka),[email protected]

The new technologies challenge conventional conception of both teaching and learning methods and materialsand by reconfiguring how teachers and learners gain access to knowledge, have radical implications for conventionalteaching and learning process. To meet these challenges, schools must embrace the new technologies andappropriate the new ICT tools for learning. They must also move toward transforming the traditional paradigmof learning. Hence the study was conducted to elicit the awareness and knowledge of ICT tools by the staff andstudents of Karnatak University and University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad district of Karnataka state.Staff of UASD (19.56%) faced the obstacle always regarding read only content and articles giving only abstractswhereas in case of KUD staff, lack of proper training played a major problem (26.08%).Students of UASDalways (32.60%) faced the general problem of low or poor connection of internet while for students of KUD,difficulties to download full article (17.39%) became a problem. It was found that less conversation with parents(8.69%) became a regular social problem and eye pain regularly became a physiological problem (10.86%) forthe staff of UASD. Staff of KUD regularly faced the social problems of meeting friends and conversation withparents (23.91%) while, eye pain, back ache and head ache played regular physiological problem (17.39%) forthem. Majority of students of UASD faced the social problem of meeting friends regularly (8.69%) and headachebecame a regular physiological problem for them (13.04%). High number of students of KUD faced the socialproblem like time spent with siblings (28.26%) regularly and eye pain became a regular physiological problem forthem (36.95%).Most of the staff and students of Universities suggested that internet connection must be provided(83.69%).



Maize Agridaksh: A Farmer Friendly DeviceV.K.Yadav, Sudeep Marwaha, Sangit Kumar, P.Kumar, Jyoti Kaul, C.M.Parihar and P.Supriya

DMR, New [email protected]

Maize is the third most important cereal in India after paddy and wheat. The national productivity is 2.02 t/ha, whereas the world average productivity is 5.1 t/ha. The reason for low productivity is cultivation of lowyielding local varieties/ composites/ double cross hybrids in majority of areas. Traditional extension approacheshas not been able to fulfill the ever increasing expectations of farming communities due to time and moneyconstraints. It seems computer based information system may meet the socio-economic and information need offarming community. Expert system on maize attempts to capture the knowledge of human experts and make itavailable through computer programme. It solves problems that are difficult or beyond the capacity of humanexperts. It provides a list of varieties and its characteristics, fact sheets about production technology, protectionfrom major insect pests, diseases, weeds, nutrient deficiency, value addition, etc.Maize expert system has fouressential components i.e. the knowledge acquisition module, the knowledge base, the inference engine and theexplanatory interface. The knowledge acquisition module consists of gathering of knowledge from the panel ofexperts of different field of maize e.g. varieties, insects, diseases, etc. It also stores the facts from textbooks,technical /extension /research bulletins. A knowledge engineer further processes it through programming andrefinements. The inference engine is the heart of an expert system. It processes the input i.e. the problemstatement. The explanatory interface allows the user to get the results in Hypertext markup language, Javascript and Cascaded style sheets. This system also explains the procedures to be followed by famers/ extensionworkers/ experts to get answer of queries related to maize. Thus it is very useful tool for dissemination/ accessingrelevant information related to maize across the globe.

e-Education for Agriculture Graduates and Post GraduatesP. Supriya, V.K. Yadav, Anil Kumar Sindhu and Vijay Jesudassan

Directorate of Maize Research, New [email protected]

Agriculture is the backbone of our country where nearly two thirds of the population depends on it for theirlivelihood. In rural areas, the agriculture sector is linked with other sectors like animal husbandry, health, educationand e-governance. A change in one sector will be reflected in other sectors also. The education system has alsoundergone several changes which brought changes in agriculture sector. There are various kinds of educationlike informal education, formal education, distance education, adult education, electronic education (e-education)and many more. In our country there are different courses at graduate and postgraduate level that train theagriculture students to improve agriculture and allied activities of our country. To make the freshly passedagriculture graduates/ post graduates and agri business field assistants suitable for agri business industries, an e-learning module has been developed. This study was conducted in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh during 2009, todevelop the e-learning module. The methodology followed includes conducting surveys with students and agribusiness industries, developing content and making content available in e-learning module. The surveys wereconducted with industries and students to analyze the gaps between agriculture students and company requirement.The gaps that exist include no practical approach, commitment towards work, curious, optimistic, propercommunication skills etc. On the basis of gap analysis the content for the module was developed to make thestudents suitable for agri business industries. The main topics included Principles of Agronomy, Twelve Crops



and Contemporary Agriculture. The content was made into IMS Content Package. Using the learning managementsystem that is Moodle, the IMS content package is made available as an e-learning module. The e-learningcourse developed will be useful for the agriculture students to analyse the gaps and can undergo the course tomake themselves suitable for industries.

Enhancement of ICT Skills of Extension Personnel’sGhazala Khan, A.K. Saxena, A.K. Dixit and Rekha Tiwari

KVK, Ujjain (M.P.)[email protected]

Traditionally extension education progress involves face to face interaction between the framers and extensionagent with organizational infrastructure such as extension agencies or institutions. The Present study was conductedin Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh, by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (RVSKVV), Ujjain. Ujjain comprising 6blocks and 7 tehsils, total 127 Rural Agriculture Extension Officers are deployed at six blocks of the district. Ofthese 46% of RAEO’s were randomly selected during the in-service training programme of KVK. The data forthis study have been obtained with the help of different instruments like interview schedule, observations, groupdiscussion with the KVK functionaries. Majority (58.33%) of respondents comes under middle age i.e. 40-50years range, next to this group, above middle age i.e. 50-60 (33.34%) and only 8.33 percent comes underyounger age group. It means maximum RAEO’s dwelt in middle age group where they were having betterknowledge and experience regarding agricultural field from root level but advance technical knowledge waslacking due to not in touch with ICT programmes. In case of education level the surprising data observed thatfifty per cent RAEO’s were degree holder followed by twenty five per cent were post graduate and highersecondary respectively. It indicates maximum RAEO’s were well qualified and they deadly required ICTprogrammes for updating the knowledge in respect to agricultural field. Here is a wide scope to conduct the ICTprogrammes for the RAEO’s because they are real root level worker who requires the advanced technology ofcommunication to interact with farmers in effective manner.

Before conducting the ICT training programme to the RAEO’s a well prepared questionnaire was developedfor assessing the pre and post evaluation of the participants regarding the training programme. Same questionswere asked in both evaluations so the level of knowledge can be assessed in better way. In pre evaluation it wasobserved that seventy percent RAEO’s were no idea about working knowledge of computers and only 30 percent were had the knowledge. Internet facility is available in offices (30 per cent) whereas 70 per cent were notat all had net facility. On the contrary 58 per cent were had internet facility at home place and 42 per cent hadno facility. Very meagre per cent (17 %) RAEO’s use Internet facility that was also once in a week and rest ofthe RAEO’s not at all use this facility though the facility is available at home level

ICT: Prospects and Constraints in the Agricultural SectorD.P. Rai

Head, Dept. of Technology Transfer, MGCGV, Chitrakoot, Satna , [email protected]

Agriculture is an important sector with the majority of the rural population in developing countries like Indiadepending on it. ICT play an important role in addressing these challenges and uplifting the livelihood of the rural



poor. This article explores the potential contribution of Information communication Technology (ICT) to thelivelihoods of small-scale farmers and the efficiency of agricultural sector in India. In this globalization of market,investment and economic assimilation, information technology advance can be broadening over the country withthe potential to enhance the agricultural productivity, income and quality of life of farming community. Sinceindependence the main policy of Indian agriculture has been “Grow More Food" to meet the ever –growingpopulation .Also, our production was just adequate to meet the domestic requirements and used to be from fieldto mouth, with not much post harvest value addition. Our objective has been to meet the demand for quantity notmuch consideration on the quality. We now should able to generate more, while aiming to improving the qualityand capability of the production system along with e-marketing intelligence. To fulfill anticipation, informationtechnology and e-marketing have great prospective. Thus, farmer could be benefited and able to face theconstraints in agriculture and its allied sector. It is towering time to furnish the strategy and model to ensuredearnings through information technology driven marketing system in India. This paper will also divulge the factrelated to e-marketing which would be competent to provide relatable information to almost ill-equipped farmingcommunity to procure the excessive profit from the agricultural sectors by accessing the needful information touser’s friendly versatile e-marketing packages with global communication network.

Changing Path of Rural Extension System to Harvest ICTBenefits in Agriculture and Dairying

D.S. Sohi, Narendra Singh and Kumar Bharat

National Dairy Research Institute, [email protected]

New tools of ICT in the field of agriculture is emerging which can be used for fast dissemination ofinformation. The importance of information and communication technology (ICT) in the field of agriculture anddairying is emerging. The challenges of cost intensive, highly agricultural and dairying technologies are knockingthe door to the farmers which is ignited by the globalization after WTO agreements came into existence. Thereis significant shift from commodity supply-driven to demand-driven paradigm in new emerging and changingeconomic policy. It is viewed that future growth in agriculture and dairying would be information driven. Newfield-proven implemenatable information must reach to the end-users at the fastest speed to harness the potentialbenefits.ICT aims at- Increased flow of information and operating efficiency, Decreased in cost of disseminatinginformation, Social and economic development, Resource conservation, Achieving high growth rate, Promotingvalue addition, Developing new customers while retaining old ones, Securing fair standard of living in rural areas,Creating new information services in rurals.

This presentation outlines a task-force innovated conceptual model to bring ICT application in agricultureand dairying. The model is named as “Industry-Linked Demand-Driven Agriculture and Dairying ICT ExtensionModel for Integrated Rural Development”. The model aims at improving the conventional agrarian-dairyingextension, education and training system so as to penetrate ICT application. A task-force team comprisingindustry, extension technologist, subject matter specialists, economist, resource conservationist, marketing expertand ICT expert would be working on demand-driven rural economy. In the proposed system, the land less,marginal small, medium and large farmers will play proportionately equal role in adapting ICT to enhanceproductivity, income and employment generation. Different type of models has been tested under TechnologyAssessment and Refinement Programme and ATIC of NDRI Karnal to study the impact of adoption level oftransferable technologies developed under agricultural services of India.



Generation of Electricity by Utilization of Draft Animal PowerParas, V.K. Singh and Arun Kumar ChaudharyG.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Tech., Pantnagar

[email protected]

The use of animals for draft purpose is probably the most important application of livestock to farming indeveloping countries. Draft animal power has been the main source of farm power traditionally. With increasedmechanization and growth in power operated machinery, there has been a decrease in the population of draftanimal but still animal power plays a vital role to perform various agricultural operations. India possesses finestdraft breeds of cattle in the world. The draft animals are used for the cultivation of crops, rural and urbantransport for short distances and for pack load transport. The draft animals, besides being a source of cultivationof crops, rural and urban transportation can also be used for electricity generation to enhance the fully utilizationof draft animal in off season. A new method is proposed for electric generation with negligible running cost. Inthis method a compressor is used to store mechanical energy in the form of compressed air by using rotaryanimal power. This compressed air is further used to produce rotary motion for electric generation as and whenrequired. This method has very low running cost because in the case of traditional methods mechanical energyis stored in the form of electrical energy in the battery. Further the life of battery is 3-4 year and the cost ofbatteries varies in between 12-15 thousands. So the running cost of the traditional method is minimum, 4-5thousand per year along with the maintenance cost. Due to this major cost involved in the production of theelectricity by using the animal draft by conventional method, this is in minimum use now-a-day. Using proposedmethod of electric generation by draft animal power, the running cost gets minimized and it will promote thefarmers to use this abundant non conventional energy.

A Simple Weather Forecasting Model UsingMathematical Regression

Paras and Sanjay MathurG.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar,

[email protected]

A simple model for weather forecasting has been described. The model is simple due to the fact that it usessimple mathematical equation using Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) equations that can be easily understoodby a medium educated farmer. Weather data at a particular station is recorded which is a time-series data. Theweather parameters like maximum temperature, minimum temperature and relative humidity have been predictedusing the calculated features depending upon the correlation values in the weather data series over differentperiods from the weather parameter time-series itself. Relative humidity is also predicted using time series ofmaximum and minimum temperature and rainfall. The category of rainfall has been estimated using features ofmaximum and minimum temperature and relative humidity. The development phase of the model is to obtainMLR equations using input set and output parameter. The coefficients of these regression equations have beenused to estimate the future weather conditions. The personal computer and simple data processing software likeMS Excel can be used to make and validate the model by the user itself. The results obtained show that MLRmodel can estimate the weather conditions satisfactorily.



Challenges and Solutions for Implementing e-Commercein Saffron Export

Fatemeh Hosseini, Mohammad Chizari and Amir ManianDepartment of Agricultural Extension and Education, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran

[email protected]

Information technology is one of the necessary factors in order to increase productivity in the economy.The purpose of this descriptive and correlational study was to investigate challenges and solutions for implementingE-Commerce in saffron export as Viewed by Managers of Saffron Export Companies. The population consistedof saffron export companies managers in saffron union which have been study (N=40) for managers. At last, 36questionnaires were collected from managers. A questionnaire was designed as a data gathering instrument.The instrument face and content validity was achieved by a panel of Agricultural Extension and Education, Areliability analysis of questionnaire was conducted by a pilot test among 30 managers and a Coronbach’ s alphavalues were obtained ranging 0.85 for managers questionnaire. The results showed that all companies hadprovided insight into the background of the company and Provided E-Buy information in their site features. Themost important challenges from social dimension was lack of awareness of the condition and structure of foreignmarkets, law dimension was lack of support exporter rights, technical dimension was low internet speed and lackof network equipment for Internet access. Solutions Offered include specialized training courses, provided security,offer informational needs to exporter companies.

ICT-based Kisan Mobile Sandesh: An Innovative ApproachR.K. Singh, S.K.Tyagi, R.C.Jainand Y.K.Jain

Z.A.R.S./ K.V.K. Khargone (M.P.)[email protected]

During the last decade it has been observed that information and communication Technology based KisanMobile Sandesh has implemented for substituting the traditional methods of extension, which enable thedissemination of requisite information at the right time to the right people. A study under farm trial on “Assessmentof information and communication Technology through Kisan Mobile Sandesh” was conducted to assess theneed-based timely information regarding agricultural practices to the farmers, input providers and extensionpersonnel of Khargone district under Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Khargone (M.P.). Farmers were not getting requisiteinformation at right time and need based. The problem of lack of need-based timely information to the farmerswas identified through field visit, feedback and weather forecast. To overcome the problem Kisan MobileSandesh was implemented and assessed the impact of Kisan Mobile Sandesh. Under the Kisan Mobile Sandesh,category-wise message delivered on crop production, plant protection, horticulture, veterinary science etc. Theimpact was assessed time to time using the performance indicators. The analyzed data showed that the identifiedstakeholders were agreed 100% with delivery of timely information followed by 99.4% with strong linkage withKVK and 97.6% with need-based information respectively. After the assessment, Kisan Mobile Sandesh wasfound as an innovative approach to reach the farmers.



Efficiency and Effectiveness of NetworkingSudhir Pradhan, T. Aruna, Himanshu Kumar and T. P. Trivedi

Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture,ICAR. KAB I, Pusa Gate, New [email protected]

The Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture (erstwhile Directorate of Information andPublications of Agriculture) a Directorate under ICAR (Hq), has developed and implemented a suitable softwaresolution for the e-journal publications, archival with the aim to provide improved communication link amonginformation generators i.e. public research organizations, and its users, viz. researchers, farmers’ groups, PanchayatiRaj Institutions, private sectors and other stakeholders etc. Since March 2010, abide by Open Access Policy theICAR has allowed its literature on the www.icar.org.in web site. Further, knowledge is being disseminatedthrough sharing of data, task force, multi-institutional support, communication tools (e-mail, Web Portals etc.),AIR and Television. ICAR is transferring technological information to the public through various publications aswell electronic media like The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences and The Indian Journal of VeterinaryScience and Animal Sciences later changed as The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, Indian Farming, Kheti ,Indian Horticulture, Phal Phool, Krishi Chayanika, ICAR Reporter, ICAR News, Indian Agricultural ScienceAbstracts, Indian Animal Science Abstracts , ICAR Mail , in consideration the India—ASEAN News(biannually),The Indian Journal of Aqua-Sciences (monthly), books , Photo Library, e-Library, etc. Abide by Open AccesPolicy the ICAR has allowed its literature, viz. Abstract of The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (Monthly)and The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences (Monthly), complete ICAR Reporter (Quarterly), ICAR News(Quarterly), ICAR Mail (Monthly) on the www.icar.org.in web site. Further, knowledge is being disseminatedthrough sharing of data, task force, multi-institutional support, communication tools (Mobile phone, e-mail, WebPortals etc.), AIR and Television. The activities on ICT carried out by ICAR are briefed hereunder: ICT-mediated knowledge management, AGROWEB - Digital Dissemination System for Indian Agricultural Research,Development of e-courses, Consortium of e-Resources in Agriculture, E-Publishing and Knowledge System inAgricultural Research, Strengthening of digital library and information Management under NARS (e-GRANTH),Intranet and Centralized Data Centre, Agriculture Knowledge Portal--Process of portal design, content organization,development and validation, Portal Content, ICT Applications for Rapid Technology Dissemination, Computerand Internet, Technology Backstopping through Inputs Supply Services etc. Now-a –day’s scientists and researchscholars are reading ICAR research journals in more than 178 countries and down loading research papersbetween 20 and 100 times through our DKMA (DIPA) portal on ICAR web site.

ICT for Information Dissemination: A Case StudyRakesh Roy, T. Mondal, M.W. Moktan, Basu D. Kharga, and Samuel Rai

Darjeeling Krishi Vigyan Kendra, UBKV, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, [email protected]

An initiative was taken by the Darjeeling KVK for bridging the rural knowledge gap in agriculture with theuse ICT in farm information which was set up in the year 2008 at Bungkulung village in Mirik block of Kurseongsub-division at distance of nearly about 80 km from the KVK situated at Kalimpong. The study was conductedin between June, 2010 to May, 2011. The study was undertaken to find out the frequency, types of famersengaged in different crop or animal husbandry and their information seeking behaviour through video conferencewith the KVK from the farm information unit. The study shows that farmers were seeking information for high



value crop. Highest numbers of information seeker were Orange growers who seek information on pest andinsect, disease and nutritional management of mandarin orange in case of fruit crop. In vegetable crop, highestnumbers of information seeker were Cauliflower growers who mainly seek information on diseases. In speciescrop, highest number of video conference took place with zinger grower related to disease. In case of cereals,pulses and oilseed, paddy grower had highest number of video conference from the farm information unit withKVK regarding pest management. Regarding animal husbandry, cattle owner had the highest number of videoconference and mostly all were related to diseases.

Knowledge of University Staff and Students Regarding ICT Toolsfor Technology Dissemination

Uma S. Hiremath, Chhaya Badiger and Smaranika ParidaCollege of Rural Home Science, UAS, Dharwad, Karnataka

[email protected]

The new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are among the driving forces of globalization.They are bringing people together and bringing decision makers unprecedented new tools for development.However, the gap between information ‘have’ and ‘ have-nots’ is widening and there is a real danger that theworld’s poor will be exclude from the emerging knowledge-based global economy. Now usefulness of ICTs canbe gauged by way of its usage in various countries as one of the basic things for technology dissemination bymaking teaching and learning more interesting. Hence the study was conducted in the year 2010 to elicit theawareness and knowledge of ICT tools by the staff and postgraduate students of University of AgriculturalSciences (UAS) and Karnataka University (KU) in Dharwad district of Karnataka state. Majority of therespondents (95.65%) were having general awareness of ICT tools. Students were having more awareness(98.91%) than that of staff (92.39%). Most of the respondents were become aware about ICT tools fromfriends or relatives (52.71%) unlike other sources such as print media, TV and radio. Majority of respondentswere having awareness regarding internet or web services (93.47%) followed by MS Word (92.39%), MSExcel (89.13%) and MS Power Point (88.04%) instead of other tools. Majority of the staff (50.00%) having highknowledge level where as in case of students (48.91%) it was low. More number of staff of UAS Dharwad(47.82%) and KU Dharwad (30.43%) were getting knowledge regarding internet through friends or relativesand by themselves respectively. Students of UAS Dharwad (54.34%) and KU Dharwad (41.30%) gained moreknowledge about internet through friends or relatives.

Role of CAD: Entrepreneurial Skill Development in Rural WomenAlka Goel

College of Home Science, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) [email protected]

ICT (Information and Communications Technology) is an umbrella term that includes any communicationdevice or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware andsoftware, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, suchas videoconferencing and distance learning. Computer-aided design (CAD) has brought a revolution in thetextile industry. The time consuming and cumbersome process of textile designing has been made easier by



CAD. Now thoughtful and innovative designs are available to the textile designers and manufacturers at theclick of a mouse. When the products in pre-manufacturing stage are designed with the help of computer-basedtools, it is termed as Computer Aided Design. The textile designs are the original works of the designers. CADhelps them to visualize and see their imaginative design in final form without producing any sample swatch.Sometimes, customers provide ideas for designing according to their particular requirement. These are in theform of painted artwork or fabric samples and sometimes film negatives. Textile production provides a vitaleconomic base in rural sector. A survey was conducted to gather the status in reference to textile designing innearby villages of Dwarahaat, Uttarakhand. It was observed that the rural people are producing theirtextile designs through traditional methods which is more time taking and lacking trendy designs according tothe market demand. To enhance the entrepreneurial skills of rural people in textile designing, the trainingon CAD was imparted to the 10th and 12th class girls and rural women of nearby villages of Dwarahaat,Uttarakhand.

Intervention of Mobile Phones in Technology TransferMinu Singh, Adhiti Bhanotra and Ritu Chakravarty

Dairy Extension Division, N.D.R.I., Karnal, [email protected]

The relevance of mobiles for the Agricultural development in general and for Agriculture Extension inparticular is extremely high for a country like India. The dispersion of technology via mobile phones is alsoknown as m-Extension. It has a tremendous scope of contributing in the development of various sectors becauseof the special features which are being possessed by it such as- wireless connectivity, affordability, mobility,voice as well as text transfer services, reliability and above all its ability to reach the unreachable, have made itmore popular and have shown us the path of success in the development of rural people, who are actually facingthe problems due to lack of infrastructure. The more rapid growth of mobile telephony as compared to fixed linetelephony and the recent introduction of mobile enabled information services provide a means to overcomeexisting information asymmetry. The traditional systems of dissemination of agricultural information to the farmerssuch as pamphlets, posters, radios and TV creates a plenty of time gap in reaching the information to thefarmers. The information should be accurate and it should reach at right time which is made possible by themobile phone based ICT projects. Various ICT projects based on mobile phones have been initiated by theGovernment, NGOs and private companies. Some of the Farmer needs’ based mServices are –aAqua mini,Fisher Friend, mKrishi, Reuters Market Light, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar, Life Tools and CERES. The mobile basedprojects for farmers had objectives which benefit farmers and based on development agenda. It also helps, atleast partially, to bridge the gap between the availability and delivery of agricultural inputs and agricultureinfrastructure.

Farmers’ Awareness about Kisan Call Centre: A ReviewSangappa, Sameer, V.M and Laxmi B Balaganurmath

Dept. of Agrl Extension, UAS, GKVK, [email protected]

The challenges before Indian Agriculture are immense. This sector needs to grow at a faster rate than inthe past to allow for higher per capita income and consumption. A limitation in Transfer of Technology (TOT)



model continues to remain a challenge for the public and private extension systems. With the availability oftelephone and Internet, it is now possible to bridge this gap to quite a large extent by using an appropriate mix oftechnologies. The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India has launchedKisan Call Centers (KCC) on 21st January 2004 with a view to leverage the extensive telecom infrastructure inthe country to deliver extension services to the farming community. The purpose of these Call Centers is mainlyto respond to issues raised by farmers instantly in the local language, on continuous basis. Farmers can getagriculture related information by dialing toll free no. 1800-180-1551.

It is reported that Maximum numbers of calls (46.37%) were made in the Kharif season, followed by Rabiseason (41.68%). The least number of calls were made in the summer season (11.95%). Farmers were confrontedwith problems related to plant protection, varieties and hybrids, market information, subsidies; hence the KCCpersonnel need to be trained more in these aspects. KCC consists of a complex of telecommunication infrastructure,computer support and human resources organized to manage effectively and efficiently the queries raised byfarmers instantly in the local language. Research studies shows that farmers are happy about this and receivinginformation in time.

Pattern of Internet Use by Agricultural StudentsM. K. Bhugul, U. R. Chinchmalatpure and R. T. Katole

College of Horticulture, Dr. PDKV, [email protected]

The present study was undertaken in the campus of Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, AkolaCampus with the total 94 Post Graduate students from Agriculture faculty. An exploratory design of socialresearch was used. The findings of the research project are summarized as below.

From the study it was observed that majority of the PG students had experience of internet use above 3years and they had received training in various computer courses. About 70.20 per cent of respondents wereusing internet facility either every day or twice in a week, which means that majority of PG students had goodvalue of using internet.

Major activity during internet use by PG students was to surfing information for job opportunities, researchreferences, Thesis, seminar etc. Most excellent sources utilized by the respondents were University ComputerCentre and private internet café which were nearest and convenient sources. E-mail was observed as the mostused feature on the internet as there is no delay in making contacts with the persons at irrespective of the distant,places. Majority of the PG students had a frequency of using e-mail once in a week.

There are many search engines available on network. Google and Yahoo were the richest search engineswhich provide an opportunity to any person to find out information on various subjects of their interest. This maybe one of the reason to make highest use of both search engines as compared to others.Regarding constraints inusing Internet by the PG students of Agriculture faculty, it was found that majority of the respondents feels theconstraints about low speed (73.40%), 42.55 per cent respondents deserved less connectivity followed by irregularelectricity supply (35.10%) and bad server error (15.95 %). Suggestions to overcome the constraints, it wasobserved that 80.85 per cent of the respondents suggested to provide wi-fi broadband service, make availablecomputers in large numbers (26.54%), solve electricity problem (24.46%), provide net protector (14.89%) andprovide surfing at reasonable cost (11.70), respectively.



Perception of Mandarin Orange Grower onCitrus e-Clinic: An Expert System

Rakesh Roy, M.W. Moktan, Basu Deo Kharga, S. Ali and Samuel RaiDarjeeling Krishi Vigyan Kendra, UBKV, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, WB

[email protected]

Citrus e-clinic, an expert system was developed by Darjeeling Krishi Vigyan Kendra using Visual Basic 6.0for dissemination of knowledge about Nutritional, Pest and Insect and Disease Management in Darjeeling MandarinOrange. It was developed in two language; English and local language of the region, Nepali. The study waspurposively conducted in the Sub-Himalayan agro-climatic zone of West Bengal where Mandarin Orange is animportant horticulture crop. Its efficiency was tested among the farmers on utility, complexity, compatibility,feasibility, design and user attributes on 30 farmers each from small (<10 trees), medium (11-50 trees) and large(>51 trees), thus forming a sample size of 90 farmers. Regarding utility, majority of the farmers agreed that itwas very much useful, saves time and money and handy to use. In terms of complexity, majority of the farmersagreed that it was simple to operate, simple language and simple to understand. In terms of feasibility, majorityof the farmers agreed that it was suitable to existing information need of the farmers, can be used at farmerslevel. But regarding compatibility, majority of the farmers were undecided and disagreed on replacement of anexpert. In case of user attributes, majority of the farmers agreed that it improved self confidence, enhanceeffectiveness of decision making, and created interest among them.

SWOT Analysis of Community Radio Station: Emerging FarmLevel Technology Dissemination an ICT Tool

Devendrappa S. and Syed SadaquathKrishi Community Radio Station FM 90.4MHz, UAS Dharwad

devendrappa s [email protected]

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis is a strategic planning method usedto evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture.It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and externalfactors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. The technique is credited to AlbertHumphrey, who led a research project at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune500 companies.Radio is the main source of news and entertainment for most of India. AIR is the top tier in radiocoverage, as the public service broadcaster. Private FM has now become the second tier. Community radiopromises to be the third tier, closest to the people. Community radio in India has many advantages over AIR andprivate FM. Programmes, nearly always in the local languages deal with local issues involving rural people sothat villagers and city people understand what they are about and thus it is voice of the local people. TheUniversity of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad is the first university in India to launch the Krishi CommunityRadio Station (KCRS) channel to help farmers. The channel is focusing on issues concerned with farmers andagriculture. SWOT analysis-Strengths: Economical and or cheapest media to establish, meets specified needs ofthe particular community, radio is the only media easily accessible people who are physically challenged withblindness, could be listen while working, portable and easy to carry, enables capacity building among the communitymembers, can cover both literate and illiterate sections of the society and has two way communication.



Weaknesses: Could not be visualized, effectiveness depends on the efficiency and capacity of the personwho involved in preparation of formats, covers limited geographical area(10-15 kms) and no uniform broadcast.Opportunities: India is the country of larger geographical area with crores of people with diverse cultural andlinguistic groups coupled with innumerable local dialects. Further, nation is having plenty of well organizedrecognized Institutes (education/service oriented), University’s and Non Government Organizations. With activeparticipation and involvement of these Institutes / sections of the people, there is bunch of opportunities to startCommunity Radio Station’s (CRS) in the country. Besides CRS could acts platform to exhibit the talent for thelocal people. Thus, it could be a voice of the people. Threats: Threats are nothing but external conditions whichcould do damage to the project’s / business's performance. Competition from other channels (may be otherpublic sector / commercial ones)/ and other medias such as Television and Print are two primary threats of CRS.(1) Other channels (2) Other medias

Use of Advanced Communication Media by Extension Personnelfor Rural Development

Uma S. Hiremath and Punam TiwariCollege of Rural Home Science, UAS, Dharwad, Karnataka

[email protected]

Advanced communication media or electronic media have emerged as a real driving force in transfer oftechnology related to agriculture, health services women welfare, rural development etc. In present scenario ofimproving educational status of rural people ICTs can be utilized to promote opportunities for livelihoods by wayof stimulating economic growth, making market work better for rural people and building their assets. This studywas conducted in Dharwad district of Karnataka state to know the usage of advanced communication media bydifferent levels of organizational hierarchy such as top management level, middle supervisory level and grassroot level extension personnel working in State Agricultural Universities, Government, Non government andPrivate organizations engaged in rural development work. Majority of higher-level and middle level personnelutilize internet for official communication. Higher-level and middle level extension personnel were using computersmore for documentation purpose. E-commerce, e-trade and chatting were found to be favorites by higher levelextension officials rather than of middle and lower level personnel. Majority of them considered always comfortableto use Telephone followed by mobile. For the purpose of extension work and rural development to communicatewith farmers and farm women video cassette disc and players were used where as to communicate with higherauthorities, policy makers and administrators, internet and fax machine were extensively used.

Integrating ICT into World Hunger through AgricultureExtension Education

Talata C Ratnayake and G. Prasad BabuDepartment of Animal Production & Health, Sri Lanka , Currently PhD Student at N.D.R.I-Karnal-India

[email protected]

Almost all the developing countries agriculture sector are struggling to find more effective ways to doublethe present food production to meet the 2050 Millennium Development Goal on world Hunger. This necessitatesthe provision of efficient flow of information and knowledge to the agricultural farmers for better decision-



making. But, various factors such as physical distances, lack of transportation facilities, limitations of resourcesin public extension has created the gap in the public agricultural extension systems and has failed or is at bestunsatisfactory when it comes to delivery of services to farmers. The agricultural extension services cannot keepthemselves aloof from the popular application of information technology in daily life. Many studies have beenproved that ICT has enormous potential in improving the livelihood of the marginalized rural community bymaking available of services with low cost. This is very important in Indian context where rural people aregeographically wide spread and are located in remote areas, majority of them do not have access to regularextension education programmes and under such circumstances ICT initiative give them better opportunity sincethrough which we can overcome social, geographical and time barriers, reducing training cost, and can cope upwith financial constraints. ICT is the well established mean of reposting and sharing information which enablesthis social and economic change. At the same time, it is also a challenge to place rural ICT infrastructure,developing appropriate content, ensuring sustainability and scaling-up.

Impact of Kisan Mobile Advisory on AgriculturalTechnology Dissemination

Omprakash Parganiha, S.K. Shrivastava, A.K. Chaubey and J.L. Nag

KVK, Raipur (Bhatapara), IGKV, [email protected]

The experiments conducted by various institutions accumulated the rich experiences of information technologyutilization in agriculture technology dissemination. Today in every walk of life, Computer, Internet and Mobileare turning out to be extremely important. Well known communication scientist Marshal Mcluhan predicted inhis pioneering book “Medium is the Message” that due to information revolution the world would become verysmall. So small that it will be described as “Global Village”.His prediction is now turning out to be quite true.Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Raipur (Bhatapara) started Kisan Mobile Advisory (KMA) service in the year 2008(October) and selected 200 (Farmers-125, In-service Personnel-50, Input Dealers-25) Mobile holder membersfor sending the messages of Agricultural aspects in their Mobile by using Bulk Message Service. After sendingthe messages for 2 years responses from the members were taken in month of October 2010. For the responsesabout KMA 20 percent members from each category were selected in this way 25 Farmers, 10 In-servicePersonnel and 5 Input Dealers were selected and interviewed through telephone by calling in their respectivemobile numbers. Among three categories (Farmers, In service Personnel and Input Dealers) of members ofKisan Mobile Advisory (KMA) a case study was undertaken to document the impact of services provided to themembers and fined out their satisfaction with KMA services. The result obtained indicated that message wasmedium understandable for large majority (44%) of the members of farmers category, it was highly understandablefor 80 and 53.33 percent KMA members of In-service Personnel and Input Dealers category respectively.Message was Needful & Timely for 64 percent of the KMA members of farmers category and about 68 and53.33 percent for In-service Personnel and Input Dealers respectively. As for as Applicability of the message isconcerned the message was fully applicable for about 40 percent of KMA members of farmers category,whereas Medium & Partially applicable was reported by 16 & 24 percent of members respectively. It was alsofound that message was fully applicable for In-service Personnel (60%) and Input Dealers (53.33%). It wasfound that technology imposes high impact on 58 percent of KMA members of farmers category, whereas 72percent and 53.33 percent members of In-service Personnel and Input Dealers category reported technologyimpacted highly on them. Low impact was reported by ranging about 08-20% of KMA members among allcategories.



Community Radio Station: A New Hope for Agricultural ExtensionKrishan Yadav, Joginder S. Malik and Satyakaaam Malik

Mass Communication, CCS HAU, [email protected]

The transfer of agricultural information to the farmers in the form & shape, they want, has always been achallenge for extension networks, be it State Agricultural Universities or State Agricultural Departments. However,a new ray of hope has come in the form of Community Radio Stations has been defined as “a community radiostation can be defined as the short range radio station that caters to the information needs of communities livingin surrounding areas.” Government of India, Vide announcement made on December, 2002 has opened up vistasfor educational institutions / organizations to have their own small power FM Radio Stations i.e. CommunityRadio Stations. The idea behind the scheme is to enable these organizations to provide radio coverage within thearea of operation and to serve the cause of community by involving members of the community.

National Scenario: In late 2006 a new CRS policy was drafted and non-profits organizations were allowedto apply for licenses, as well. India has thus seen a steady growth in Community Radio Stations. The aspirantsfor having their own Community Radio Stations are increasing at a rapid rate. As per Ministry of Information &Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi, there are 84 operational CRS in India

Starting A CRS : First, need to gain experience in radio journalism and audio program production. Second,you need to put the technology in place for running the radio station. Third, get a license to broadcast. Last butclearly not the least; you need to have sufficient funds to cover the capital and operational expenditure of theCommunity Radio station.

Running a CRS :The real job starts now! Running a radio station is not easy in any way. The team willhave to perform multitask across many jobs. Right from traveling into the field to take interviews, to intelligentlyputting together an interesting script, doing audio editing, answering phone calls, sales and marketing for advertisingrevenues, andlot more. One can learn as he/she go along, and be prepared to change! That is the mantra

The following websites can help you as well; www.mib.nic.in, www.wpc.dot.govt.in, Community MediaIndex: UNESCO community radio handbook ,UNESCO community radio technical manual

Revamping Agricultural Extension through CRS: A Success Story of CCSHAU, Hisar: - CCS HaryanaAgricultural University, Hisar has started first Agricultural based Community Radio Station of Northern India on29th November, 2009. Its Objective is to “provide radio coverage of programmes of farmer’s benefits byinvolving them”. The farmer community is finding itself more involved in the happening around them

Basic information’s: The frequency allotted to Community Radio Station of CCS HAU, Hisar by Ministryof Information & broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi is 91.2 MHz. It has a transmitter of EffectiveRadiated Power (ERP) 100 W & 50 Watt Out-put and having an antenna height of 100 feet/ 30 meters fromground level. It covers area of 15-20 Kilometer radius depending upon climatic conditions. This CommunityRadio Station started broadcasting programmes from 29th November, 2009.

Programme & Activities of CRS: This Community Radio Station started broadcasting programmes from29th November, 2009. The broadcasting time is 9.00 to11.00 A.M. in the morning & 3.00 to 5.00 P.M. in theevening during winter & only 9.00 to 11.00 A.M. in the morning during summer. The content broadcast involvesbroadcasting of experts’ talks and self-explanatory talks on timely issues, progressive farmers’ success storiesin their own voice, group discussion on social and technical issues, broadcasting of local cultural Programmes.This CRS also provide training to local community on radio station management, content development & Radiojoking.



Future planning: The University is going to increase broadcasting time very soon and to start phone-inprogram. Six more Community Radio Stations are going to start in the current financial year under the RashtriyaKrishi Vikas Yogana (RKVY) at different KVKs of university. Overall “More involvement of the community”is the future course of action of this community Radio Station. The Theme –“Radio Station of the farmers, by thefarmers, for the farmers” is being fulfilled by it and agricultural extension activities are being strengthened by it.This will motivate other SAU's as well, to adopt as major tool of revamping agriculture extension.

Community Radio – An Effective Tool for Technology DisseminationS.R. K.Singh, Sandeep Chauhan, U.S.Gautam and Ashwani Srivastava

ZPD, Zone VII, [email protected]

Community radio is an important agricultural extension tool. It is widely recorded to reach illiterate farmersand provide them with information relating to all aspect of agricultural production in a language they understand.It doesn’t simply reading technical information over airwaves in local language but understanding the wayfarmers themselves discuss their problems in community and providing relevant information in the local agro-ecological and cultural context. Community Radio effective in achieving development goals in facilitatingcommunication for key development sectors such as agriculture, livelihood, education and health and over-allrural development. It is also effective in empowering women to actively participate in their communities. It playspecific and crucial role in encouraging public participation, facilitating community level debate, inclusion andcultural diversity. It facilitates in spreading awareness about government schemes. In fact, community radio is atwo- way communication process that empowers people to identify problems and solved them. It’s truly amedium for gross-root communication. It contributes to social changes by initiating communication process.

Information Source Utilization by Backyard PoultryOwners in Rural AreasV. N. Khandait and P.D. Swami

College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, RAJUVAS, [email protected]

The study was conducted in twenty four villages from three tahsils of Bhandara district. The data werecollected from 240 backyard poultry owners by personal contact and structured interview schedule those whohad been rearing at least three birds since last three years. These are personal contact method, group contactmethod and mass contact method, where eight types of personal contact, four type of group contact and eighttype of mass contact were studied.The data revealed that highest number of the respondents i.e.62.92 percentwere in medium category in respect of their level of information source utilization, followed by low level category,which is comprised of 18.75 percent respondents and 18.33 percent respondent were found in high level ofinformation source utilization. Friends and neighbors were frequently and easily accessible source of informationby personal contact, followed by teachers, Department of animal husbandry, poultry farmers and Grampanchayatmember. Whereas group meeting and group discussion is act as source of information sometimes. In the masscontact method radio, newspaper, television and poster were the major source of information followed by leaflets/folders, exhibition, books magazines and speech.



ICTs for Agricultural Extension in India: A Review and PolicyImplications for Developing Countries

R. SaravananSchool of Social Sciences, College of Post Graduate Studies, CAU, Barapani, Meghalaya

[email protected]

ICTs are changing all the spheres of human lives. Hence, it is a popular belief that, agricultural extensionalso no exception to this. It is also expected that the ICT led extension systems are going to act as a key agentfor changing agrarian situation and farmers’ lives by improving access to information and sharing knowledge.Hence, renewed enthusiasm to use new ICTs for agricultural advisory services led to mushrooming of e-initiativepilots in India. Development practitioners are experimenting innovative ICT initiatives exclusively for agriculturalinformation and knowledge delivery. Unlike other sectors, agriculture is a complex, more so agricultural extension,hence, there are some projects shown the way forward and continue to grow and most other projects arefloundering after few years of operation. Large number of projects stuck as pilots only and very few continuouslyinnovated, replicated and sustained over the years. However, the variety of ICT initiatives also added lot oflessons to take future course of action. With the available practical lessons, it is time to move forward inintegrating ICTs and Information and Communication Management (ICM) in agricultural extension. Further,ICT capacity building in agricultural research and extension systems, location-specific content generation anddigitization, integration of research-extension and IT technology solution providers, integration of pluralistic extensionactors, blending ICTs with traditional extension methods, continuous innovation and refinement need be followedwith commitment and accountability are crucial for sustaining momentum in the agricultural extension servicesby the ICTs. This article is a concise review on ICT projects implemented since 1990’s in India, elaborates bestpractices, case studies and its ingredients for success and also draws policy implications for the effective ICTbased agricultural advisory services in developing countries.

Bridging Digital Divide through ICTSanjeev Kumar Singh, Jitendra Chauhan and Amit Singh

Department of Vet.erinary & AH Ext.Edu., U.P.Pt. DDU Vet. & ASU, Mathura, U. [email protected]

Indian Agriculture contributes 22% of our GDP, and approximately 60% Indians derive their livelihoodfrom the agricultural sector. Today’s farmers require not only the two-time bread for their families, but alsosurplus food production, which can be sold in the market to get sufficient money to fulfill their daily other needs.

The digital divide is not indeed a clear single gap which divides a society into two groups. The DigitalDivide, or the digital split, is a social issue referring to the differing amount of information between those whohave access to the Internet (especially broadband access) and those who do not have access. Actually thedifference is not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but by access to ICT and to Media that theother different segments of society can use. Fourty Five percent of the world’s ICT projects are implemented inIndia and that day is not far away when Indian will establish one Rural Info Kiosk in each of the 6,00,000villages. Several ICT projects such as Bhoomi project, e-Shringula, Drishtee, Info-village, Gyan- Ganga project,e-Choupal, SKS smart cards of the NDDB, Warna Wired village project, Project Shiksha, etc have providedinformation and knowledge access to the isolated population in order to provide them a sustainable livelihoodsecurity.



Rejuvenation of Agriculture Extension throughe-Agriculture – KMAS A.K. Mohanty and G. A. Kumar

ICAR Res. Complex for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre, Ranipool, [email protected]

With the world wide innovations in agriculture extension, the Indian extension and support systems hasundergone profound changes while no unified alternative framework has been emerged. Presently Indian farmersconfront several emerging challenges pertaining to limited land and water resources, which is further exacerbatedby degradation of natural resources; climate changes; burgeoning population pressure, changes in demand andconsumption patterns, shifting towards high-value agriculture; and liberalization of trade. The challenge for thegovernment and policy makers is to regain agricultural dynamism in India. Under this assumption, for realizingthe benefit of higher prices of agricultural commodities, the poor farmers at the grass-root level need to accessa wider range of information, related not only to production technologies but also to post-harvest processes,remunerative market establishments, price intelligence, and business development etc. This gamut of informationcould be integrated with services that support the use of the information in agriculture called e-Agriculture; is anemerging agricultural extension approach that combines the advances in agricultural informatics, agriculturaldevelopment and entrepreneurship for increasing its effectiveness and efficiency in reaching small and marginalfarmers with better agricultural services. The key finding of this research is that mobile phones can act as acatalyst to rejuvenate the collapsing agricultural extension system through e-Agriculture- Kisan Mobile AdvisoryServices (KMAS) at different levels i.e. locally, regionally and globally. In fact, a push towards higher agriculturalproductivity requires an information-based, decision-making agricultural system.

e-Learning for Agricultural DevelopmentRenu Balakrishnan, Monika Wason and R.N. Padaria

Division of Agricultural Extension, IARI, New [email protected]

Agriculture sector is under the pressure of rising population, consumers’ affluence, globalisation, andshrinking resource base. Knowledge and quality information for production technologies and marketing of produceare highly essential to provide the necessary impetus to agricultural growth. Although knowledge-intensivemanagement is widely seen as a solution, delivering the requisite information and skills to farmers in India isloaded with several difficulties. ICTs are appropriate medium for information delivery as well as enhancementof farmers’ knowledge and decision making quality. Impacts of ICTs have become tangible in education with theconcepts like distance education, online learning, virtual classroom etc. The Distance learning and e-learning aresuch learning situations where instructors and management learners are separated by distance, time or both andthere is asynchronous interaction. E-learners use a variety of tools while learning like e-mail, e-mail basednewsletters, discussion groups, chatting, instant messaging, and internet broadcasts for communication , hyperlinkedweb pages, downloadable documents, multimedia, interactive forms, and simulations engage and involve learnerswith content and thus improves the learning process. Unlike the traditional learning system which is teachercentred, formal, linear, static and content management based system e-learning is learner centred, informal, non-linear, dynamic, and knowledge management based system.



Design and Implementation of Web-based Rapeseed-Mustard AphidForecast System

Vinod Kumar, Amrender Kumar and Chirantan ChattopadhyayDirectorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (ICAR), Sewar, Bharatpur (Raj)

[email protected]

Oilseed Brassicas are major crops for producing edible oil in India and world wide, aphid is the major insectaffecting upto 80% of crop losses. Therefore the challenges for rapeseed-mustard researchers, besides thedevelopment of theoretical mathematical equations integrating biology and climatology for developing forecast-ing models, is to provide online user-friendly web-based forecasting system for mustard aphid. In this study, wedeveloped and implemented a web-based information system for rapeseed-mustard aphid forecast in India witha special consideration on practical use by extension personnel and crop growers. The system developmentemploys the location specific statistical models developed and validated in earlier studies for mustard aphidforecast in India. Using open source technology LAMP, the web based user friendly software developed enableto deliver aphid forecast well in advance. Open source technology make it affordable, hence, user is not requiredto make any specific investment in terms of software / hardware for using the system. The system can be usedon any machine having the browser and internet connectivity. Online evaluation of the system is in process andinitial user response has been very positive due to effective forecast and the easy-user interface.

Linking Research, Extension and Farmers through ICT –Experiencesof CPCRI in the Innovative use of Videoconferencing

C. Thamban, N. Ravikumar, K, Muralidharan and C .H. AmarnathCentral Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasaragod

[email protected]

Effective linkages between research, extension and farming community is a crucial requirement for sus-tainable agricultural development. Videoconferencing as an ICT tool, provides two-way point-to-point or multi-point video and audio connections. As part of the cyber extension activities, interactive videoconferencing hasbeen conducted by CPCRI to facilitate interaction between various stakeholders for enhancing technologyutilization in coconut, arecanut and cocoa. Profile characteristics of the farmers participating in the interfaceprogrammes and perception about different aspects of videoconferencing were analysed by collecting data fromrandomly selected 74 farmers who attended interactive videoconferencing programmes at different centres.Scientist-Farmer interface mostly utilize question-answer mode at times supported by use of power point pres-entation. The interaction between SHGs employ demonstration of techniques of production of value addedproducts, question-answer and discussion. All the four southern States viz., Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka andAndhra Pradesh where the mandate crops of the Institute are mostly cultivated were covered through theinterface programmes. Crop protection aspects were the subject matter area, which got maximum coverage inthe interactive video conferencing programme. Majority of the farmers (77%) rated the interactivevideoconferencing as very useful. Similarly, majority of the farmers (71%) opined that scientists participating inthe interactive videoconferencing programme had very good communication skill. Most (80 per cent) of thefarmers rated the quality and utility of the audio-visual aids used in the interactive videoconferencing programmeas very good.



Role of E-learning in Agricultural Extension - An OverviewSandeep Chauhan, S.R.K.Singh, U.S.Gautam and N.K.Khare

JNKVV,Jabalpur and ZPD, Zone VII, [email protected]

E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information andcommunication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learningprocess. The term will still most likely be utilized to reference out-of-classroom and in-classroom educationalexperiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum. It is essentially thecomputer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes includeWeb-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual education opportunities and digital collaboration. Contentis delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio.Learning is acquiring or improving the ability to perform a behaviour pattern through experience and practices.Acquisition of knowledge and development of understanding are important aspect of receiving extension advice.The extension agent has an important duty to stimulate and facilitate such learning process which often has moreimpact on farmers’ behaviour and on their ability to learn new ideas than knowledge which is taught by an‘expert’. Hence, keeping in view the cost and drudgery of the personal visit of the clients, e-learning could bepromoted in Indian condition also so that farming community could also be benefitted by this.

Measuring Effect of Integrated Weed Management Practices onGrowth and Yield of Direct Seeded Rice

Shilpa Koushik, S.R.K.Singh, Sandeep Sharama and B.L. Chandrakar

Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur (C.G.),[email protected]

The present investigation was conducted at Instructional Farm of Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya,Raipur (C.G.) India during the kharif season (June-October) 2006. The experiment was laid out in randomizedblock design comprised of eight treatments of various combinations of different herbicides viz. T1:PIH 202310% SC 15 g a.i/ha at 18 DAS; T2 : PIH 2023 10% SC 20 g a.i/ha at 18 DAS; T3 : PIH 2023 10% SC 25 g a.i/ha at 18 DAS; T4 : PIH 2023 10% SC 30 g a.i/ha at18 DAS; T5 : PIH 202310% SC 60 g a.i/ha at 18 DAS T6: Almix 20% WP 4 g a.i/ha 18 DAS; T7 :Control (unweeded check) and T8 : Hand weeding at 30 DAS withthree replications. Rice cultivar “IR-64” was grown as a test crop. The growth performance of Rice i.e. plantheight, Number of tillers(m-2), Number of effective tillers(m-2) , dry matter accumulation plant-1, was higherunder PIH 2023 10% SC 25 g a.i/ha as compared to other weed management practices. Wher as the minimumgrowth of rice recorded under unweeded. Maximum grain yield and straw yield was under PIH 2023 10% SC60 g a.i/ha Echinochloa colona, Cyperus spp., F. miliaceae, L. hyssopifolia were the pre-dominant weeds inexperimental plot. Minimum weed density was noted under post emergence application of Almix 4 g ha-1 andPIH 2023 25 g ha-1 at 20, 40, 70 and 90 DAS. Whereas, at harvest lower dry matter of weeds and highest weedcontrol efficiency was recorded under Almix 4 g ha-1 (T6), PIH 2023 25 g ha-1 and PIH 2023 60 g ha-1,respectively. It was found effective to control broad spectrum of weeds viz., grasses, sedges and forbs.

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