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THE
FARMERS (INDIA)
The e-agriculture project e-Krishi was launched in 2006 by the IT State Mission
Kerala in cooperation with the Kerala Agricultural Department and the National
Institute for Smart government. This community inclusive and award winning project
supports small farmers through an internet platform that provides them with
agricultural information and allows them to conduct online transactions. Since the
launch of the project, over 10000 farmers have registered on the website. Through
e-Krishi, they could increase the quality of their products and obtain fair prices.
Project background
India is the worlds largest democracy and fourth-largest economy in purchasing power
parity terms. According to the World Bank the country is an agricultural powerhouse,
producing for example the world largest amount of milk, pulses and spices. Even
though the growth of rural population is decreasing, nearly three quarters of Indias
families still depend on rural incomes (2011 National Census, World Bank 2012). In
the district Malappuram, which is located in Kerala, region of the here presented pilot
project, a majority of the population depends on agriculture: 50% of the working
population works as cultivators or agricultural laborers and 20% depend indirectly on
agricultural activities.2Compared to other states, farmers are more disadvantaged in
Kerala as there is no so called Agricultural Produce Market Act3. This act has been
launched in many states in order to provide regulation of agricultural products and fixes
the creation of Agricultural Produce Market Committees supervising the application of
these regulations. The absence of this regulation in Kerala penalizes particularly small
farmers, as they lack real-time and updated information regarding market prices, access
to quality insurance, logistics, warehousing, commodity trading, pesticides and other
activities and resources. Subsequently, they have difficulties to produce in a market
oriented way and are vulnerable towards middlemen and money lenders. This situation
1
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/terminal_evaluation_of_information_and_communi
cation_technology_for_development_project.pdf
3
http://www.msamb.com/english/apmc/default.htm
Planning process
In 2005, the Kerala State IT Mission, the National Institute for Smart Government and
the Agricultural Department started the planning process for a project that should
facilitate the agricultural information flow and the transaction management of small
farmers.
As the Akshaya project had been developed successfully
pilotproject.
Department
This
explains
also
the
choice
of
of
Information
managerial
support
to
digital
divide,
e-Governance,
and
District Implementation
Office
KSITM Director
ProjectCoordinators
FieldCoordinators
e-Krishi centres
Farmers
Buyers
These project coordinators organize farmers and buyers meeting in the district
and manage the capacity training programmes imparted in the different
Akshaya centres. Finally, they consolidate the data collected by the field
coordinators.
On the block level, these fourteen field coordinators work directly with the
entrepreneurs of the e-Krishi centres. They distribute questionnaires and collect
field data on farmers and buyers, as well as conduct market studies on various
agricultural products. They support the organization of Bhoomi Clubs (see next
section) and support farmers who wish to conduct soil testing against a small
fee analyzed later on the e-Krishi website.
In all of the 102 Panchayats and 5 Municipalities, Bhoomi Clubs are formed.
These clubs composed of: Chief of the village council, the so called Panchayat
president, who is also the chief of the Bhoomi club, the agricultural officer of
the Panchayat, fulfilling the role of an official advisor. Various members of the
local community are regularly invited, as well as the leading farmers which
endorse the role of secretary, joint secretary and treasurer within the Bhoomi
Club. They meet once in a month in order to discuss issues related to the
implementation of E-Krishi in their village. The objective of the creation of
Bhoomi clubs is to adopt a participatory approach right from the project
initiation stage and ensure the sustainability of the project.
Project implementation
The project was officially launched in January 2006 in 146 Akshaya centres, selected
for the pilot project and re-named e-Krishi centres.
In the following will be presented the main implementing agencies and the difficulties
they faced throughout the implementation of the project.
Actors of the implementation process
1. Kerala State IT Mission: KSITM coordinated all the e-Krishi activities with the
help of the e-Krishi Head at state level.
Difficulties faced: During the implementation of the pilot project, it appeared that users
of the e-Krishi portal and centre had difficulties to rely only on digital information and
the internet. Many users asked for print material in order to be able to access the
information at home. Printed material, albeit less detailed than the digital component,
has been developed since. Furthermore, the Akshaya centre realized that many buyers
and agricultural stakeholders were not used to using IT based trade applications.
Therefore, specific training for these stakeholders had to be developed.
9. Bhoomi clubs: The Bhoomi clubs are in charge of locating products suitable for
marketing via the project and supporting the project on the village level.
Implementation process
In early 2006, 146 Akshaya centres for the e-Krishi project were selected, on criteria as
distance to farmer communities, amount of members, quality of infrastructure and
existence of IT trained staff. As defined in the implementation framework, the field
coordinators visited then farmers and collected information in the following areas:
Acreage by product
Name and age of plants
Used seeds
Harvest schedule and expected quantity per month
Apart from farmers, the following stakeholders registered on the platform during the
pilot phase:
Agriculture buyers and exporters
Agriculture product manufacturers
Agriculture input providers : Seeds, Plantlets, Fertilizers, Pesticides
Agricultural experts from universities
Test laboratories
Agricultural equipments suppliers
Quality graders
Warehousing
Logistics providers
Banks
Insurers
Documentation specialists
Accountants, Legal support
Chemical fertilizers
Other crops
Logistic services
Vegetables
Eggs
Nursery
Tubers
Flowers
Organic fertilizers
Legal services
Fruits
Plastic culture
Agro-forestry
Poultry
Pulses
Aquaculture
Fodder crops
Commercial crops
Vegetables
Medicinal plants
Oil seeds
Condiments /
Spices
Insurance Services
Quality certifiers
Financial services
Government
services
Laboratory services
Within each of these categories, registered users can indicate the type product and its
quantity needed. Farmers wishing to sell their products can post in turn their offers on
the website. As they have precise information on their current value of their products
they can expect to sell for a fair price. Buyers and sellers can effectively search for
advertisement and requirement postings. Thanks to the indicated location, they can also
find the nearest buyer or provider. The aggregation application allows them to buy the
same product in the meantime from various farmers, which allows them to satisfy their
demands of often large quantities of a specific product.
Figure 2: Sellers corner at the trade centre platform on the e-Krishi website and
advertising example
Source : www.ekrishi.org
Information applications:
Furthermore, the portal provides farmers and agricultural stakeholders with a multitude
of updated and accurate information on products and practices, available in the so
called Market Advisory Section. This information is directly access from the KISSAN
server.
Figure 3: Planting Material Availability tool
field.
Furthermore,
as
information
Source : www.ekrishi.org
concerning
adapted plant protection strategies and harvesting methods and results to expect
are provided.
Fertilizer recommendation: Farmers can ask the nearest district soiltesting
laboratory in the state to conduct a soilanalysis. These laboratories are
connected via broadband to the KISSAN Kerala server and update the results of
the soil testing. Farmers can then, thanks to an attributed identification number
generated by the laboratorys software, access the results of their soil-testing
and related recommendations.
Planting Material Availability: Through this application, farmers can obtain
information on planting material in their area. Information is provides on all
major planting material produced on district level: Around 160 crops and their
varieties.
Fertilizers and Pesticides: In order to avoid the inadequate use of chemical
fertilizers and useless expenditures for farmers this application informs
about the different fertilizers and pesticides and proposes alternatives. It
provides them also with information of the licensed retail outlets. Users can
check the availability of fertilizers in their location online.
Weather information: The portal provides weather reports for over 330
localities in Kerala. Users can select their locality and are redirected to the
website www.fallingrain.com which provides them with information on
temperature, percentage of cloud coverage, and amount of precipitation (cm3 /
last 3 hours).
Farming practices: Within this application, farmers can access a high number
farming practices and detailed recommendations, e.g. recommendations
concerning plant protection measures: In this case, the farmer will learn which
products exist, how to use and store them. The provided information is very
clear and describes for example how to handle a sprayer for chemical pesticides.
Discussion forum: In the forum, farmers can exchange directly best practices
and experiences with their peers and agricultural stakeholders.
Offline material:
The e-Krishi centres are supplied with around 30 different educational materials, e.g.
books, booklets, and magazines in the local language. Furthermore, CDs dealing with
agricultural practices as well as copies of the online farming videos are provided. The
material focuses on topics related to the various sectors of agriculture: animal
husbandry, fisheries etc. It is donated by the Kerala Agricultural University and the
Farm Information Bureau, the Central Plantation Research Institute and the TBGIRI
(Tropical Botanical Garden and research Institute, part of the Kerala government
science and technology department).
Call centre:
e-Krishi launched also a call centre with a toll free information number. The call centre
is supposed to provide, like the Ask an Expert application, farmers with answers to their
farming related questions. The call centre allows also illiterate farmers to access
information. The Kerala based call centre is composed of 3 agricultural graduates and
supported by more than 120 agricultural experts.
e-Krishi Training:
Under the Akshaya project, at least one person of each family in the Malappuram
district had followed courses on how to use computers and the internet, which
facilitated the implementation of e-Krishi. However, training was imparted by trained
staff of the Akshaya centres. Users received around 10 to 15 hours of practical
computer training. This training was divided in order to suit the different target groups:
Training for farmers: At the e-Krishi centres, farmers can not only access the
internet in view of using the e-Krishi portal and its services. They have also the
ICT tools: In contrast to the ICT systems, ICT tools are visible and actively used by
the users of the portal via the different applications available. These ICT applications
Figure 5: Role of ICT
Results
Action
Understanding
Judgment
Knowledge
Cognition
Information
Processing
Raw data
(the website and its applications) have the role of transforming collected data into
context based knowledge for farmers: They are used as dynamic tools, able to combine
various information sources (e.g. combine location information with crop information
in order to formulate a related recommendation) and explain what the collected data
actually shows. ICT tools are supposed to guide farmers from the knowledge state to
the understanding state, which means to enable them how to use their knowledge, and
to foresee the results of actions based on this use.
Distribution of funds
The e-Krishi project was funded by UNDP within the nationwide project ICT for
Development from 2006 to 2009 with around 14,6 Million INR (267 963USD).
Concretely, these funds were mainly disbursed for the following activities:
Activities implemented within the communication strategy
Training imparted to e-Krishi users
Development of the website
Development of the call centre facility
Administrative expenditures
Supervision process
A clear supervision process between the different organisms and stakeholders of the
project has been defined:
The Kerala IT Mission was in charge of looking after the project management of the
project and received therefore regular feedback from the State Implementation
Committee, who met every 6 months in order to discuss collected information and
feedback from the District Implementation Committee. The State Level Committee is
in charge of supervising the activities in the various departments and to report back to
the Kerala IT Mission. The District Implementation Committee is in charge of
evaluating the project every quarter, based on field visits in each e-Krishi centre and on
statistical reports from the KISSAN server. In the meantime, the IIITM-K supervises
website related matters and intervenes directly at the technical support centre (C-DIT).
Concretely, this supervision is based on Results Based Management (RBM) reports.
These are sent during the first week of every month to the respective supervising entity.
Furthermore, the project coordinator drafts a monthly review of the Bhoomi Clubs and
the field coordinators of the project. e-Krishi centre entrepreneurs are also supervised:
Their performance is reviewed and they are categorized into grades ranging from A to
E, depending on the quality of their activities. They can be disqualified if they do not
follow the regulations defined by the government, e.g. if social obligations are not
fulfilled.
This production
had almost been ceased because of the low prices and had increased the
amount of fallow lands. Thanks to this e-Krishi based intervention, the price
for paddy cultivation increased and farmers are encouraged to post their paddy
offers on the trade centre.
Relevance: 5,25
6
5
4
3
2
Sustainability: 4,38
Effectiveness: 4,36
1
0
Efficiency: 4,86
Finally, UNDP (2010) indicates also that e-Krishi achieved to contribute to the
development of rural areas as it provided support in multiple areas relevant for small
farmers:
Bridge the Digital Divide
Citizen Centric Service Delivery
Public Private Partnership
Capacity Building
Change Management
Business Process Reengineering
Knowledge/Experience Sharing
Awards
Since the implementation of the project, e-Krishi has won several prizes for its
achievements:
2008/2009: One of the winners of the CS Inhilent E-Governance Awards
2010: e-Krishi is mentioned as being one of the reasons why Akshaya wins the
Manthan Award South Asia
2010/2011: National Award on E-Governance (Silver Medal)
Conclusion
The e-Krishi project has achieved to improve the position of small farmers within the
agricultural value chain through the use of an online platform that provides them with
important access to agricultural information and facilitates the trade of their products
for fair prices.
The success of the e-Krishi project appears to be based on several factors: Firstly, the
fact that the project built up on existing, successfully functioning infrastructures
provided by the Akshaya and KISSAN project, conferred a high degree of stability to
the planning and implementation process. The cooperation with a field project that was
familiar with working on the grassroots level increased the efficiency of the project. It
also diminished the cost of the project as e-Krishi could benefit from existing centres
and their equipment. This partnership with proves the efficiency of improving existing
projects and tools instead of launching completely new ones.
Furthermore, the participatory approach of the projects has also contributed much to the
projects success. Thanks to the close cooperation with local groups and integration of
the Panchayats during the planning and implementation process, the project was able to
attain a high degree of credibility and increased the trust and receptiveness of rural
inhabitants. The inclusion of local decision makers in the key committees of the
project is a key example of this approach.
communication strategy was crucial for the project as it could also decrease the
reluctance and hesitation of many farmers regarding the project and its pretended
outcomes. Indeed, the absence of ownership and lack of a communication and
broadcast can lead to the failure of innovative projects without any precursor in the
region, as its success depends on the communitys willingness to use and commit to the
project.
Another success factor is the large-scale ICT training imparted by e-Krishi. The focus
on farmers needs and the continuous support by local trainers increased the efficiency
of the project as farmers were increasingly able to use the platform. Also, this training
was characterized by an effort of proximity, as it was imparted in the different centres
close to where farmers lived and worked. This proximity was another crucial aspect of
the project, as the project aimed to be perceived as tool that facilitates their trade and is
not related to additional efforts.
Finally, the fact that the project has planned from the beginning a demand driven
strategy the more the platform was used, the more new online services were
developed and the platform adapt to the users demands contributed to the
popularity of the project. On the long term, this strategy increases also the projects
sustainability chances, proving its capacity to innovate and evolve together with its
users.
The post pilot phase has already proven that the project would spread out quickly in
other districts and states of the country and there is clear willingness to expand the
provided services. Online platforms offering small farmers to trade their products are
also increasingly developed in developing countries, albeit not always successfully. It
is important to mention that for this kind of project, the importance of basic
infrastructure as electricity, and the lack of data centres containing up to date
agricultural information may complicate their implementation to some extent. This is
particularly true for those countries with a low internet penetration and ICT
connectivity. However, depending on the effort invested in order to tackle these
problems, and given the modern possibilities to access internet via solar and satellite
based technologies, these challenges are not insuperable and therefore not a fatality.
Reference
Efficient Programme Monitoring.
2006,http://www.nisg.org/knowledgecentre_docs/D08010008.pdf (Accessed
November 28th 2012)
IT Enabled Strategic Framework for Agriculture the KISSAN-Kerala Approach.
2007,http://www.iiitmk.ac.in/edugrid/download/Strategy-Agri-2-082k7.pdf.(Accessed
November 28th 2012)
Information for Development.Interview with
AnvarSadath.2007,http://i4d.eletsonline.com/?p=11560. (Accessed November 28th
2012)
UNDP India, Terminal Evaluation of Information and Communication Technology for
Development.2010, p.86 101.
Important websites
www.ekrishi.org
www.keralaitmission.org