CYBER EXTENSION IN RURAL TRANSFORMATION

                                                                                         A. Chandru

Since Independence, India has taken various steps for agricultural and rural development. One of the first major schemes was the Community Development Programme initiated in the year 1952. Further, the National Extension Service has been started for activities in agriculture, animal husbandry at the Central Level in 1953. This encompasses a three tier administrative structure in all the states of India in which the administration control at district and technical expertise at block level are placed. The Block Development Office (BDO) played a major role in co-coordinating all the activities. As a sequel, the rural development programmes such as IADP, IAAD, NDP, KVK, T&V, etc. continued to emerge. Only after the year 1985, the village Extension Worker (VEW) takes a specialized role concentrating on extension services neglecting health, nutrition, family planning etc. More and more Specialisation of agricultural crops, commercialization, integration of other enterprises like poultry, horticulture, piggery, sericulture, mushroom, etc., makes the work of agricultural extension more diversified.

            This calls for serious attention on the part of the extension workers. The older system of agricultural extension in India are too expensive, which the government exchequer unwilling to spend for unyielding. The communication capacity of the extension worker are poor, time consuming and last but not the least, the message when transfers from top level to the grass root level gets eroded giving undesired input. These pose challenges in today’s context when the extension machinery in the country as a whole failed. The need of the hour is to identify an appropriate alternative extension approach, which overcomes those failures and caters to the present day need of the farmer clients.          

Information and communication technology (ICT)for that matter holds a greater promise. It  is an integration of various technologies and the process of communicating the desired and needy information to the target clients for making them more participative and independent in their decision-making. The ICT, which is used for the purpose of disseminating agricultural information as the state extension machinery, is the cyber extension. Cyber extension is the extension over cyber space. It is using the power of online network computer communications and digital interactive multimedia to facilitate dissemination of agricultural technology (Sharma, V.P., 2000). The ICT when tuned to the conditions favourable in rural areas can help improve communication, increase participation, disseminate information, share knowledge, skills, change the attitude of the farmer clients, thus bringing the overall socio-economic development of the farming community.

Pros of ICT Extension

1.      Access to the information is free provided the basic infrastructure is set up and the user having pertinent knowledge to access the information.

2.      The target client can access the information at any time of the year and the day.

3.      The access is throughout the globe e.g. farmer can get the price of commodity at Chicago Board of Trade and can export if the price is to in advantageous position.

4.      Communication is interactive. It is through the electronic mail, discussion group, the information is a two way process.  The client through the e-mail can post a query to the information provider making the communication process more effective.

5.      Ever changing information: The information in the website are often updated giving the farmers the cutting edge over the traditional cultivators.

6.      Information at a minimum time. A farmer client who need information for package of practices of wheat, rice, piggery, poultry or any other matter can get the same at a minimum time compared to traditional extension methods.

7.      Provides a wide range of information, which the traditional extension approach focuses on a particular aspect.

8.      Bridge the income gap .If the poor are provided with the technical know-how about the usage of ICT, they can garner more benefit and thus improve in their socio-economic context.

Ways of ICT used for extension

            The World Wide Web can be used for the purpose of agricultural extension in the following ways.

i.                     E-mail provides an opportunity to have interaction among research scientists, extension workers, and farmers.

ii.                   Through www. Information such as market prices, latest best agricultural practices, weather conditions can be obtained.

iii.                  A question and answer service where experts respond to queries on specialized subjects.

iv.                 IT solutions for facilitating automation of digitization of land records, online loan application, farm management, agricultural statistics, etc.

v.                   Access to information not only related to agriculture but also other areas such as education, health and other social welfare measures through multipurpose computer booths.

vi.                 Providing the facts regarding the poverty alleviation schemes on the Internet.

vii.                Launching online rural development and extension journals, newsletters, etc.

viii.              Providing video clips to demonstrate complex procedures and audio-files for rebroadcast on local radio stations (FAO, 1999).

ix.                 Provision of needed information in local languages.

x.                   Cyber booths can be set up at village level to help the less educated farmers in obtaining the information.

These are some of the ways in which ICT can be used for the transfer of information to make the knowledge society.

Successful ICT projects

      Apart from the minimum intervention by the Government in harnessing the ICT for rural development, the private sectors, NGO’s were successful in initiating the projects. Also the impact is tremendous that the socio economic condition of the farmer gets improved, as the case study shows. Some of the successful projects are e-choupal initiated by ITC, Warana Wired Village project in Maharashtra, Information village project by MS Swaminathan, Research Foundation-International Development Research Center, Honey-bee knowledge network of ITM-Ahmedabad, EID Parry’s Agriline, i-kisan project of Nagarjuna Group of companies in Andhra Pradesh, interalia to name a few (Yojana, 2006). In this term paper we will analyse the successful nature of e-choupal and Warana Wired Village Project which shows how an ICT project should or should not be for the rural development.

e-choupal

      Choupal is the Hindi word meaning gathering place. The ‘e’ represents the linkage of the choupals to the outside world through the means of internet. The e-choupal act both as a forward linkage by means of procurement and backward linkage by providing needed information to the farmers.  The e-choupal model brings the benefit in terms of profit not only to the farmers but also to the brainchild company. e-Choupal, the information and communication technology (ICT) intervention initiated by India’s leading private company – Indian Tobacco company (ITC) specifically the International Business Division of ITC. Today, there are more than 5000 e-choupals serving over 30,000 villages covering nearly 3 million farmers approximately adding 6 e-choupals a day. Its vision is to reach 1 lakh villages by the year 2010. The e-choupal model of procurement could not have been in news today if the old procurement system is efficient in its performance. In the old model, there was hue and cry on the farmers’ plights. First of all farmers did not have any resource to understand, analyse the price trend of the outside world. He did not have any contact with the outside world. Taking this to their advantages, the Mandis would set arbitrary price for farmer’s produce eventually making them to suffer a loss. In older model, the price is dynamic even for higher quality produce. It is common in mandis that in the name of quality the farmers are cheated. The reduction in the value of produce if the quality is at minimum is more pronounced than the incentive that farmer receives for the very high quality produce. i.e. the good quality products are out purview of incentives. Some other factors sidelining the farmers were higher margins of the commission agents, under weighing of the produce, difficulty in collecting money after selling the produce, difficulty in transportation etc.

Re-engineered value chain

      The ITC retains what was good with the current system and put forth what could be used as a base to build on.

Price setting

      The price of a particular commodity is communicated to the Sanchalak, who is the head of the e-choupal. At the same time price varies from time to time. The role of commission agents now is that, they are responsible for feeding daily mandi prices to e-choupal. There is no compulsion on the part of the farmer that they have to sell their produce in that procurement center only. Farmers can avail the needed information free of cost and can refuse the sale.

Quality tests

      In the reengineered value chain, the important message to the farmer is that ‘come with good quality of the produce and we will pay more, poorer the quality, lesser will be the value of the produce’. This enhances the farmer’s plight by producing quality produce. Electronic machines are used for weighing, moisture meter for measuring moisture content. That too, these are performed right in front of the farmer

One time cash

      Older mandi system in India shows their ineffectiveness dealing with farmers. A farmer has to make repeated trips to the mandi to receive  cash for his produce. It involves more cost, wastage of time for farmers and more importantly he could not use the money for other purposes at right time when it is needed. In this value chain, the farmer is paid fully at one time. The sale to the ITC takes no more than a few hours and avoids multiple trips.

Professionalism

      The intermediaries and  buyers see the farmers as if they are going to render their own money. But reverse is true that the buyers, intermediaries are awaiting the chances to suck the farmers blood in terms of money. Farmers are treated with disrespect. In e-choupal, farmers are seen as real customers, that is what any business model need.

Cost saving

      In case of traditional mandis system, the total cost farmer incur is around Rs. 370 pr metric ton but in e-choupal the transportation cost of farmers initially from his purse is around Rs.120 per metric ton. But later on, that  too reimbursed to the farmer. There is no labour cost involved, no kachcha Adat and no handling losses, thereby saving around Rs.370 per metric ton.

This does not mean that ITC is doing the social service to farmers. They are also gaining, without which they could not have entered into the venture. ITC has several brands in areas such as food processing industries, paper, etc. For that they need inputs. Before e-choupal they paid 2.5% to 3% as commission to the commission agents, but after e-choupal they pay only 0.5% of the produce cost as commission to the Sanchalaks. Also the direct reimbursement of transport costs to the farmers is estimated to be half of what ITC used to pay the commission agents for transport to their factory. With the maintenance of relationship with farmers, ITC is ensured with the supply of the produce, thereby managing the risk. The company is ensured with the good quality of the produce directly from the farmers, which previously the intermediaries neglected it by manipulating the quality.

Social impact of e-choupal

      The information, e-choupal provides is free to all, anyone can avail it, thereby making the inaccessible village with a window to the world. It bridges the information gap, cheaper and smarter agricultural inputs, farmers as a source of innovation, contribute to better agriculture, higher quality of the produce and consequently better life-style, e-choupal deploys the technology information to reach out to a wide-base of the farmers. The service offered by e-choupal includes weather, agricultural best practices, customized quality solutions, intelligent product deployment keeping in view the soil type, crop and the appropriateness of input. It is also creating some of the intangible benefits such as expansion of freedom of choice of the people and enhancing their capabilities to shape the life. On the whole, it brings economic, social and political empowerment.

Key success factors

      There is a keen insight into agricultural value chain, rural India and the distribution business by the company. It has utilized at the right time when other mechanisms have failed. It builds in entrepreneurial capacity of the rural community through the way of training. It has tie-ups with local partners. Sanchalak is the one who well acquainted in the village, respects by peer farmers. That is the key factor in success. Also, the ITC model has retained the more important aspects of the existing system. Development of softwares in local language is also one of the factors, which determined the success.

Warna Wired villages project

      Vinay Kore, Chairman of Warna Co-operative society, initiated the Wired village project. Actually implemented in the year 1998. The financial assistance is shared in the ratio of 50:40:10 by GOI through National Informatics Center (NIC), Government of Maharashtra Warna co-operative society respectively. The manpower and maintenance cost is borne by the warna co-operative society itself (Sharma, V.P., 2000).

      The project area is a cluster of 70 villages consisting of 46 villages from Kolhapur and 24 villages from Sangli districts of Maharashtra. The aim of the project are to serve the information needs on different crop cultivation practices of major crops, sugarcane cultivation practices, pest and disease control, marketing information, dairy and sugarcane processing information etc. to the farmers right up to their village level.

      The computer booths are serving as information centres for the farmers in their villages, operated by the booth operator, who is the main linkage between the farmers and the information gateway center. Six information Technology Centres have been established to give training to staff, students and farmers of the village. An interaction with some farmers of wired village project areas showed that the information from wired computers is major source of getting information on crop technology. The farmers ranks wired computers as the best source in relation to information on crop technology followed by field officers and staff, radios TV, print media and company sales persons.

      The information is provided in Marathi language, information is reliable and also not costly. Not only big farmers, but also many small and marginal farmers realizing benefit from this. On an average around 20-25 farmers visit the computer booths every day for informative on crop cultivation.

      These two cases shows how well the information is useful to farmers in enhancing their livelihood and how the IT can help in transparency and eventually the rural transformation.

E readiness index 

The value of the e-Readiness index at the state level reflects the capacity of a state to participate in the networked economy vis-à-vis the other states .The states have been classified into six groups depending on their composite e-readiness index score.

The framework used in the study is based on

1. There are three important stakeholders to consider in the development and use of ICT: individuals, business and governments

2.The degree of usage of ICT by (and hence the impact of ICT on) the three stakeholders is linked to their degrees of readiness (or capability) to use and benefit from ICT

3. There is a general macroeconomic and regulatory environment for ICT in which the stakeholders play out their respective roles

The categorization of the states based on their level of e-readiness is presented

www.mit.gov.in/ereadiness/index.asp

Conclusion

      The State extension machinery failed in its totality. Its redemption is not easy unless a new system is applied. A new system talking in terms of ICT will hold a greater promise. The success stories clearly shows how the new information has helped in rural transformation. The extension system should follow the success model, which means the present extension system has to follow a paradigm shift for its service to show a pragmatic result. However, the ICT will not make the extension worker redundant (Sharma, V.P., 2000). Wherever there is a need for human interaction, the role extension worker is highly regarded. Cyber extension or ICT is not an alternative but a complement to extension worker to enhance their efficiency. The states that are least achievers, below average achievers should move upper in the ladder towards the leader category and utilize the available opportunity for bridging the inequality among the states.

      ICT with market led extension approach provides a life saving water to agricultural extension to survive. Simply, extension is at the verge of collapse, ICT has the potential to consolidate the sate extension machinery in providing the speedy and needy information to the client improving the farming community and thus the inclusive growth of the economy.

Bibliography

1. FAO ,1999 . Virtual Extension Research Communication ,                                http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/vercon/ Rome,FAO.
2. Pandey Tushar,e- Agriculture ,Yojana,August ,2006.
3. Ravichandran.S, Ravindra Babu.V and subbaiah. S.V, Prosperity Through ICT,Yojana,September 2006.
4. Sharma .V.P, Cyber Extension: The Extension Approach for New Millennium,MANAGE Cyberary,2000.

5.  www.mit.gov.in/ereadiness/index.asp