Indian Agriculture and Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Contents: 1. Introduction/M. Hilaria Soundari. 2. Village knowledge Centres (VKCs) and open/distance learning/K. Balasubramanian. 3. ICT and sustainable agriculture development/R. Meenakshi and J. Gayathri. 4. Social transformation through ICT/A. Thomas and M.A. Sudhir.  5. Interactive multimedia and farm women/Ramasubramanian M, Sujhi G, Rathakrishnan T and Anandaraja N. 6. Digitalization of indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) for farming community/Suganthi N.S., Poonthenmozhi S, Rathakrishnana. T, Anandaraja N and Ramasubramanian M. 7. Village knowledge centres (VKCs) and agricultural productivity/Samwel Kakuko Lopoyetum, K. Rakes Sarma and Rangamlian Aimol. 8. Web-education and farmers: an experimental study/P. Mooventhan and H. Philip. 9. Knowledge Mission 2007 and rural farm women/A. Thomas William and G. Albin Joseph. 10. Land use pattern in Tamil Nadu/P. Mary Elizabeth. 11. Computerization and E-Governance in Diary co-operative marketing organizations/Samwel Kakuko Lopoyetum. Appendix. National policy for farmers 2007. Index.
       
"Farming is both a way of life and the Principal means of livelihood for 65 percent of India's population of 110 crore. In spite of huge government machinery, Indian farmers still suffer from the absence of right information at the required time. The farmers require timely information on weather conditions, sowing time, availability of inputs including credit, expert advice on maintaining the crop in healthy condition, information on markets and other areas of interest to them and their families. In spite of the best efforts and expenditure, the conventional apparatus has not been able to deliver the goods satisfactorily. Herein lies the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which can efficiently address the concerns of farmers stationed even at remote locations of the country. Low literacy levels, cost of computers, poor communications infrastructure makes it impossible for individual farmers, particularly small farmers, to directly adopt ICT. This calls for institutional efforts to provide ICT based services to farmers.

The present volume contains 11 well researched papers by scholars in the field which provide deep insights into the various dimensions of the application of ICT in agriculture." (jacket)