E-agri information centres

We applaud the government decision to expand e-Krishi (e-agriculture) services in rural areas to disseminate agricultural information among farmers. Under the InfoSarker project the government has chosen 254 farmers' associations to turn them into ICT-driven Agriculture Information and Communication Centres (AICCs). Members of these centres will work as 'smart farmers' who will provide agricultural information to their fellows.  This initiative will definitely boost our agricultural output by helping farmers employ IT applications and services suited for firm and wider agricultural use. 

The agriculture sector is increasingly becoming knowledge-intensive where farmers require more information to make complex decisions on their land use, selection of the crops, flexibility in the choice of markets for their produce and other necessary decisions that impact their lives. Using ICT in innovative ways through ICT-enabled services helps in disseminating timely information and agricultural advisories to improve farmers' capacity and empower them with contemporary farming technologies and techniques. 

With these new 254 centres the number of AICC has risen to 499. Still we need to set up more such centres to cover the whole agricultural landscape, particularly the remote areas. We should also focus on ICT innovations like developing agri-apps, SMS, weather alert, cloud computing, tracking services and so on. The government and private ICT solution providers need to invest more in making these ICT tools affordable to poor farmers.