Nabard in talks with TCS, DAIICT to offer mobile applications for farmers

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In a first of its kind initiative, Gujarat region office of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is looking for a partnership with IT major, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and some of the academic institutions for disseminating agricultural information.

The agri bank intends to make available such information including soil report, weather details and other crop-related intelligence to farmers in Gujarat through a mobile-based application.

TCS will be assigned a task of developing an IT platform for the application, which would provide farmers almost real-time information on soil moisture and any likely weather extremities in the region at least 24 hours in advance.

Nabard's Gujarat region office is also in talks with academic institutions like Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) and Dantiwada Agricultural University for the support on the application of information communication technology (ICT) in state's agriculture sector. Financial details for the project are being worked out.

"We intend to develop a mobile application for farmers that would provide individual farm level information on soil, crop and weather conditions. Talks are in progress with TCS, DAIICT and Dantiwada Agriculture University to develop a model for the application. We will roll out this model through our Farmers' Clubs (FCs) across the state," said HR Dave, chief general manager, Gujarat Region - Nabard.

Nabard has about 5,000 FCs in the state, which is expected to touch 6000 by the current financial year end. FC is an informal forum of farmers in villages.

Earlier in 2010, Nabard had rolled out an SMS-based information dissemination service in association with Reuters Market Light (RML). The service was aimed at providing information on weather, crops, market prices and other agricultural news to the farmers in state. However, the latest initiative is believed to be different from the one rolled out through RML.

"Farmers would be able to get almost real-time information about their soil, crop related queries as well as weather forecast in advance. They would simply require to send an SMS through their handset and experts will revert back to them. We are also trying to make it voice-based for those facing difficulty in writing or reading messages. Gujarati language option can also be made available," he said.

While TCS would develop an IT platform for the mobile application, DAIICT would be assigned the task of monitoring of the application. DAIICT, an educational initiative of Reliance ADAG, offers a masters programme on ICT in agriculture and rural development.

"DAIICT's involvement would bring expertise to roll out this initiative among farmers in Gujarat. Also, Dantiwada University would provide back up support to the programme at it has rich database on agriculture history of the state and can act as an instrument to bridge the farm-level issues with IT experts," informed Dave, who recently took charge as CGM at Gujarat RO.