Original Title : Hortnet
Media Format : Internet
Website : http://hortnet.ap.nic.in
Producer : Dept of Horticulture , Govt of India
Language : English
Location : Andhra Pradesh, INDIA
Contact : sekhar@nic.in

Hortnet is an initiative taken by Department of Horticulture, Govt of India. It is an online workflow automation system for the benefit the farmers to ensure an end–to-end holistic approach covering production, post harvest management, processing and marketing to assure appropriate returns to growers /producers. National Horticulture Mission has been launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector through an area based regionally differentiated strategies. The scheme is fully funded by the Government. The main objective of this initiative is to bring in efficiency and transparency in managing the farmer beneficiary welfare schemes of the Government and to provide one stop non-stop digital services to the farmers.

The Jury noted with appreciation that Hortnet is the first cost effective solution for the entire workflow automation to render services to the farmers by Government Departments. Also the solution is user friendly and interactive. The Jury also noted that for this solution- internet, Mobile, GIS, GPRS and GPS technologies have been harnessed in a cost-effective manner,to reach the un-reached and to ensure transparency.

Original Title : National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity
Media Format : Internet / Offline
Website : http://www.mssrf-nva.org
Producer : M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
Language : Tamil, Marathi, Odiya, Malayalam & English
Location : Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Contact : senthil@mssrf.res.in

This project has been incepted by M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). This project has adopted pro-poor, pro-nature and pro-women approach to ensure that the unreached communities can access real-time information and knowledge to overcome risks in agriculture,animal husbandry and fisheries.The project was developed with content in local languages in the computer system placed at the Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs). MSSRF has established 13 Village Resource Centres (VRCs) and these are 70 VKCs linked to these VRCs. These are distributed in the selected 70 villages in eight Districts in Tamil Nadu, four Districts in Maharashtra and one district each in Odisha and Kerala. These VKCs are connected to the VRCs at the District level managed by MSSRF to provide information and knowledge support services by networking with various institutions. With the advent of ICTs, the project adopted satellite and internet based video-conference between rural community and the experts, audio-conference using common user group WLL telephones. In the last two years, mobile phones are also used for dissemination of need based and demand driven information to the rural community. The project follows a three tier model of the interconnection between MSSRF National centre to the VRC at the District levels and further to the VKCs in the villages.

The jury noted that the project has a strong community model where rural community ownership has been ensured right from the beginning. MSSRF conducts a “Basic Computer Course” of three months duration for the rural community. This course is attended by women, men, youth and students in the village. The computer literacy course has helped the rural community to access the computer and use the contents available in the system. The VRC-VKC concept has received international acclaim and won accolades. Overall, 50,748 users have accessed 70 VKCs in five states for information on agriculture, livestock, weather forecasts, market prices, educational information, health, employment, civic services and Govt. entitlements. Around 2445 farmers from 45 villages have benefited from the video-conferencing interaction programme with the experts to get instant solutions to their problems. And 35000 farmers are receiving audio advisories and helpline services through mobile phones for agriculture and livestock management and health tips, educational announcements and Government schemes in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Maharashtra States.

Original Title : Agricultural Online Market in Bangladesh
Media Format : Internet
Website : http://www.krishimarket.com
Producer : krishimarket.com
Language : Bangla
Location : Dhaka, BANGLADESH
Contact : info@krishimarket.com

Krishi Market is a Internet online market place that enables users to introduce their agro based products. Anyone who produces agro based products can easily join and can start introducing their products by posting and even uploading images to promote it to consumer, supplier or even export to world market avoiding the middle merchants. It’s a community of producers, consumers, suppliers, retailers, chain shoppers and foreign buyers to exchange their needs and demands; easily & friendly.With this agricultural portal, farmers are able to post information about their production with expected price, description, photo, their name, address and mobile number to attract the online buyers. Registering on the Portal is free of cost and hence any user can join by filling basic information and then start introducing products.

The jury noted that Bangladesh being a country where more than twothird of the population work in agriculture, solutions like krishimarket. com can facilitate creation of new channels for increasing the reach of farmers to untouched markets. This is especially relevant because, in the current offline scenario, a farmer does not get the best price against his produced items by the middlemen or merchants. It is expected that as more people join, there would be more products to offer and sell and eventually it would become a complete agro products market. The site caters to producers of all sizes – individuals can easily sells their products to their community and, in the large scale, the supplier and the companies attract online foreign buyers and exports the goods as well.

Original Title : Web Enabled Access of Agricultural Information through PC and Mobile Devices
Media Format : Internet / PC / Mobile
Website : http://www.bau-eagriculture.com
Producer : Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Kolkata
Language : 7 Languages. (Hindi, Santhali, Mundari, Kuduk, Ho, Nagpuri & English)
Location : West Bengal, INDIA
Contact : ritesh.mukherjee@cdac.in

This project, launched by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Kolkata, aims at dissemination of information pertaining to Agriculture, Livestock & Forestry in local languages. Many modes of interactive communication are used with facility to use SMS & IVRS technologies for interactive and non-interactive dissemination of agricultural information in the form of text or audio. The long term vision is to convert traditional rural society into modern knowledge society resulting into enhanced agricultural productivity. The project is sponsored by DIT Govt of India under ‘eAgrien’ umbrella initiative. The content is being developed on the areas of agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry in seven languages namely Hindi, Santhali, Mundari, Kuduk, Ho, Nagpuri & English. The system disseminates agricultural information to farmers, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, NGOs of Jharkhand and Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi.

The jury noted that the increasing number of techniques in agricultural production system and large technical information are to complex to be imbibed by the field extension functionaries and transfer them to the farmers. There are additional challenges like outbreak of pest and diseases, weather-forecast and other such situations when the messages need to be transferred to the farmers at the earliest. One of the major features of this product is availability of the content in local languages, which will help to cater the need of the target audience with better usability. This project utilizes the technological convergence to address the large gap in disseminating agriculture information through LAN, WLAN, Internet and Mobile phone. The solution is designed to provide vernacular web enabled interactive access, offline content delivery using LCMS, guided and unguided SMS in push as well as pull mode & IVRS technologies for interactive and non-interactive dissemination of agricultural information.