e-Agriculture, Winner 2012
Project Title : Soil based plant nutrient management information system for Kerala
Category : e-Agriculture
Producer : Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management – Kerala (IIITM-K)
Website : www.keralasoilfertility.net
The objective of the project is to have an extensive analysis of micro and secondary nutrients of soil and provide ICT enabled location specific, soil nutrient expert advice for the farmers.
The Soil Based Plant Nutrient Management Information system is an ICT enabled farmer centric soil nutrient management and advisory system for Kerala. It is a multi institutional farmer centric project initiated by the Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala. The soil information system has been conceptualized, designed, developed and implemented by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala during the year 2011. The project has been formally launched in the year 2011 for the entire state of Kerala. The objective of the project is to have an extensive analysis of micro and secondary nutrients of soil and provide ICT enabled location specific, soil nutrient expert advice for the farmers. The real time advice has been provided to farmers in the form of a health card and the follow up sessions in the form of SMS and voice based services. Web GIS enables the scientists to make a suitable analysis and enabling a faster decision making process related to soil fertility. The initiative achieved the goal of working towards higher agricultural productivity and profitability by balancing the usage of fertilizer application for each crop and by actively and bring down the cost of production. The innovative supply of information through GIS and SMS Voice has streamlined the efficient information flow reaching farmers within a short period of time.Project Title : e-Velanmai
Category : e-Agriculture
Producer : Dr. C. Karthikeyan (Nominee) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Website : www.evelanmai.com
The vision of the project is to empower farming communities in ICTenabled sustainable and profitable farming to achieve agriculturaland rural development at the micro and macro level.
E-Velanmai is an ICT based, demand driven and participatory advisory model in agriculture to empower farming communities by providing cost effective, high quality andtimely farm specific agro advisory services by multidisciplinary team of agriculturalscientists.The system aims at catering to the need of the farmers using ICT tools suchas mobile phones,cameras, computers, internet and video call. Through the supportof a field coordinator and volunteer the participating farmers are identified.The visionof the project is to empower farming communities in ICT enabled sustainable and profitable farming to achieve agricultural and rural development at the micro and macrolevel. The pilot was tested successfully from 2007 till 2011 within three different climatic scenarios of Tamil Nadu. To support the ustainability of the project, farmerspay a membership fee of Rs.50 to Rs.300 depending on their farm size. The initiativehas fulfilled the agricultural information needs and enhanced the income and livelihood options of farmers. The project has been up scaled in 26 areas of Tamil Nadusince April 2011 and has proved to be sustainable and scalable.Project Title : Nokia Life
Category : e-Agriculture
Producer : Nokia India Private Ltd.
Website : www.nokia.com/in-en/life/
Nokia Life has been built ground up for the emerging markets. It was first launched in India in July 2009 as ‘Nokia Life Tools’.
One of Nokia’s strategic goals is mobile connectivity for the “Next Billion” users andNokia Life is aligned with thosegoals.Nokia Life focuses on Livelihood and Life Improvement services delivering information vital to the daily lives of millions across emergingsocieties. Nokia Life delivers personalized and hyper-local information to users via theirmobile phones, using SMS as the delivery channel in their own language.This service isavailable in English and 11 Indian languages. Nokia Life has been built ground up forthe emerging markets. It was first launched in India in July 2009 as ‘Nokia Life Tools’ and the success from there led to expansion into China, Indonesia and Nigeria.Project Title : Engaging Farmers, Enriching Knowledge – agropedia – (Special Mention)
Category : e-Agriculture
Producer : Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Website : www.agropedia.net
Agropedia, launched in 2008, is an attempt to infuse semanticand social networking technologies into agriculture informationmanagement to eliminate problems.
Content availability and its intelligent organization continue to be a serious challengein Indian agriculture. This prevents providing meaningful, efficient advice and servicesto farmers and other stakeholders.Thus,Agropedia, launched in 2008, is an attempt toinfuse semantic and social networking technologies into agriculture information management to eliminate those problems. The project is primarily aimed to develop aknowledge management and sharing platform for Indian agricultural communities withthe vision to develop agricultural content in local languages and to make it availablewithin a digital format for the benefit of all farmers, agricultural universities and institutes. The mission is to support the agricultural community by using the knowledgeand information available onAgropedia and disseminate it in the form of agro advisoriespowered by mobile technology. The project further aims at improving transparencyabout the latest research innovations within the scientific community to enhance agricultural productivity for the good of all.