Technology is slowly but steadily making a humble entry into the Indian farms. From agri-marketing software to radio frequency tags, the agri-technologies market is buzzing with action.
While National Institute of Agricultural Marketing has drawn up a blueprint for an integrated deployment of ICT at every points in the chain, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has developed software for collecting supply and price data from markets and then processing them into ready information over radio, televisions or bulletin boards.
Over 10,000 community learning and information centres at village level to render services to 10 million farm families are being planned in Maharashtra under a new project, Maha-Agrinet.
On the anvil are interactive voice recorded system (IVRS) for ruling market prices with the push of the button, query redressal system (QRS), content generation and service management, megaweb portal and sub-portals, multi-media procurement systems.
Three national multi commodity exchanges and some local commodity exchanges have adopted on-line trading and are planning to have online links with various spot markets. Recently the National Spot Exchange for Agricultural Produce (NSEAP) and the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) launched the first ever Commodity Suchana Kendra TM in Sirsa market in Haryana.
The nodal agri marketing agency in the public sector, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has begun with an humble attempt by computerising its 5000 godowns and linking them with the headquarters. The corporation is going ahead with video conferencing facilities through National Informatic Centres between the headquarters and field offices. A helpline has been launched jointly with IIT Kanpur to provide farmers toll free telephone with the help of IIT, Kanpur whereby the farmers can have specific information on the grain procurement operations.
India, however, is yet nowhere close to the adoption levels of other developing countries like Malaysia and South Korea.Consider Malaysia for instance. Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) portal along with Supply Demand Virtual Information System (SDVI) connect the production and processing levels to the market centres. FamaXchange acts as one-stop marketing information centre for food and agriculture sector. SDVI acts as end-to-end solution with on-line data application process (OLAP). Based on statistical analysis system (SAS), it forms a backbone for data collection, processing and analysis. It also incorporates geographical information system (GIS).
FamaXchange provides price updates, while SDVI presents expected demand situation, early warning system relating to weather, expected supply, balance of trade and other related analysis.
Boasting of a computer penetration of 77.8 % and internet penetration of 86%, South Korea is working on programmes to improve infrastructure.
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