E-Agricultural for Better Yield

society of business and management , 2021

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has developed an e-agriculture plan in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union to assist countries in using information and communication technologies to support rural development. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), which are mostly focused on agriculture, can assist enhance agricultural growth by enhancing farmers' access to essential information, allowing them to make the best decisions and manage their resources responsibly. In this era of climate change, when extreme weather occurrences are the norm, e-agriculture can provide services such as weather forecasts and disaster alerts that can assist farmers in making informed decisions. Agriculture has evolved into a knowledge-intensive industry, and having access to the appropriate information at the right time can make all the difference in a smallholder farmer's livelihood. Governments can supply rural communities with weather, market pricing, and insurance information that adds to their livelihoods with the correct kind of ICT services. Many of the challenges in the agricultural sector can be solved by having access to the correct information. Disaster planning and management, including measures like wise water management, watershed upkeep, and reliable meteorological information, can go a long way toward mitigating the effects of weather and climate change. Developed countries are already implementing a variety of agricultural technologies. Smallholder farmers in underdeveloped nations benefit from e-agriculture because it makes technology more accessible and affordable. Simple technology, such as soil health analysis, can assist a farmer in determining the sort of fertilizer to use in his land. Another excellent idea is to connect farmers with markets by providing market information and assisting them in receiving electronic payments.Initiatives like E-Choupal have proved the power of bringing communities together in India, A strategic approach to integrating the growth and reach of ICTs in other industries such as banking, insurance, and mobile technologies for agriculture is essential for identifying crucial services and solutions and ensuring their long-term viability.This research investigates the possible contribution of e-agriculture to the development of rural areas and the improvement of farmers' livelihoods.

ICT Update, 2016

Young innovators in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific region, have recognised the need for creative solutions to raise agricultural productivity and the huge prospective market for their ICT-enabled services in agriculture. Although they still face many challenges, their products have the potential to transform agricultural value chains in developing countries. Young innovators often have a limited understanding of the agriculture sector, specifically the functioning of value chains and the diversity of stakeholders. Contents Youth e-agriculture entrepreneurship 2 GUEST EDITOR Home-grown ICT solutions in agriculture come from young entrepreneurs Heike Baumüller and Ken Lohento 5 INTERVIEW 'Farms could become the offices of the future' Michael Oluwagbemi 6 Building a healthy ecosystem for ICT entrepreneurs Barni Qaasim 8 Enabling user-inclusive innovation in African agriculture Ruth Brännvall 10 Balancing entrepreneurial values with social impact

Youth in Agriculture and Rural Development. Narayana Gowda, K., Nataraju, M.S., and Veerabhadraiah, V., (Eds)., 2013

The 21st century has been named by some as the ‘Age of Information’. Truly, if we look around our self or ponder over our activities, we will find that in whatever we do, how best we do it depends upon how well we are informed. But when that's the reality and most of the fields has been working on it, why not agriculture? Caught in the whirlwind of changing times, the farmers of the developing countries are moving in directions they are clueless about. The young people are not anymore interested to join farming or take up agriculture as a career option and neither are their parents. But who is to be blamed for this? Is it the mindset of the youth or the non-remunerative agricultural practices or the extension system not taking care of youth? Every problem come with its own solutions - all we need to do is find it and work accordingly. In this case there are two answers complementing each other – the Youth and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In one hand, the youth can best employ ICTs in agriculture whereas; the ICTs can make agriculture ‘modern’ and attract them towards it. For this, we don't need tech-savvy youth but the ones with ability to think out-of-the box. This synergy should be utilized properly and a symbiotic relationship should be established to reap its optimum benefits. But all said and done, technology is ultimately something that man defines and not the other way round.

Apart from natural mineral resources, another important sector to the economy of Nigeria as a country is Agriculture. Nigerian Agricultural sector is one of the major backbones of the national income. Also, majority of her citizens earns their living from Agriculture. These include agronomy, horticulture, forestry, aquaculture, animal husbandry, livestock science, veterinary medicine, and food processing etc. Electronic Agriculture is an area focusing on the development of agricultural and rural improvement through enhanced information and communication methods. It plays a central role in facilitating the exposure of farmers to a variety of information. In view of the importance of agriculture to the society, it became paramount to develop different computer software packages to enhance the knowledge of the farmers and empower the rural community by fostering participatory communications.

2014

This report offers a detailed case study of an initiative that seeks to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to attract Kenyan youth to agriculture. Agriculture in Kenya has not been looked at as a career prospect by the Kenyan youth, who consider it as a backward activity best left to the unfortunate; to them it is as a last-resort venture. There is also a general lack of efforts to encourage Kenyan youth to embrace agriculture and farming activities as a profitable venture, especially using the youth's existing attraction to using ICTs, and targeting their innovative capabilities and proclivity for entrepreneurship. This study, carried out between 20 th and 22

International Journal of Advance and Applied Research, 2023

In today’s scenario famers need to be update for getting good quality production as well as better yield of the product. E-agriculture is the way that helps farmers to achieve the same. Eagriculture is formed with information and communication technology in agriculture (ICT in agriculture) to provide farmers with better and more timely agricultural information services. The main purpose of ICT is to disseminate information from one point to another point. E-agriculture (ICT) involves modern technologies like the use of smartphones and computers for mobile Apps, websites, and many things available for agricultural development. Its primary focus on agriculture is the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation, and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the rural domain.ICT or e-agriculture interventions are very useful around the world to help agriculturists improve their livelihoods through increased agricultural productivity and income with minimum risk. The role of ICT in agriculture is to provide agricultural extension & advisory services, Enhance market access, capacity building and empowerment, awareness about regularity and policies, disaster management, etc. There are many services like mkisan portal, e-choupal, kisan call centre, ekrishi, gramingyankendra, etc. available to the farmers providing enhanced agricultural information and services to them

An agriculture information dissemination system (IDS) was done in India to improve the crop productivity , increase profitability efficiency of agriculture input and reducing the cost of production (Reddy and Ankaiah, 2005). In the mean time Inklaar et al. (2005) concluded that the productivity in US from the year 1995 onwards accelerated due to large focus largely on the impact of ICT. The growth of ICT in developing countries offers a new technology and new opportunities for accessing information in poor countries (Aker, 2010). According to research done by Silva and Ratnadiwakara (2008) concluded that the information and communication technologies (ICT) helped in reducing transaction costs in agriculture by enabling timely and affordable communication but according to Munyua et al. (2008) the ICT had steadily grown in Africa but due to weak policies over there the capacity are among the biggest obstacles to wider use. In recent times, traceability has emerged as a new index of quality and basis for trade in agricultural products (Opara, 2002). Traceability has become a key word in the global food industry due to increased incidents of food contamination. ICT does allow a more rapid and efficient response to food safety problems, enabling quick identification of problem sources and their location in the supply chain (Setboonsarng et al., 2009). MATERIALS AND METHODS The research project was minutely piloted in ward no 1 of Kalimati VDC of Sindhuli district, first of all the base line survey was done. The base line included the production of agro-product, feasible market study and soil sample analysis. Agriculture has the two phases they are pre harvest and post harvest. Pre-harvest Agriculture Activities In the pre harvest agriculture the soil sample analysis was done form 22 different location of project site with aid of NARC. Based on the NARC recommendation the information of chemical fertilizer added was integrated to data base similarly four agriculture information centers (AIC) were also established in the project site. Farmer's information is collected and uploaded to database via AIC. Each farmer's record in pre-harvesting phase is tracked: which farmer has planted what, when etc for the traceability. Based upon that information, farmers will get automated alert SMS message about the disease that can occur in that crop, way to solve it etc. Series of these alert messages can help to grow healthy crops in the pre-harvesting stage. Apart from these if any problems gets arise then the problems were collected at the information centers and the online. Similarly to motivate farmers to commercial farming, teach about IPM (integrated Pest Management system), agriculture video documentaries were periodically screened. Postharvest Agriculture Activities After the harvest, all the farmers' record is again kept in the database. Which person has what to sell, what is his/her expected price, how long he/she wants to advertise for his/her product. On the other side in the major market areas, traders will put their demands. Like trader A is seeking what product, how much can he give (market rate), how much he can buy. Now since both the information is now in the database. SMS training and registration Firstly SMS training was given to the farmers in the mass, around 300 farmers were in the training. A special roman Nepali coding was done for some of the specific agro commodities like aalu for potato, pyaaj for onion etc. ICT based agriculture (E-Agriculture) is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically , e-Agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and information communication technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. The research was minutely piloted in ward no 1 of Ka-limati VDC of Sindhuli District. Farmers lack information and aren't able to come out of subsistence farming only because of the information gap and lack of awareness of the technology. The problems such as, farmers do not have sufficient agricultural skills to turn seed to seedlings and grow as a healthy plant, the agricultural pattern in rural areas is still traditional, after they harvest and there is exploitation by middle-traders degrading real farmers. An android version of mobile application was developed to mitigate these problems. Soil samples from 22 different sites of the target project area and tested the collected soil samples at NARC. This information was used in exploring the variety of crops that can be grown in that village. Farmers as well as the traders could easily input the price of agro commodities via android application. Potato is the major cash crop grown in the research site. The android application is had connected 355 farmers and 110 traders in research site and the farmers are trading to those whose price value gets matched or nearby their values.

2018

Using evidence derived from developing country case studies and a political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) analysis, this chapter looks at how ICT4Ag is working across developing economies. Results from this chapter show that there is much potential for investors and entrepreneurs to take advantage of enabling environments created by governments and related partners to invest in the ICT4Ag sector, across the developing world.

2014

This report offers a detailed case study of an initiative that seeks to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to attract Kenyan youth to agriculture. Agriculture in Kenya has not been looked at as a career prospect by the Kenyan youth, who consider it as a backward activity best left to the unfortunate; to them it is as a last-resort venture. There is also a general lack of efforts to encourage Kenyan youth to embrace agriculture and farming activities as a profitable venture, especially using the youth's existing attraction to using ICTs, and targeting their innovative capabilities and proclivity for entrepreneurship. This study, carried out between 20 th and 22 nd May, 2014 focuses on one such effort, the Gakawa Secondary School 'e-Gardens' project in Nyeri County, Kenya, funded by Sustainable Environment and Agriculture Network International (SEANET), a Kenyan Non-Governmental Organization (N.G.O.). The study examined ICTs in use at the study site, impact and effectiveness of this usage, challenges faced by the study population and possible interventions to these challenges. A survey research design was adopted for the study, relying on questionnaires, oral interviews and site visits as data collection tools. The results show that the e-Gardens model is a good example of an innovative approach to getting youth into agriculture. There is minimal literature available for this topic as it is a relatively new approach and largely experimental in Kenya and Africa in general, and more studies need to be conducted in other locations. This paper is limited by its descriptive and not predictive nature, and is not based on a statistically representative sample of the population.

2018

Agriculture sector is not very popular among youth although it accounts for roughly one-third of global gross-domestic product (World Bank, 2008) which means it has a lot of potentials to be discovered for poverty eradication. A number of factors shaped the opinion of young people over this sector such as having relatively limited career options due to the lack of support from the government and discriminatory policies that prioritize urban development, not to mention the perception and profile of agriculture as ‘dirty laboring work’ and low-income career (Lohento & Ajilore, 2015). It created a situation where the number of farmers is declining while the average age of people working in agriculture slowly climbs up. On the other hand, the number of world population keeps on growing and therefore the global economy should be able to make sure that in 2050, a projected of 9.3 billion people can have a decent living. Next to the age demographics concern, a heap of challenges in the agr...

2017

In the process of agricultural extension and information dissemination, ICTs (Information and Communication Technology) has a unique potential to empower people their development. In India, the current agrarian sector suffers from depletion growth, directly leading to food security and rural development concerns. Several reasons can be highlighted for that, such as a global lack of institutional support, vulnerability of the farming class towards globalization exposure, rural infrastructure constraints, poor supply chain efficiencies etc. In such a context, the Indian agricultural extension systems (AES) are playing a fundamental role in leveraging the rural socio-economic situation, by catalysing agricultural efficiency and improving livelihoods and incomes of rural communities. However, AES strategies are judged inappropriate to effectively reach and empower rural people in the process of diffusion of information and technology. The information is deemed inappropriate, outdated an...

Agriculture is a gigantic sector of the Indian economy as its share to gross domestic product (GDP) is almost 17 per cent. Over 60 per cent of the population adopts agriculture as main occupation. In spite of a large of Indian economy, agriculture is lagging behind many aspects and characterised by poor connectivity and disintegration of market, unreliable and delayed information to the farmers, small land holdings, non adoption or less adoption of improved technology and so on. It has become indispensable to explore various ways to keep our farmers updated about modern technologies and relevant information. The development and timely dissemination of better personalized technologies specific to different agro-climatic conditions, size of land holding, soil type, type of crops and related pests/diseases is the real issue to brazen out ahead for the agricultural scientists/experts. The timely availability of right information and its proper utilisation is indispensable for agriculture. ICT based initiatives can be taken for propagation of information, transfer of technology, procurement of inputs and selling of outputs in a way so that farmers can be benefitted. The timely information and practical solutions of the agricultural problems helps the farmers to adopt good agricultural practices, make better choices of inputs and to plan the cultivation properly.

Agriculture plays a vital role in food production, resource utilization, and employment but faces challenges from population growth, climate change, and food shortages. The development of information technology has significantly contributed to the industry's development, and modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, computer vision, and machine learning have revolutionized agricultural practices.

2017

Agriculture is an alluring business which should be embraced with the latest technology. This can be done in almost all farming activities. It will reduce labour requirements and ensure safety of humans in otherwise dangerous activities. This paper discusses some applications of information and communication technology in agriculture. These applications will help in rural development by changing the economic status of rural people. Some specific application areas are discussed. These are land management, animal management, crop management, plant disease detection and irrigation management. The study explores some areas where further development and applications are needed especially in South Africa. It is concluded that adaptation of sophisticated information and communication technologies in agriculture can be advantageous in enhancing food security in South Africa, Africa and the world at large. The decrease in labour in many areas of agriculture can be substituted with relevant technologies. The paper is concluded with the list of further research areas in the use of ICT in agriculture especially in South Africa.