ICT and agriculture

Abstract

A felt need of farmers is timely availability of information on technology, monsoon behaviour and market opportunities. Regular extension services usually do not reach the farmer at the right time and place. Modern information and communication technology (ICT) allows new possibilities to overcome the information gap from which rural households , farmers, fisherfolk and women suffer. Recognising the potential of new technologies and in order to ensure that information transfer through ICT is done in a scientific manner, the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) organised a Dialogue on ''Reaching the Unreached: Information Technology'' in 1991 at Chennai [1]. This was the beginning of our efforts to bring in ICT in the area of production and post-harvest management particularly for excluded sections of the population, the rural poor, farm men and women, and fisherfolk. As M. S. Swaminathan wrote in 1993,