e-Village Project: An Innovative e-Agriculture Initiative for Hill Agriculture Development Dr. R.

Saravanan Principal Investigator, e-Arik & e-Kiosk Projects Co-Investigator, Model e-Village Project Associate Professor (Communication) & In-Charge, School of Social Sciences College of Post Graduate Studies Central Agricultural University Umiam, Barapani, Meghalaya, India [email protected] Dr. C. Kathiresan Project Manager, InDG Project & Principal Investigator, Model e-Village Project Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Hyderabad, India [email protected] and Mrs. Supriya Devi Research Fellow, Model e-Village Project College of Horticulture and Forestry Central Agricultural University Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh

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Abstract Indias North-East is predominantly hill agriculture based and endowed with rich natural resources for the development. The average rainfall in the region is the highest in the country. However, low agricultural productivity and food in-security; add the problem of the North- East India. The non-income poverty in terms of inadequate information on advanced farm technologies, market intelligence and rural development schemes produces the income poverty in the region. The limited technical manpower, lack of transport and communication facilities, inadequate financial support to the technology transfer and less infrastructure facility creates huge technological gap among rural tribal farming community. Considering the disappointing agricultural and rural development scenario and potential of ICTs, the Central Agricultural University (CAU), College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad is pilot testing Model e-Village Project, an innovative e-Governance initiative for the agricultural and rural development. The Model e-Village project implemented in the selected ten remote tribal villages of East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh State and provides regular e-awareness and e-literacy programmes and also experimenting local need based IT applications in the area of agriculture and allied sectors. The e-Village project activities includes; Village Awareness Meetings and Identification of e-Villages, Villagers Information Needs Assessment, ICT Capacity Building Workshop for Facilitators, facilitating Online and Offline Access to the Agricultural Resources by the tribal farmers, Convergence of University Education, Research and Extension Programmes with e-Village Centre, Advanced Farm Technology Demonstrations by the e-Village Project Fellows, KVK Extension Activities at the e-Village Centres, Village Adoption Scheme of the Central Agricultural University, Rural Horticultural Work Experience Programme (RHWE), Environmental Awareness Programmes, Computer Education and e-Literacy, Multimedia CDs, National Seminar & Exposure Visits and TVDTH: Awareness, Education & Entertainment. Field experiences shows that farmers are very keen to get agricultural related information from the e-Village centre. However, they feel that along with e-Resources, field level demonstrations are must to understand advanced farm technologies. Even though, they value agriculture information is important for livelihood generation, but unwilling to pay even a nominal fee. Because, the feel that providing agricultural information is a public good and welfare activity of government institutions. But, interestingly, nine out of ten e-Village centres are hosted at the infrastructure (house & furniture, electricity connection) provided by the community at the free of cost. Even, some of the e-Village centres farmers are willing to share expenditure on consumables (printer cartridge, paper etc.). Computer training to the village children are very much appreciated by the villagers. The community members voluntarily participated in large numbers in all the e-Village programmes. Considering, inadequate local need based content, language problem, inadequate ICT infrastructure (telephone, internet), road and other communication facilities in Arunachal Pradesh, integrating conventional extension approaches with ICTs (e-Village centres) emerged as a appropriate mechanism for agriculture and rural development in remote and backward rural areas.

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Introduction Indias North-East is endowed with rich natural resources for the development. The average rainfall in the region is the highest in the country. However, the region has exhibited most backwardness in most important indicators of human development. The non-income poverty in terms of inadequate information on advanced farm technologies, market intelligence and rural development schemes produces the income poverty in the region. The limited technical manpower, lack of transport and communication facilities, limited financial support to the technology transfer and less infrastructure facility creates huge technological gap among rural tribal farming community. Further, difficult terrain, mountainous periphery and frequent natural disasters hinder the development of the region. Due to non-availability of improved technological information to the tribal farmers, agriculture exhibits low unstable productivity, which makes food insecurity problem and also poses serious developmental question to the policy makers. Among eight north-east states, the Arunachal Pradesh state is having lowest agricultural productivity and exhibited least performance in almost all human development indicators. The Connectivity remains a major obstacle for the development. It is expected that application of new ICT tools play a major role in the development of the region. However, the e-readiness assessment report of Government of India indicated that all the eight states of the North-East India categorized under below average and least achievers category. The report also recommends increasing the awareness of potential benefits of ICTs in rural development. Considering the existing scenario and potential of ICTs, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad and the Central Agricultural University (CAU), College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh jointly implemented a research project entitled Creating Model e-Villages in North-East India, an innovative e-Governance initiatives for the agricultural and rural development, since 2008. The Model e-Village project implemented in the selected ten remote tribal villages with the main objective of creating the computer infrastructure in the remote tribal villages and to provide regular e-awareness and e-literacy programmes and also to experiment local need based IT applications in the area of agriculture, health, education, governance and other areas (www.modelevillage.in). (Figure 1. e-Village Logo) Project Methodology
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The e-Village project implemented in the selected 10 remote tribal villages in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh State, North- East India. The selected villages are located at the center of rural area, so that people from surrounding villages will have an access to the IT infrastructure. One project facilitator was selected from the same or near by village to act as a facilitator and trainer in the village IT centre. The project facilitator and group of selected village council members are responsible for conducting regular e-awareness and eliteracy programmes. Regular computer training classes were conducted to the children, village youth and others. The project research fellows and facilitators are experimenting local need based IT applications in the area of agriculture, health, education, governance and other areas. (Figure 4. Prof. S.N. Puri, Vice-Chancelor, CAU, Inagurating e-Village Centre at Berung Village, Arunachal Pradesh State) Project Activities- Part I a. Village Awareness Meetings and Identification of e-Villages: During July 2008 to September 2008, village level ICT awareness meetings and focussed group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to identify suitable villages to host ten eVillage centres in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. b. Villagers Information Needs Assessment: After the identification of the villages, villagers information needs on agriculture, education, health, governance etc., were identified through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRS) methods, group discussions and semi-structured interview schedules. (Figure 2. Farmers Information Needs Assessment Survey) c. ICT Capacity Building Workshop for Facilitators: Twenty number of e-Village and e-Arik project staff participated in the six day workshop on ICTs for e-Village Knowledge Facilitators. Technical sessions on e-Village project-backround, objectives, working mechanism, basics and advances of IT, internet and its tools, InDG web portal and national level web portal initiatives for the agricultural and rural development, use of Television and radio in the farm technology transfer, application and entrepreneurial aspects of IT and they also visited the e-Arik village knowledge centre, Yagrung village of East Siang District of the Arunachal Pradesh State. During the workshop, Training Manual on Fundamentals of IT for Knowledge Centre Operators, a practical

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manual published by the India development gateway (InDG) initiative of the C-DAC, Hyderabad has been distributed to the participants. (Figure 3. Workshop for ICT facilitators) Project Activities- Part II e-Agriculture Activities of the e-Village Project: 1. Online and Offline Access to the Agricultural Resources: The e-Village centres are equipped with wireless internet connectivity for online access of agricultural and rural development related resources. However, considering frequent power failure and weak signal for internet connectivity, number of offline resourses is made available at the centres. Especially, InDG webportal (www.indg.in) contents are made available to the villagers through e-Village centres. 2. Convergence of University Education, Research and Extension Programmes with eVillage Centre: As directed by the Prof. Dr. S. N. Puri, Vice-Chancellor of the Central Agricultural University, all the research and extension activities of the College of Horticulture and Forestry and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pasighat are carried out at the ten e-Village centres. Further, final year B.Sc (Horticulture) students internship (Rural Horticultural Work Experience) Programme also conducted at the e-Village centres. As per suggestions of the Vice-Chancellor of Central Agricultural University (CAU), farm demonstrations, Scientistfarmers interactions, Kissan mela and awareness programmes were conducted at the eVillage centres. (Figure 5. Prof. S.N. Puri, announcing Integration of University Education, Research and Extension Programmes with e-Village Centre) 3. Advanced Farm Technology Demonstrations by the e-Village Project Fellows: Advanced farm technology demonstration on rice and khasi mandarin cultivation, organic farming, mushroom cultivation and processing & post harvest aspects were demonstrated to the tribal farmers using e-Village multimedia facilities. (Figure 8. Farmers at Advanced Farm Technology Demonstrations in the e-Village Centre) 4. KVK Extension Activities at the e-Village Centres: The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, CHF, CAU, Pasighat also adopted all ten villages having e-Village centres for conducting vocational training, front line demonstrations and on-farm

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research. The KVK uses resources and infrastructure of e-Village centres to impart effective training to the rural tribal farmers. 5. Research Projects: Field based research activities also carried out by the faculty and research team members of the College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat in the ten villages which is hosting e-Village centres. The farmer participatory research approaches are proved successful in ensuring farmers participation. 6. Village Adoption Scheme of the Central Agricultural University: Prof. S. N. Puri, Vice-Chancellor of the Central Agricultural University (CAU) directed the College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat and e-Village team to adopt Berung village for popularizing the Giriraja & Girirani, a high yielding poultry breed. 1000 Giriraja chicks were distributed to more than 20 farmers at the e-Village centres. Multimedia based training programme on Giriraja- for Profitable Poultry Farming was carried out under the Village Adoption Scheme of the Central Agricultural University, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Pasighat. 7. Rural Horticultural Work Experience Programme (RHWE): Twenty seven final year B.Sc (Horticulture) students of College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University, Pasighat along with e-Village research team engaged in the basic socio-economic data collection and conducting awareness programmes, tree plantation campaign, mushroom cultivation, vermi-compost, soil sampling and testing, horticultural products processing, landscaping and flower arrangement trainings were conducted at the e-Village centre during their month long village stay internship programme called Rural Horticultural Work Experience Programme. Students also conducted kissan mela by demonstrating need based low cost and green technologies by conducting village survey and farmers technological need assessment. The technologies such as; mushroom production, vermin-compost, flower arrangement and bouquet preparation, low cost zero energy champer for storage of vegetables and fruits, processing of vegetables and fruits, multimedia awareness campaign on potential on rubber cultivation, management and processing and marketing in Arunachal Pradesh was demonstrated practically and also exhibited in the kisan mela stalls. The multimedia presentation was organized at village community hall 8. Environmental Awareness Programmes: The e-Village team periodically undertakes environmental awareness programmes by showing multimedia based awareness programmes, tree planting, awareness lectures,
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discussion, quiz completion and cultural programme etc. On 5th June, 2009 e-village team joined with villagers to celebrate the World Environment Day with the theme of Your Planet Needs You! UNite to Combat Climate Change and joined the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)s Billion Tree Campaign which intends to plant one billion trees around the world. Final year B.Sc (Horticulture) students of College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University (CAU), Pasighat adopted Berung e-village to celebrate world environment day and Berung joined UNEPs Billion Tree Campaign, each family of Berung village, e-Village team members and College of Horticulture and forestry students planted nearly one hundred tree saplings. 9. Computer Education and e-Literacy: Regular computer education and e-literacy programmes were conducted for the benefit of tribal children and youth and other villagers in the ten e-village centres. Three month training programme on basics of computer and internet were conducted for the school going tribal students. So far more than 500 students were completed computer training at the ten e-Village centres. (Figure 6. Children Learning Computer at e-Village Centre) 10. Multimedia CDs: Advanced crop production technologies, Rubber cultivation, Integrated Pest and Diseases Management (IPM), Citrus e-Clinic CDs by the ICAR, Medicinal & Aromatic plants and Nutrition CDs by the C-DAC, Hyderabad, Cure@home CD by C-DAC, Pune etc., were distributed to the e-Village centres and shown to the tribal farmers regularly. 11. National Seminar & Exposure Visits: The national seminar on ICT4ARD was conducted at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh on 9th to 11th September, 2009 and 80 participants from India and one from USA, e-Village research team members and farmers were participated and seminar delegates had exposure visits to the e-Village centres and had a interaction with the farmers of the e-Villages. (Figure 7. National Seminar on ICT4ARD at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh) 12. TV-DTH: Awareness, Education & Entertainment: The e-Village centres also having TV and direct to home connection and villagers are shown awareness, educational and also entertainment programmes at the e-Village centres. Conclusion Field experiences shows that farmers are very keen to get agricultural related information from the e-Village centre. However, they feel that along with e-Resources, field level demonstrations are must to understand advanced farm technologies. Even though, they
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value agriculture information is important for livelihood generation, but unwilling to pay even a nominal fee. Because, the feel that providing agricultural information is a public good and welfare activity of government institutions. But, interestingly, nine out of ten e-Village centres are hosted at the infrastructure (house & furniture, electricity connection) provided by the community at the free of cost. Even, some of the e-Village centres farmers are willing to share expenditure on consumables (printer cartridge, paper etc.). Computer training to the village children are very much appreciated by the villagers. The community members voluntarily participated in large numbers in all the e-Village programmes. Considering, inadequate local need based content, language problem, inadequate ICT infrastructure (telephone, internet), road and other communication facilities in Arunachal Pradesh, integrating conventional extension approaches with ICTs (e-Village centres) emerged as a appropriate mechanism for agriculture and rural development in remote and backward rural areas. Bio-data of the Presenting Author:
Dr. R. Saravanan is an Associate Professor (Communication) and In-Charge, School of Social Sciences, College of Post Graduate Studies, Central Agricultural University, Barapani-793 103, Meghalaya, India. Dr. R. Saravanan has specialization in the area of extension reforms and innovations, ICTs for agricultural extension and related policy issues. In 2006, he was awarded Netherlands Government Fellowship and undergone the Advanced Course in Up-scaling Participatory Approaches and Social Learning, at Wageningen International, the Netherlands. He visited Sri Lanka (2000 & 2003), Philippines (2001), Hong Kong (2001), China (2005), Netherlands (2006) and France (2010) for the international professional seminars, research article presentations and advanced training. His publications include two books on Agricultural Extension: Worldwide Innovations and ICTs for Agricultural Extension: Global Experiments, Innovations and Experiences, 30 articles in the referred scientific international and national journals, books and proceedings. He prepared three manuals, three multimedia CDs on Experiential Learning Programme and another multimedia CD on Participatory Rural Appraisal. He was Organising Secretary of the National Seminar on ICT4ARD- 2009 at Pasighat, India. He is currently undertaking three innovative e-Agriculture research projects; e-Arik (e-Agriculture), e-Village and eKiosk are sponsored by the DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India (GoI), C-DAC, DIT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, GoI and Rural Innovation Fund, NABARD, respectively. One of the e-Agriculture based research projects; the e-Arik was awarded National level Best eGoverned Project- Special Jury Award 2008 by the Computer Society of India (CSI) - Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2007-08.

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