ICT-a major breakthrough in agriculture
The government while presenting its policies and programmes last week, announced “a decade of
agriculture revolution”. This news was quite catchy; at least they are doing something to drag the
agricultural outcome out of misery. So, the plan is to prioritize contract farming, promote farm
mechanization and cooperative-based farming to enhance production, quite impressive. But there’s
something that is really missing in this policy. Had there been the commitment for “promotion of ICT in
agriculture”, somewhere in that policy, it would have added glitter to the gold. ICT (Information and
communication technology) plays more than a role of an extension staff when it comes to agriculture.
And the best thing about ICT is its rising access to the public. Even at the far-flung regions of the country
in recent years, people are privileged with mobile phones, radios and television services. But the
disappointing fact is that the government and the concerned ministry are still quite unable to unravel
the potential of ICT. ICT promotion has never been a major agenda for the enhancement of agriculture
in our country so far, while other agro-based countries have increased their pace of development of
agricultural sector via ICT promotion. India, for example, has already tasted a bite of the success through
ICT culture in agriculture in recent years.
Amidst the exodus, where the country is suffering landslide brain drain with around 1400 youngsters
leaving the country each day, in pursuit of secure future, we are losing human resources along with the
prodigious talents at the same time. ICT, at this chaotic situation, could act as a mentor for the farmers
left in the country to carry out nitty-gritty agricultural operation in a very effective way. It has been a
couple of decades since the information and communication technology was introduced in Nepal, not a
very long time though but the exponential growth of it has helped to flourish these communication
medias all over the country and have become dearer to public from child to the older one. The pace of
this technology has already outrun the era where one had to stand on a line of even hundreds,
sometimes, to make a phone call or had to gather at the house of so-called mukhiyas to watch a
favourite program on TV, or wait for reply of a letter for months from their dearer ones. These days one
can simply dial the keys on the mobile phone taking out of the pocket to contact anyone s/he cares or
wait for Skype to connect to the computer on the other side. Television and radio service along with
internet facilities are something that people take for granted these days. These communication tools
have gained sensational popularity among general public.
Analyzing ICT out-reach
It was 1950, when the radio Nepal, the first radio broadcast of Nepal was established (“Seven Decades
of Radio Listening in Nepal" by Shekhar Prajulee). ‘Awaj' the first daily news paper of Nepal was
published in Falgun 8, 2007 from Kathmandu. Television in Nepal started with the establishment of
Government owned ‘Nepal Television’ in January 1985. According to the Nepal Telecommunication
Authority MIS May 2012 report, there are 7 operators and the total voice telephony subscribers
including fixed and mobile are 16,350,946 which give the penetration rate of 61.42%. The fixed
telephone service account for 9.37%, mobile for 64.63%, and other services (LM, GMPCS) for 3.76% of
the total penetration rate. Similarly, the numbers of subscribers to data/internet services are 4,667,536
which represents 17.53% penetration rate. Most of the data service is accounted by GPRS users. Twelve
months earlier the data/internet penetration was 10.05%, thus this represents a growth rate of 74.77%.
As of 30 September 2012, Nepal has 1,828,700 Facebook users. According to 2011 census, the
percentage of households possessing radio was 50.82%, television 36.45%, cable TV 19.33%, computer
7.23%. According to the Press Council Nepal, as of 2012 there are 2038 registered newspapers in Nepal,
among which 514 are in publication. Nearly 350 FM radio stations are in operation in the country. Of all
the media, radio has the largest coverage and reaches the largest number of rural people. In essence,
the literacy rate has reached 65.9% which could further affect the successful spreading of these
communication tools. It’s just a matter of years now, that this technology will penetrate every nooks
and corner of the country.
Confronting present scenario
While debating about the issues in agriculture, middleman often gets in the middle of it. And obviously
market these days has been a safe haven for clique of the middleman who indulges himself in the
lucrative business, depriving both farmers and the consumers of fair price. Government, each year,
declares to distribute tons of fertilizers and seed to the farmers for free but just a handful of farmers get
the opportunity to pack some sacks to their fields while the middleman, out of nowhere, manages to
hide away the other bundles of these free products and sales with hefty price tags on it. Sarcastically,
unless these middlemen get into their business the yields at the farmer’s fields get rotten, since the
communication of those farmers with the market is very poor. There appears to be a colossal sink hole
as a communication gap. Whether it is the farmers and the consumers or the government and the farm
owners, the connection is nominal.
Bewildered farmers out there seek to get some knowledge about these changing patterns of climate,
they want somebody to tell them what’s going on, why the monsoon this year arrived late, why they are
left behind with a very little amount of what they deserve, why they are unable to harvest the amount
of their sweats. They want somebody to teach them how to improve the yield, how to cope these
changing patterns of seasons, how to get started with, say, mushroom culture or poultry farm or
establish a new orchard or grow vegetable in a commercial way. They want advice but the concerned
authority and the government is unable to answer those calls. The government officials assigned for
each agriculture office to address the farming community are found to be waiting for the sun to set and
doing nothing whereas the farmers are left alone in the fields with the same old traditional methods of
farming. There is a dire need of something that could act as a link between these factors. Information
and communication technology (ICT), in this regard, could bridge the existing gap between the
government, farmers and the consumers.
Transforming agriculture through ICT
When a farmer thinks of harvesting the yield after maturity s/he tune in to the weather forecast to
harvest it accordingly. Why not to extend this custom? Why not to use the telecom service to render the
authentic agri-news at the right time for each of the subscriber? Why not to start a new television
channel broadcasting agricultural news 24/7 or publish a couple of separate pages in the newspaper?
Hotline number service for farmers like that of telecom service could be effective. Farmer could be
benefitted not just with the weather knowledge but also with the other myriad knowledge of
agricultural operations like, amount of fertilizer that should be applied, time and method of application,
irrigation techniques, and feasibility of certain vegetation in the respective region. Moreover, farmers
could detect the market price of different products in no time. Only if they are provided with right
information at right time, the existing obstacles in agriculture could be mitigated. And the solution lies
within the effective use of ICT. Messaging services or phone call to a hotline number could be used as an
interactive tool to address the problems of these farmers. This culture of interaction between the
consoler and general public via telephone or messaging has already proven to be quite effective. To take
few as an example, Hello sarkar, 197, dial 100 along with other services have already proved their
feasibility to some extent. And recently some new innovations in ICT culture like an android app called
krishi ghar and an instant messaging service by IFA-agriculture have been introduced which has been
viewed as a potential innovation to interact with the farmers. These types of innovations should be
provided with funding and encouraged in the future. The effective use of these communication tools like
the SMS service, Skype, android apps, Facebook, blogs, hotline number, and online services in delivering
agro-based messages could fulfill the slot of desperately migrating manpower and could help eventually
reach the apogee of contemporary farming.
If the country is to bring a real change in agricultural sector it needs to act in collaboration with these
communication Medias and of course the youths and build up a solid bond between researchers,
innovators and the farmers, delivering each of the feasible innovations from these skilled personnel
from the research labs to the field through ICT. Declaring “decade of agriculture revolution” won’t just
help to bring about a revolutionary change in agriculture, we need to put all the efforts and leave no
stone unturned to reach the motto. So, it’s high time that the definition of agriculture should be
transformed to agri-ICT-culture.
Santosh Koirala
Bsc.Ag, 3rd semester