-Presentation at National Seminar on ICTs for Agriculture and Development, DAIICT, December 17, 2004 NARS Role in ICTs Use in Agriculture

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Current status Delivery models Critical success factors How to march ahead ? Lecture plan

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM ICTs use in rural India e-commerce Rural networking Education & training Social and policy issues Indigenous knowledge GIS - remote sensing Decision support systems

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Phone main device for accessing voice info Internet - often for communication Bandwidth not available and costly Serious concern on first mile issue Focus low on knowledge sharing Rhetoric on reaching underprivileged Extensive institutional support Experiences on ICTs use..

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM SectorBroad focus PublicExtension PrivateMarketing NGOCommunity services Sustainable Yes No Scalability Yes No Learning from ICT projects

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Number of ICT projects in rural areas High population density Potential for economies of scale Societal acceptance Capacity in use of IT Wide spread NGO net work Widespread use of English Positive feature of ICTs use

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Vision ICTs in 6 lakh villages by 2007 Networking Yes. Up to 50% Trained personnelYes Information access No India vision

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Challenges Inculcate confidence in the use of ICT Gender perspective in content Capacity building in women Content in local languages Compile locally relevant best practices Affordable ICT resources & bandwidth Policy on rural kiosks

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Perceptions Active NARS participation must for ICTs success for rural development Need for demand driven extension New ICTs catalyze the role of extension

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Pilot project with NGO Partnership First mile issue Manpower development in NARS Coordination for exchange of information NAARM role

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Assessment of select agri-portals

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Focus: Indian Agri info; Databases on agri institutions, experts, women; Learning resources; Networking Agri Gateway to India

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Institutions going on-line –NARS institutions putting up their own systems in place –Content not ready and will take long time Service centers –Information kiosks by public/private agencies –Multiple services : payment, certificates, advices –Coordination and shared vision with NARS Regional network by state –Strong political will –Fundamentally strong with a structure and purpose Delivery models

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Critical success factors Strong political & admn. leadership Clearly identified goals and benefits Respect to existing systems procedures Sound central plan Out sourced technical support Potential source for new employment

ICAR D.Rama Rao, NAARM Public-private partnerships : Public to provide information and Private to provide maintenance of infrastructure Content centric approach for NARS IT policy on rural connectivity Conclusions

Thank you