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ISSN 2582-6611
Agriculture Observer
www.agricultureobserver.com
January 2021 Article No. :11
Digital Extension: Shaping the Future of Agriculture through Digital Media
M. S. Anarase1*, R. L. Patil2 and R. S. Karangami3
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication,
Post Graduate Institute, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri 413722 (MH) India
Corresponding author*: msanarase11@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Digital Communication Technologies (DCT) can be defined as electronic and digital
technologies for storing, processing, transferring of information and communication. These are
enabling technologies that allow quicker and more efficient exchange and processing of
information. Digital tools are fostering a new revolution in agriculture, opening new possibilities
for how farmers monitor their fields, record information and make decisions. For extension workers
as well, it is a revolution. So digital tools really mean for extension in agriculture for to implement
a digital extension service for shaping the future of agriculture.
INTRODUCTION
Information and Communications Technologies are given more emphasis in many
countries due to the significant role in socio- economic development of farming community
through facilitating agricultural extension and development of agriculture. Agricultural Extension
is an educational service or system in which the new technologies are transferred from research
stations to extension functionaries and finally to the farmers. Agricultural Extension assists
farmers through educational procedures in improving farming methods and techniques, increasing
production efficiency and income, bettering their levels of living and lifting the social and
economical standards of people.
Transferring knowledge to farmers, advising and educating farmers in their decision
making. The communication is carried out in spoken, visual and audio-visual forms according to
the types of message, audience with consideration of other factors. India has a long history of
using radio and television for reaching rural communities with new information on agriculture and
rural development. These traditional ICT tools e.g. T.V., Radio and Telephone have already
established their credibility and effectiveness in promoting the developmental schemes in rural
areas. In the present era, new avenues in the form of Digital Communication Technology (DCT)
are being used for dissemination of agricultural information.
Digital media/ communication technology
Digital Communication Technologies (DCT) can be defined as electronic and digital
technologies for storing, processing, transferring of information and communication. These are
enabling technologies that allow quicker and more efficient exchange and processing of
information. The modern DCT tools are computers, internet, wireless communication technology
along with powerful software which can process and integrate sound, text and video into electronic
media. The aim of Digital Communication Technology application is to deliver the extension
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services for right information at right time to the right person. It can enable Extension
Functionaries together, store, retrieve and disseminate a broad range of information needed by
farming community.
Potential advantages in extension using DCTs:
1.Cut steps in the diffusion process
2. Save money and effort
3. Instant international reach
4.Continuous availability of the information
5.Access to updated information at any time
Role of Digital Media in Agricultural Extension:
1. Digital media is appropriate tool for diffusing the agricultural information
2. Publications in agricultural extension can be shared through digital media.
3. Digital media is suitable for creating awareness among the users at faster rate.
4. Digital media is information rich and interactive among scientist, extension workers and
farmers.
5. Digital media widen the scope of extension using various technique
Need of Digital Media
1. Adequate knowledge resources
2. Cost-effective
3. Better information access
4. Increasing agricultural growth
5. Develop knowledge
6. Effective Service to stakeholders in transforming agriculture
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Features of digital media:
1. Category of users: Active and passive users can take full benefit. No firm distinction
between the professionals and practitioners as knowledge developer or user.
2. Relevancy of information: Social media has made it easier for users to find out necessary
information in their own conditions.
3. Self-publication: Self-publication of information, ideas but there is risk of violation of
Intellectual Property Rights in online medium.
4. Multiplicity of human interest: Social media combines different media to keep high
interest level of users.
5. Awareness creation: Social media is powerful tool for creating awareness and for faster
dissemination of information.
Keys to success of digital media
1. Understand the nature of audience
2. Objectives should be clear
3. Select the appropriate media
4. Identity
5. Encourage every one’s participation
6. Content Encourage Feedback
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Digital Technology Shaping the Future of Agriculture with Digital Media:
Different social media tools:
1. Facebook
It is one of the most commonly used and known social media platforms all over the globe.
Facebook is useful for farmers and industry to connect with consumers. It is also a useful place for
more in-depth discussions as there is no limit on the number of characters that can be used. Photos
and other content can also be shared easily. Farmers can join the group related to their own interest
and need in agriculture in which experts share the information. Farmers can also share their own
experience about use of technology.
2. WhatsApp
It can be considered as the combination of mutual sharing of text audio and video among
the community or individual. It has become a common platform for information sharing among the
Indian population. A messenger app for smartphones is an internet-based messaging platform that
supports text, audio, video, pdf and various other forms of files. Real time video chatting has also
been integrated recently, making it more popular among users. Though initially used for personal
messaging, it is gaining more popularity among agricultural professionals to share information,
which is aided by the group messaging feature. There are thousands of WhatsApp groups created
for agricultural extension and advisory services in India.
3. Youtube
It is a video streaming service which allows users to create and upload videos to the website
which then can be shared to any one worldwide. Educating farmers about the latest technologies
and its usage using the videos is an effective medium. YouTube allows users to upload, view, rate,
share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users. It offers a wide
variety of user generated and corporate media videos. Most modern smart phones are capable of
accessing YouTube videos, either with in an application or through an optimized website. There
are many YouTube channels which provides useful videos related to agriculture to the farmers and
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also to the agricultural students. The examples of YouTube channels for farmers are Green TV
India, DD Kisan, Digital Agriculture, Agriculture India, Farming Leader, Indian Sustainable
Farming, etc.
Agricultural Apps:
1. IFFCO Kisan App
“IFFCO Kisan” is an Indian agriculture farmer App, which helps the Indian farmer to take
informed decisions by accessing customized agricultural information related to their need. It
provides the latest mandi prices, weather forecast, agricultural advisory, best practices tips related
to agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture; a buyer and seller platform, and all agriculture related
news and govt. schemes. It provides agriculture advisories in 11 Indian languages in text as well as
agriculture audio clip for the convenience of the farmers who are most comfortable in their own
language.
IFFCO Kisan’s mobile agriculture product evolution
2007-Launch of Green Sim Service, 2014-Green Sim Reaches 3.1m Users
2015-First Release of IFFCO KisanApp, 2016-IFFCO KisanApp Reaches 170,000+ Users
2018-4 Lakh IFFCO KisanApp Users
2. Agri Media App
Agri Media video app is providing audio video education as distance learning extension
education for agriculture and allied fields. All videos of Agri Media app is available in Hindi &
Gujarati language to help farmers for better Farming. Other than agriculture the app has covered
many other topics like Rural Development, Animal Husbandry, Poultry Farming, Horticulture,
Fisheries, Farm Machinery, Agro Forestry, Dairy Farming, and Government Schemes. Farmers can
keep up with latest videos for Pest control, Disease Control, Weed Control, Fertilizer Management,
Irrigation Management etc. There is 50,000+ installs.
3. Kisan Suvidha
It was launched by the Government of India in 2016 to work towards empowerment of
farmers and development of villages, the app designis neat and offers a user-friendly interface. The
option to use the app in different languages makes it more widely accessible. With click of a button,
one can get the information on weather of current day and next 5 days, dealers, market prices, agro
advisories, plant protection, IPM practices etc. Unique features like extreme weather alerts and
market prices of commodity in nearest area and the maximum price in state as well as India have
been added to empower farmers in the best possible manner. There are 500,000+ installs.
4. Kisan Mitra
App was developed by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Navsari, Gujarat in 2014. Features include
package of practices for agricultural, horticultural crops, livestock, information about important
technologies of Navsari Agricultural University. App supports Gujarati language. 53933 users
downloaded the App. App available on Google play store, offline after installation.
Web Portal:
1. I-khedut Yojana
I-Khedut Application provides information about the welfare schemes of government. The
I-khedut web portal is implemented and run by Agriculture, Co-Operation and Farmer Welfare
Department of Government of Gujarat. The Farmers who are interested can easily register on this
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portal for getting benefits of Gujarat Government subsidy and other schemes. The Farmers can
online apply on website www.ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in.Various welfare schemes for the farmers
implemented by various agencies like co-operative societies, agricultural boards, corporations,
government institutes etc. avail the benefits to the farmers in easy way.
2. e-NAM
eNAM or the electronic National Agriculture Market scheme was launched in April 2016.
It is an e-trading platform which operates through an online portal and is being linked to the mandis
of the States.e-NAM is being deployed in selected 585 regulated wholesale markets in States. Small
Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is operating the e-NAM as the implementing agency
with technical support from the Strategic Partner. To facilitate assaying of commodities for trading
on e-NAM, common tradable parameters have been developed for 90 commodities. 470 mandis
across 14 States were live on e-NAM as on 31stOct2017.
3. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) Blog
Blogs contain detailed information on specific topics. They create and facilitate in-depth
discussion on any issue through comments from the readers. The blogs of TNAU Agritech Portal
deals with everything agriculture–from sowing to harvesting, crop protection to crop management,
weather, recent happenings in the agriculture industry, schemes and programmes for farmers and
ICTs. Since 2012, a total of 940 blog posts have been made, out of which 541 are made in 2015
itself by 43 members consisting of extensionists, researchers, academicians and farmers. Available
in both English and Tamil language.
4. Expert System
A computer program designed to model the problem-solving ability of a human expert”
(Durkin, 1994). “A system that uses human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems
that ordinarily require human expertise”. Three components viz., knowledge base, inference engine
and user interface. Major application areas of expert system agriculture, education, environment
and medicine. The experience and knowledge of a human expert is captured in the form of IF-
THEN rules. Facts which are used to solve problems by answering questions typed at a keyboard
attached to a computer.
5. Kissan Krishideepam
A weekly Agriculture Television programme - in Malayalam language that provides select
information on best practices, success stories, departmental news, news on various farming related
public programs, market analysis, cultivation methods and analysis of current issues, etc. Weekly
television program (30 minutes duration) over a leading satellite channel (Asianet) in Kerala. More
than five million regular viewers across the State and beyond. Completed the production and
telecast of 370 unbroken weekly episodes during the last 8 years.
6. Reuters Market Light (RML)
RML Ag.Tech was officially launched in October 1, 2007, in Maharashtra by Sharad Pawar,
the union minister of agriculture of India followed by launch in Punjab in 2008 by Mr. Prakash
Badal, state’s Chief Minister. RML Ag.Tech Pvt. Ltd., recently renamed Farm-Bee and formerly
known as Reuters Market Light (founded & earlier led by Amit Mehra) is a business to
provide Technology & Data Analytics Solutions to farmers and the agriculture value chain. The
service is Decision Support Technology designed to provide farmers with personalized agricultural
data analytics from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages through App earlier SMS on their mobile
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phones in their local language supported through call centres and on ground intervention.
Agricultural market price information, weather as well as crop advisory information via the mobile
phone. About 3.4 million Indian farmers from an estimated 60,000 villages have used this service
across 18 states.
7. Balance Ration and Area Specific Mineral Mixture:
NDDB, Anand has developed user-friendly computer software for balance the ration of animals
with the available feed resources and area-specific mineral mixtures. • To balance rations in the
field, ‘Nutrition masters’ were created which contain.
1. Data on the chemical composition of commonly used feed ingredients across various agro-
climatic regions.
2. Nutrient requirements of cows and buffaloes in all physiological condition.
8. e-SAP
It is a web-based application system which facilitates flow of information from the farmer
to the farm scientist and back. "The idea behind creating e-SAP was to help the extension worker,
to collect specimens right from the farmer's field and send it to the scientists and experts in real
time. e-SAP will make the work of the extension service worker easy, enhance their efficiency and
at the same time provide the farmers with right solutions in his field in real time Deployment of
eSAP technology started since January 2013 onwards after pilot scale studies during 2012 under
the aegis of University of Agricultural sciences, Raichur and has spread to all the districts under
other Agricultural Universities in Karnataka. This technology targets one of the critical
requirements of a crop cycle, pest management. e-Sap has features that can bring the farmer,
extension worker, scientist and policy maker on the same plane, thereby, helping to find solutions
that are more practical and in lesser time.
CONCLUSION
The important components of Agricultural extension systems are agricultural research,
extension and farmers. Farmers and extension worker ratio is becoming wider so, it is necessary to
apply digital media in agricultural extension for the better serving to large farming community.
Application of digital media in research and education organization helping improving their
efficiency. The dissemination of the information to the consumers and target population
(agriculturists) is lacking. With the help of digital media one can access to right information at right
time. India having highest number (41.08%) of youth population it is the also opportunity as use
this young for harnessing the agriculture information through digital media among the farming
community.
REFERENCES
1. Arjun Sulibhavimath and Preeti Sharma, (2017). Extent of use of information communication
technology by extension personnel of KVKs. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry. 7(3):
3628-3631.
2. http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/blogs.html
3. www.ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in
4. https://www.digitalinformationworld.com
Volume 2 Issue 1 51ISSN 2582-6611 Agriculture Observer Anarase et. al. 5. Noor Agha, B.S. Ghanghas and P.K. Chahal, (2018). Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Extension Personnel to Disseminate Agricultural Information. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences. 7(04):1369-1376. 6. Ovwigho, B.O. Ifie, P. A. Ajobo, R. T. and Akor, E. I. (2009). The availability and use of information communication technologies by extension agents in delta agricultural development project, Delta State Nigeria. J. Hum Ecol, 27 (3): 185- 188. Volume 2 Issue 1 52
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