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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - Fit in Success stories Q1) Provide brief description of the e-Agricultural initiative, which you are nominating for eAgriculture India 2009 Award. (max. 500 words) “e-Velanmai”: An ICT based Technology Transfer Model in Agriculture Less than 20 per cent of the technologies generated by Agricultural Universities were transferred to the farmers field in India due to the lack of an appropriate technology transfer model. Hence an action research was experimented to test verify and validate the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based agricultural extension model called ‘e-Velanmai’ (electronic Agriculture) for addressing the agricultural problems of farmers through ICT tool based dissemination of agricultural technologies from the Scientists of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) directly to the needed farmers. This action research was started during July 2007 with the support of the TN-IAMWARM project of the Government of Tamil Nadu. Objective: To test and evolve an ICT enabled agricultural technology transfer model named as ‘e-Velanmai’ for addressing the problems faced by the farmers in selected command areas of Tamil Nadu. Concept of e-Velanmai: It is an ICT based demand driven participatory technology transfer model in agriculture to provide timely agro advisory services by TNAU scientists to the registered farmers using ICT tools (Internet, Computer, Digital Camera, Mobile phone etc.) through a field coordinator/volunteer on need basis. This model was evolved from a public model initiated during July 2007 to a paid model during 2008. In order to enhance the participation of farmers in scientific farming and to have sustainability of the scheme even after the project period, paid model of e-Velanmai was conceived and introduced in three sub basins namely, Palar, Aliyar and Varahanadhi through Water Users Associations. Membership fees Farmers who are interested to avail the services of eVelanmai pay a membership fee depending on the size of their farms. Farm

Membership

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Aliyar

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Palar

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Varahanadhi

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FAQ

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Aliyar

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Palar

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Varahanadhi

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Tamil

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English

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level I

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Level II

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Aliyar

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Palar

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Varahanadhi

(acres)

Rs./farmer/year

Upto 5

50

5-10

200

>10

300

The first membership card was formally offered by Mr.Vibu Nayar, IAS, the Project Director of TNIAMWARM, Chennai. The membership money is deposited in the WUA account. A membership card is given to the enrolled farmers and a record of the agricultural problems and advices given by the scientists are noted in the card. These members avail the following extension activities. Extension activities  Timely technical advice on the cultivation and marketing related problems faced by the farmers using the ICT tools and facilitated by a field extension worker/volunteer.  Diagnostic field visit to members’ field for solving farmers’ problems  Technical seminars on vital agricultural topics  Training the members, women and their children on framing digital photographs of the pest symptoms and uploading the same to the scientists for getting technical advice. In each of the selected WUA, one volunteer is trained in handling the ICT tools. He captures the digital images of the pest symptoms and gets the technical advice from the experts of TNAU. A nominal charge of Rs. 25 /visit is to be paid by the farmers who avail his services. Now the volunteer works jointly with the Field Coordinator (FC) of the scheme, latter the volunteer will replace the FC. Q2)

What are the achievements of your agricultural initiative in terms of process automation and IT implementation. (max. 500 words)

The process and implementation of the ICT based agriculture is as follows: Step 1. The farmers (members) or their childrens are trained to frame the photograph of symptoms in a digital camera and to upload them to the scientist of TNAU and receive the technical advice through internet or mobile. Achievement: So far, 405 farmers joined the scheme by paying membership fee. At least one individual from each farmer’s family was trained to handle ICT tools successfully. Step 2. Any farmer who has a problem based query calls either the field coordinator (FC) (who is appointed in each of the sub basin under the scheme) or the volunteer (identified in each village by the Water User Association) over mobile phone. Other decision based queries like choice of variety, market information are delivered over phone directly without photo document. Complex problem based