Tech-savvy: Software being developed to aid farmers

Ministry hopes technology would improve information sharing.

ISLAMABAD:

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications (MoIT) is in the process of developing software that would provide guidance to farmers through web, call centre and text messages (SMS).

The guidance would be provided keeping in mind their particular area of specialty and the level of investment they intend to make.

National ICT Research and Development Fund, a department of the ministry, is executing the project in collaboration with the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad at a cost of Rs29.58 million.

The project is expected to be completed by June 2015. According to a project brief, the farmers will get information about the cost of inputs, prices of commodities and income to be generated.

There is a dire need to develop an e-system for economical and site-specific crop production technologies, which may address needs of farmers of every district and to disseminate this information to end user through state of art ICT means.

As part of the procedure, an e-system, which serves as a centralised knowledge-base for every district, would be developed.

All the information collected will be classified into various categories through the software. Simultaneously, research findings will collect information regarding latest crop production technologies for that district.

All the information will be analysed and synthesised to standard site specific crop production for all categories of the farms.

The economic analysis will also be an integral part of production technologies. The information will be used to develop the best production technology, using economic analysis through the high speed computing devices (server machines).

At the end of every phase, the information generated for each district will be shared with all stakeholders working in the district to impart awareness to them and to get their feedback.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2014.

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