| Abstract |
Usually the agricultural sector, and in particular farmers, are highly vulnerable to risks due to high variability in climatic conditions and to market uncertainties. The farmer’s exposure to risk and uncertainty is often aggravated by lack of information about weather, inputs, farm management practices or market prices, and this lack of information has an adverse impact on crop production and income. Some of these risks, for example the risk of a bad monsoon, affect agriculture as a whole, while other risks vary from region to region, and the severity of their effect depends on an individual farmer’s knowledge and ability to cope. The evidence suggests that a farmer who receives quality, up to date information, and who has the ability to use that information, is able to lessen the effect of these risks. Production Risks: all farmers face production risks irrespective of their location and crops due to uncertainty of rainfall, variability in temperature and bad or unpredictable weather conditions. These factors can variously lead to soil erosion, poor soil quality, increased incidences of pests and diseases and low yields. There is a need for fundamental information about expected weather conditions, and about general know-how: which crops to plant, which seed varieties to use, what the best cultivation practices and farm management practices are for that area, and the best suitable technology available locally. Market Risks: these arise either from over- or underproduction, leading to a discrepancy between supply and demand. An inadequate supply of inputs, for example seed or local labor, will lead to an insufficient yield for market requirements, whereas overproduction will impact unfavorably on the market price. Lack of market information such as prices, demand indicators and logistical information can lead to higher production costs, increased transportation costs, higher information search costs and can also affect wages. The overall goal or expected outcome of this research is to see the potential of modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve yields and income, and to disseminate knowledge to farmers to help them manage risk in an informed manner. It is expected that modern ICT can play a role in bridging the information gap, and in reducing the information asymmetry that exists between farmers and between regions. The delivery of information through mobile phones has the potential to deliver localized content rapidly, and can thus enhance the dissemination of knowledge and information on technologies, inputs, markets and prices, and help in better risk management. This can act as a catalyst to enable better adoption of improved technologies, seed varieties, and farming practices (Mittal and Tripathi, 2009). The major objectives of this scoping study are:1) to analyze the scope and potential of the use of ICT, especially mobile phones, for farmers and the agricultural sector; 2) to identify farmers’ present sources of information and information networks, and to identify the information needs that help them to mitigate production and market risks; 3) to identify existing ICT-based innovations in the agricultural sector, the key players, and the institutional arrangements for the dissemination of information;4) to highlight selected models and innovations in the form of case studies; and 5) to identify the constraints and challenges and to suggest key questions that should be taken up for research based on this scoping study. This study was carried out as a combination of desk study for analyzing the literature reviews and secondary data sets, and interviews for the case studies. It has been found that among modern ICT modes, mobile telephony has been the most recent and widely-accepted mode of delivering information, not only in India but also in other South Asian and African countries. Increasing mobile phone and mobile phone-based services enhances the availability of content-specific information, and also helps to improve awareness, education, the better adoption of technology, better health and efficiency, reduced transaction costs, greater market efficiency and better climate-linked risk management. These in turn catalyze rural-sector development and economic growth. The research reviewed existing literature and found evidence that mobile phones are being used in ways which contribute to productivity enhancement along with risk management. The contribution has been felt in different ways, for example there has been an increase in the adoption of technology, which has had a beneficial impact on the livelihood of farmers in terms of obtaining good prices or access to market information, as well as reduced wastage and lower transaction and search costs, thereby increasing efficiency. Realising the full potential use of mobile phones will require significant improvements in the supporting infrastructure, and also in capacity-building, particularly for small farmers, to enable them to use the information they access more effectively. There are other constraints that hinder the impact of these models, for instance the scattered nature of ICT-based models, which tends to exclude poor farmers and those living in remote areas. To strengthen these findings from literature, three case studies: Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO’s) Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), a voice-based model; Reuters Market Light (RML), an small message service (SMS)-based model; and Kisan Sanchar, a model which is both SMS-and voice-based, were analysed in depth to assess how modern ICT tools, particularly the mobile phone, have been used to meet the information needs of farmers, what institutional mechanisms have been put in place to provide information to farmers, and the impact that such services have had on farm income and output. The basic parameters of any mobile-based information delivery system are that it should have efficiency in delivery, relevance in content, and a firmed-up content calendar for timely delivery. The effectiveness of ICT in passing on information to farmers, particularly small landholders, holds the key to its successful utilization as a complementary dissemination mechanism for extension services. |
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