IT in agriculture is not something new.

There are 80 Web sites and portals run by Governments providing information to farmers on soil, plant protection, diseases, weather forecast, fertiliser use and farm and crop management. The number could be much more in the private sector. All this is likely to confuse the farmer.

To tackle this, the Union Government has come up with the idea of a unified portal, to provide information on all farming needs. The portal www.farmer.gov.in, is not fully live yet. The basic beta version in English is aimed at integrating all relevant information from the various Web sites.

The portal integrates the convergence technologies to offer latest information to farmers, instead of uploading dated information. For example, the information fertiliser dealers upload through SMS would be updated automatically.

“ We are not going to offer him content in a language he is not familiar with. We are working with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to translate the content into various local languages,” Sanjeev Gupta, Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India, told Business Line .

The Government is hoping to make it available to the farmers in the next few months.

In order to make it a farmer-friendly portal, the Department has divided the country into 125 blocks. “Compare this with the number of agri-climatic zones in the country. They are just 23. When they open the portal, the farmers see the Indian map. Depending on their location, they can select a State and the block they belong to,” he said.

An IITian, Sanjeev Gupta said the portal would provide information on the sources of all agricultural inputs. To check hoarding, the Government will mandate the dealers to upload the stock position through SMS, if they are not familiar with the Internet .

“The system will prompt them with a few questions. The answers will be converted into updates on the portal, giving the farmers latest information,” he said.

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