Role of Information and Communication Technology in Agricultural Development of India

Abstract

The desired higher growth in the agricultural sector can be achieved only when there is proper application of information and communication technology (ICT) with adequate investments from both public and private sectors. There is a great scope to implement ICT in order to communicate and integrate the entire agri-food supply chain. The beneficiaries of ICT in agriculture are not only confined to farmers but also encompass food processing companies and suppliers within the agri-food sector. The tools of ICT applications have the potential to provide networking of agriculture sector within the country and globally. It is against this backdrop that the present study not only addresses issues relating to the applications of ICT for economic change in the agricultural sector of India but also identifies the past and present major ICT initiatives in agriculture, the factors responsible for the success of ICT services and the elements of an appropriate framework for assessing the impact of ICT on agricultural development. It is observed that the application of ICT solutions for the development of rural India have been opening a vast range of possibilities to a majority of the population living in rural settings to cross the digital divide. The e-governance strategy for the agriculture sector is capable of exhibiting strategic flexibility to simultaneously integrate the opposing forces.

JEL Classification: D83, D85, Q13, Q16

Keywords

Agricultural development communication technology India information

Introduction

In an era of rapid technological change, a country’s competitiveness and relevance in the global economy is increasingly determined by its capacity to effectively use information for design, production and marketing (Dzidonu, 2002). A growing mode of delivery in this environment is by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that can provide vital access to information and to markets by connecting the rural poor and marginalised sections to the world’s information resources and opportunities. Although the use of ICTs remains concentrated largely in the developed world, a rapid growth in information technologies has now been taking place in developing countries since the old ways of delivering important services are becoming obsolete at the time when traditional societies stand transformed into knowledge societies (Shaik et al., 2004). The necessity of developing the capacity to generate and disseminate knowledge and exploit it as a powerful tool to derive societal transformation has been emphasised in the report of the Task Force on India as Knowledge Superpower that also visualises ICT¹ as an important means of achieving such transformation (Government of India [GOI], 2001). The last three decades have witnessed the rapid development of information technology all over the world. Studies from the developed world have shown that ICT can positively contribute to economic growth and development, and it has the potential to reduce poverty and improve livelihood by empowering users with timely knowledge, reducing transaction costs and enhancing appropriate skills for increasing productivity (Hamelink, 1997; Kenny, 2002).

In the agricultural sector, ICT has already taken root and is now recognised as an essential mechanism for delivering knowledge and advice as an input for modern farming (Jones, 1997). It can give a new impetus to the productive activity, which could become transformational factors. The advancements in ICT can be utilised for providing accurate, timely, and relevant information and services to the farmers, thereby facilitating an environment for more remunerative agriculture. Although the Indian agricultural sector is now witnessing the evolution of ICT, there has been lot of catching up to do due to the differentiated nature of demand of the farmers in different areas. However, ICT has many potential applications and, if nurtured effectively, it not only can bring new information services to user farmers but may also act as a catalyst for the sustainable development of farming system. It is against this background that the present study not only addresses issues relating to the applications of ICT for economic change in the agricultural sector of India but also identifies the past and present major ICT initiatives in agriculture, the factors responsible for the success of ICT services and the elements of an appropriate framework for assessing the impact of ICT on agricultural development.

Scope of the Study

The government of India of late has been emphasising upon the implementation of the Digital India programme, which empowers citizens with e-access to government services and livelihood-related services. The recent Union Budget 2022 categorically focuses upon digital connectivity of villages as the need of the day, with the chief objective of providing facilities in the villages through broadband connectivity. Apart from this recent initiative, a number of initiatives were undertaken earlier to truly transform rural India into well informed section of the society. Therefore, the present study focuses not only on the use of ICTs to access information but also on the use of ICTs as access and utilisation tools with a view to diffuse information to farmers in general and the agriculture sector in particular since benefits of such initiatives achieve twin objectives.

Review of Recent Literature

There are spate of studies that have focused on the importance of ICT and the role of ICT in rural development. One of the recent studies found mobile phones as the widely accessed tool among the farmers for communication and also for accessing agriculture-related information, particularly for the marketing of produce (Chhachar et al., 2014). On the other hand, the study conducted by Taragona and Gelb (2005) pointed out that awareness, time, cost of technology and system integration are the main constraints of ICT adoption in horticulture. Another study conducted by Gelb and Voet (2009) aimed at analysing ICT adoption trends in agriculture and found lack of customised ICT applications, harmonisation with production, market and ongoing end-user extension training as the key challenges to ICT implementation. The study conducted by Kale et al. (2015) revealed high cost of hardware and software, and inadequate and unstable power supply as the hurdles to access to information for average rural dwellers.

Although the course of time has witnessed concerted efforts to develop the agricultural sector of India through various ICT initiatives, frameworks and services, the constraints faced by farmers many a times defeat the objectives for which ICT tools have been constructed and implemented. For instance, the study carried out by Rajoria et al. (2017) showed lack of training and practical exposure towards ICTs and low ICT literacy as the ‘most serious constraints’, whereas lack of awareness of benefits of ICTs, lack of skills in handling ICTs, poor finance and erratic power supply are considered as ‘serious constraints’ in the adoption of ICT initiatives. There are several issues that need to be addressed, and they chiefly revolve around inadequate accessibility of ICT services to rural farmers, lack of basic skills of using ICT facilities in agriculture and inability of government to deliver adequate ICT knowledge to farmers (Singh et al., 2015). A study conducted by Agu (2013) specifically focused on the problems faced by women in agriculture such as access to land, access to/weak extension services, access to credit, lack of supportive policies and access to/no adoption of new agricultural technologies.

There are several challenges as well as problems in developing and implementing communication technologies in the rural settings. Hanson and Narula (2012) explored the current scenario of developing countries, infrastructure development policy, acceptance of technologies in lifestyle and social system, need of the society and models of information technologies for the society. One of the studies has come out with typical problem in terms of extension services to farming community in particular. It has been observed that the public extension personnel spend just 40 minutes per year for a farmer (Dileepkumar, 2012). Obviously, such sub-optimal contact intensity is a matter of concern. However, Aker (2011) observes that the use of ICTs in agricultural sector, especially mobile phone services, has provided information on market, weather, transport and agricultural techniques trough contact with concerned agencies and departments.

The ICT initiatives so far are helpful in providing accurate, timely, and relevant information and advice to the farmer community, thereby facilitating favourable platform for more remunerative agriculture. However, it is to be noted that the ICT movement is still evolving and that except for few ICT based projects like the Kisan Call Centre (KCC), there has been a significant gap in the ICT movement since most of ICT project for farming community are implemented in a very limited geographical area, covering few thousand of the population (Manjeet et. al., 2019). This calls for the drawing up of national strategy for spearheading IT penetration in rural India. It is noticed that since ICT tools developed so far do not have bearing on landholding size of farmers, there is need to focus on smallholder agriculture, especially to provide market information to this segment of farming community (Lokeswari, 2016). The effective information delivery also necessitates supplementation of traditional extension methods with new ICT tools, with significant involvement of research institutions, government agencies and also private sector participation.

ICT Initiatives for Agricultural Development

Although ICT in agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development in India and it involves application of innovative ways to reach the rural domain, the actual usage of ICTs and their ability to bring significant impact on the farm productivity and socio-economic development of the intended beneficiaries is yet to be understood. The common problems in adoption of ICT in rural segments are lack of awareness and willingness for adoption of new technologies among the rural peoples. There are some other hindrances in the adoption of ICT that include illiteracy of farmers, non-availability of relevant and localised contents in their own languages, and lack of easy and affordable accessibility. However, some initiatives have been undertaken in India using ICT for agricultural development, and they mainly encompass Gyandoot Project (Madhya Pradesh), Warana Wired Village project (Maharashtra), Information Village Project of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF, Pondicherry), Ikisan Project of the Nagarjuna group of companies (Andhra Pradesh), automated milk collection centres of Amul Dairy cooperatives (Gujarat), land record computerisation (Bhoomi, Karnataka), Computer-aided Online Registration Department (Andhra Pradesh), online marketing and CAD in Northern Karnataka (Karnataka), Knowledge Network for Grass Root Innovations–Society for Research and Initiatives (SRISTI, Gujarat) and application of Satellite Communication for Training Field Extension Workers in Rural Areas (Indian Space Research Organisation). All these projects have very small component of agriculture. There are also some exclusive agricultural portals, namely. Haritgyan.com, Krishiworld.net, TOEHOLDINDIA.com, Agriwatch.com, ITC’s Soyachoupal.com, Acquachoupal.com and Plantersnet.com, and they actually cater to the ICT requirements of farming community with emphasis on agricultural sector.

Inspite of the fact that ICT applications have huge potential for agricultural development, very few projects are initiated in India, with the majority of them initiated by NGOs, private organisations, cooperative bodies and governmental organisations other than agricultural departments. This shows the apathy of agricultural development departments towards incorporating ICT into their main steam activities. The areas where ICT can play a key role are enhancing agricultural extension activities, creating farming system with location-specific modules of research and extension, promoting market extension, sustainable agricultural development, participatory research, etc. (Shaik et al., 2004).

Application of ICT in Agriculture

Application of ICT in agriculture has become increasingly important, and the phases where ICT can play a leading role include crop cultivation, water management, fertiliser application, fertigation, pest management, harvesting, post-harvest handling, transportation of produce, packaging, food preservation, processing, food quality management, food safety, storage and marketing. For instance, ICT extends information on the market trends and prices, which helps the farmers to not only negotiate prices but also protect their food security and livelihood. Similarly, agricultural advisory extended through ICT such as weather forecasting, crop-specific advisory and price information empowers farmers and helps them to optimise returns (Shrestha & Sathvik, 2021).

The activities where use of ICT in the agricultural sector acquires relevance encompass the following: (a) dissemination of market price information, (b) creation of land registries, (c) agro-meteorological information communication, (d) facilitating networks of agricultural researchers and farmers, and (e) using internet for learning about agricultural techniques used in developed countries. One of the better ways of trading is through the internet and, therefore, e-trading assumes significant importance. Due to the fragmented structure of agriculture, relatively dispersed trading community and consequently inefficient supply chains, there is ample scope to reduce costs and improve service levels. In the present milieu, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), precision farming and mapping obviously bring ICT into picture. The application and mapping of ICT in agriculture are shown in Figure 1, which provides an insight into the approach of the services extended by ICT.

Figure 1.

Source: Sala (2009).

The application of ICT is needed not only during pre-cultivation and in crop cultivation and harvesting operations but also during the post-harvest operations. While the use of Decision Support Systems (DSS), Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), GIS, modelling software, e/m-learning and consulting, remote sensing and networking tools are needed during pre-cultivation operations, crop cultivation and harvesting as well as post-harvesting operations will require other information services, namely. Global Positioning System (GPS), Management Information System (MIS), Database Management System (DBMS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), machine-to-machine communication (m2m), mobile and electronic learning (e/m learning), sensor networks, e/m-learning and consulting, computer control devices and tracing devices. These ICT services are essential for achieving the desired growth in the agricultural sector and for its sustainable development.

There are several successful tools of ICT applications in Indian agriculture, and these mainly include e-choupal, Ikisan, KCCs, Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs), The Gyandoot Project, Agmarknet and Warana Wired Village. Apart from these, the ICT tools developed over time have a significant role to play not only in terms of providing required knowledge of market forces but also with respect to crop yield, weather conditions, and thus acting as decision support system for the farmers. The ICT technologies are observed to be instrumental in strengthening farming community through wider networking and also widening marketing horizon for farmers. A brief overview on some of the successful tools of ICT applications is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Role of Tools of ICT Application for Agricultural Development in India.

ICT Tools	Description
E-choupal	E-choupal, launched in June 2000 by the ITC’s² Agri-Business Division, is enabling Indian agriculture to significantly enhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers through the power of the Internet. The model has been specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed before the Indian agriculture in terms of weak infrastructure and involvement of numerous market intermediaries. It also unshackles the potential of Indian farmer who has been trapped in a vicious cycle of low risk-taking ability–low investment–low productivity–weak market orientation–low value addition–low margin–low risk-taking ability. However, the problems faced by ‘e-choupal’ revolve around infrastructure inadequacies, including power supply, telecom connectivity and bandwidth, apart from the challenge of imparting skills to the first-time internet users in remote and inaccessible areas of rural India.
Ikisan Project	The Ikisan³ is the ICT initiative of the Nagarjuna group of companies that happens to be the largest private entity supplying farmers’ agricultural needs. It is a one-stop information resource for the Indian farmer and it provides online, detailed content on crops, crop management techniques, fertilisers and pesticides, and a host of other agriculture-related material. The Ikisan was set up with two components—the ikisan.com website to provide agricultural information online and the technical centres at the village level. It makes available latest updates on markets, products and weather forecasts, and it links farmers to other farmers, suppliers and consumers across the world.
Kisan Call Centres	The KCCs—the important information gateway for the farmers—were launched in India in 2004 by the Department of Agricultural and Co-operation with focus on technologies such as desktop computer system with Internet connectivity, high bandwidth telephone lines, and telephones with headphones and teleconferencing facility. The main aim of launching KCCs was to deliver the extension services to the farming community in the local languages. The objective of the scheme has been to make agriculture knowledge available at free of cost to the farmers as and when desired.
Village knowledge centres	The village knowledge centres were launched in 1998 by the M.S. Swaminathan research foundation with the objective to provide sustainable food security in rural areas of Pondicherry. The major thrusts of the centres are to (a) provide technical information related to agricultural inputs, (b) help in procuring quality seeds, providing information about the daily marked priced from the government as well as private bodies, and (c) advice farmers about crop rotations as well as use of fertilisers and pesticides.
Gyandoot Project	Gyandoot, a government-to-citizen intranet-based service portal implemented in January 2000 in the Dhar district1 of Madhya Pradesh, was designed to provide benefits of information technology to people in rural areas by directly linking the government and villagers through information kiosks. The four pillars on which the Gyandoot community network was established have been people, content, services and server.
Agmarknet	The e-governance portal and an ICT project—AGMARKNET—has been evolved for strengthening the interfaces among government organisations, farmers, industry, policymakers, academic institutions and other beneficiaries. The portal caters to the diversified needs of these stakeholders by providing them with information relating to prices and arrivals, commodity and varieties, grading and standardisation, agricultural market reforms, market atlas, weather information and e-directory of markets.
Warana Wired Village	The Warana⁴ Wired Village project was initiated in 1998 by the prime minister’s IT Task Force. The goal of the project is to increase the efficiency and productivity of the sugarcane cooperative. It provides a wide range of information and services to 70 villages around Warna. It aims at giving villagers access to information about crops and market prices, employment schemes and educational opportunities.
eNAM	The National Agriculture Market, called the eNAM, is an online trading platform for agriculture and related products in India. It helps in better price discovery and providesfacilities for improving the existing market system. It removes any information that causes an imbalance between the buyers and the sellers and it also enhances real-time price discovery that is based on the actual demand and supply.
mKisan	This is an SMS portal to give information to farmers concerning agricultural practices. Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and Pull SMS are value-added services that have enabled farmers and other stakeholders to not only receive broadcast messages but also get web-based services on their mobiles without having internet facilities.

Source: Extracted from the portals of E-Choupal, IKisan Project, KCCs, VKCs, Gyandoot Project, AGMARKNET, Warna Wired Villag, eNAM, and mKisan.

E-governance Initiatives in Agriculture

Recognising the integrative and service delivery potential of the ICT, the Government of India is implementing a National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGPA) through its Department of Information Technology. It was initially launched in 2010–2011 in seven pilot states, which aimed at achieving rapid development in agriculture through ICT. In 2014–2015, the scheme was extended to cover the remaining states and two union territories (UTs), with further extension given to it up to 31 March 2021. The strategic objective of NeGPA is to enable the government services to reach the common man. The necessary content backbone, for creating digital opportunities at grassroots, is being built under the ambitious AGRISNET and Agmarknet mission mode projects by the Ministry of Agriculture. These initiatives—together with reforms in agricultural marketing that include amendment of the APMC Act to permit e-marketing, promotion of direct marketing, National Warehousing Receipt System, grading and standardisation facilities, setting up of rural godowns and strengthening of marketing infrastructure—are paving the way for the ICT-enabled direct marketing of agricultural produce. The major initiatives with respect to e-governance in agriculture are shown in Table 2.

The opportunities created with the large-scale application of the ICT in the Indian agriculture sector have the potential of bringing unprecedented changes and is thus considered as another major change force. In fact, the Agmarknet project has been launched with the strategic intent of enhancing the competitiveness of the farming community by empowering them with agricultural marketing related information.

Table 2.

ICT Initiatives in Agricultural Development of India.

ICT Initiative	Description
AGRISNET	An infrastructure network up to block-level agricultural offices facilitating agricultural extension services and agribusiness activities to usher in rural prosperity
Agmarknet	With a road map to network 7,000 agricultural produce wholesale markets and 32,000 rural markets
ARISNET	Agricultural Research Information System Network
SeedNet	Seed Informatics Network
CoopNet	To network 40,000 Agricultural Primary Credit Societies (PACS) and Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Societies to usher in ICT-enabled services and rural transformation
HORTNET	Horticultural Informatics Network
FERTNET	Fertilisers (Chemical; Bio and Organic Manure) Informatics Network facilitating ‘integrating nutrient management’ at farm level
VISTARNET	Agricultural Extension Information System Network
APHNET	Animal Production and Health Informatics Network (networking about 42,000 animal primary health centres)
LISNET	Land Information System Network, linking all institutions involved in land and water management for agricultural productivity and production systems, which has now evolved as Agricultural Resources Information System project during the Tenth Plan
ARINET	Agricultural and Rural Industries Information System Network to strengthen small and micro 3nterprises (SMEs)
AFPINET	Agricultural & Food Processing Industries Informatics Network

Source: Extracted from the portals of AGRISNET, AGMARKNET, ARISNET, SeedNet, CoopNet, HORTNET, FERTNET, VISTARNET, APHNET, LISNET, ARINET, and AFPINET.

This ambitious goal cannot be achieved solely with the limited government resources. The National Agriculture Policy as well as NeGPA have laid emphasis on the use of ICT for rapid growth of agriculture and generating value at the grassroots level. Considering the government as a large enterprise, it is observed that there are high continuity and change forces operating in the agriculture sector. The e-governance strategy for the agriculture sector should be capable of exhibiting strategic flexibility to simultaneously integrate the opposing forces. It is required to leverage the momentum generated by continuity forces and opportunities created by change forces to meet the challenge of implementing effective and efficient e-governance in the agriculture sector as illustrated through examples based on the principles of flowing stream strategy (Suri & Sushil, 2006).

Nexus Between ICT and Agricultural Development

The ICT initiatives and applications can help in strengthening the farming community through a wide range of networking with exposure of farmers to the global market, aside from their collaborations with private sector players, NGOs, and government institutions and agencies. The benefits of ICTs in terms of their contribution to improve agricultural productivity was well recognised (Armstrong et al., 2010, Armstrong et al., 2011). The public and private sectors have long been on the search of effective solutions to address long- and short-term challenges in agriculture, and also the abundant information needs of farmers. ICT is noticed to have an increasing impact on the agricultural sector and on the processes associated with food production (Blurton, 2010). It has been reported by Casaburi et al. (2014) that sending SMS messages with agricultural advice to smallholder farmers increased yields by 11.5% in extension area as against control group with no messages. Further, the large adoption and integration of ICTs has reduced information and transaction costs, improved service delivery, created job opportunities, and generated new revenue streams and saved resources (Anonymous, 2017). It has been reported by Syiem and Raj (2015) that the most frequently used mode of communication is the mobile phones, which are used by the farmers for social communication, contacting traders for the marketing of produce and contacting experts for getting agricultural advisories.

It has been argued that the major impediments for raising agricultural productivity among smallholders in the developing countries like India are the access, efficiency and affordability of agricultural information (Nagesh & Raj, 2019). It is in this arena where ICT s have been playing a crucial role by disseminating a wide range of information to farmers, especially to help them to become better off in the decision-making process. The recent study conducted by MANAGE identifies five key drivers for the use of ICT in agriculture transformation, particularly for poor producers, and these include low-cost and pervasive connectivity, adaptable and more affordable tools, advances in data storage and exchange, innovative business models and partnerships, and the democratisation of information (Nagesh & Raj, 2019). In order to address these drivers in shaping agricultural sector, seven case studies have been focused upon, especially to highlight how ICTs can help build and transform the lives of the farmers. The seven case studies have been briefly brought out in Table 3.

Table 3.

Case Studies on Effectiveness of ICT in Agricultural Development.

Case Studies	Description
Agriculture Technology Information Center (ATIC)	The rationale for establishing ATIC includes the following: (a) providing diagnostic services for soil and water testing, and plant and livestock health; (b) supplying research products such as seeds and other planning materials, poultry strains, livestock breeds, fish seed and processed products emerging form the institution for testing and adaptation by various clientele; (c) providing information through published literature and communication materials as well as audio-visual aids; and (d) providing an opportunity to the institutes/State Agricultural Universities (SAU/s) to generate some resource through the sale of their technologies. ATIC has the provision for conducting video conferencing for interaction with the various stakeholders such as KVK, farmers and many more. The farmers visit ATIC to resolve issues related to banana tissue culture plants, tamarind, guava, papaya, tomato, mango, French bean cultivation and organic farming.
Digital Green	Digital Green is a technology-supported means of agriculture extension. Digital Green uses video as a basis for disseminating agricultural practices. Its mission is to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers by making agricultural extension services more effective. The unique components of Digital Green encompass a participatory process for content production, a locally generated digital video database, a human-mediated instruction model for dissemination and training, and regimented sequencing to initiate new communities.
EasyKrishi	EasyKrishi is a young enterprise that uses digital interventions with an aim to change agricultural practices from reactive mode to proactive mode. EasyKrishi works towards being the India’s largest FPO-aggregating platform. It aims at passing on the benefits to the farmers and partner FPOs, and it bridges the agriculture information gap so that farmers can transact on distant markets, buyers can have predictability in supply chain and agriculture financing institutes can have lower operation cost with pre-qualified lending options.
e-SAP	It is a complete ICT solutions package for crop health management. The e-SAP has reached over 100,000 farmers covering 26 crops in all six districts of Karnataka. It has helped farmers overcome a major difficulty—reliable identification of their crop pest problems. Further, e-SAP has effectively driven the concept of quantification of the pest problem and has introduced the concept of pest-intensity based management system.
IKSL	The IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited provides agriculture-related information to the farming community through toll free telephone lines. The mission of IKSL is to empower Indian farmers with timely, relevant and high-quality information and services; improve informed decision-making by farmers, which could result in reduction in costs; and improvement in quality, increase in income and enhanced opportunities for livelihoods.
Krishi community radio station	It is the first community radio station in India, under the SAUs setup and the first community radio station in Karnataka. Community radio, particularly in agricultural extension, is suited to: share and pass on new and traditional information, debate and ratify model and new practices, archive local and value-based traditions, and share real experiences.
mKisan	It is an SMS portal for farmers that enables all central and state government organisations in agriculture and allied sectors to give information/services/advisories to farmers by SMS in their language on agricultural practices and specific needs of farmers.

Source: Nagesh and Raj (2019).

It is to be noted that while ATIC acts as a single window for information delivery, Digital Green uses video as tool for disseminating agricultural technologies information. The role of EasyKrishi is to aggregate all the farmer producer organisations digitally, whereas e-SAP addresses solutions for the issues related to pest management, and IKSL deals with call centre solutions for all the farmer’s queries. Here, Krishi community radio station serves the cause of the local community. The mKisan’s use of messaging empowers the farming community. It has been categorically mentioned that these seven case studies have successfully empowered the farming community. Further, a perception analysis of e-SAP revealed that 70% of beneficiaries extended positive response regarding e-SAP since the concept helped them to overcome the major difficulty in terms of crop pest problems (Nagesh & Raj, 2019). There are number of benefits of EasyKrishi application, and these benefits not only go to farmers but also to agricultural financing institutions, policymakers and advisory bodies.⁵

The recommendations derived from the case studies have much wider implications. One of the recommendations suggests the popularisation of ICT initiatives to meet the large sections of the community since they are meeting the requirement of the selected portions of the population. Another recommendation is to expand limited use of mobile application. The establishment of an alternative mode of communication in places where power and internet connectivity turns out to be barriers is also one of the recommendations. It has also been emphasised upon undertaking periodical studies to evaluate ICT initiatives for their expansion. The real boost for agricultural development will also depend upon how best the youths engaged in ICT disseminations are properly trained. In this context, development of infrastructure is crucial for the widespread dissemination of ICT benefits to reposition agricultural sector of India and make it globally more competitive and developed.

Conclusion

The introduction, implementation, application and adoption of ICT services are essential for the sustainable growth and development of the agricultural sector of India. The desired higher growth in the agricultural sector can be achieved only when there is proper application of ICT with adequate investments from both public and private sectors. Since ICT helps in information dissemination in less time with effective ways of communication, its implementation cannot be ignored. There is a great scope to implement ICT in order to communicate and integrate the entire agri-food supply chain. The beneficiaries of ICT in agriculture are not only confined to farmers but also encompass food processing companies and suppliers within the agri-food sector. The tools of ICT applications have the potential to provide networking of agriculture sector within the country and globally, aside from bringing farmers, researchers, scientists and administrators under one umbrella. Although providing access to the new technology to the majority would impose a large financial burden, the more difficult task is to prepare the disconnected to develop the competence to participate in the emerging digital economy. The new technologies developed through ICT initiatives can help surmount barriers prevailing at present in providing access to information resources at a low cost and it will make its applications feasible as well as profitable. The application of ICT solutions for the development of rural India will surely open up a vast range of possibilities to the majority of the population living in rural settings to cross the digital divide to obtain access to information resources and services provided by ICT.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

ORCID iD

Deepak Shah

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