A New Agriculture Advisory System with Personalised Interfaces

Abstract

The 2011–2012 State of Indian Agriculture notes that even while half of the country’s population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, the sector contributes only 13.9 % of the Gross Domestic Product, reflecting the dismal productivity in the sector. The focus has rightly shifted from providing generic, block-level advisory to more personalized advisories to farmers, with the aim of improving productivity and profitability. Most agricultural advisory systems in the country today have not succeeded in the objective of providing easily accessible, sustainable, personalized advisories to farmers. Under the Indo-UK Advanced Technology Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, Systems and Services (IUATC), a major technology transfer initiative, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in India and UK Government under the Digital Economy Theme, there is an attempt to address the challenges in Indian agriculture through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) networks. This chapter presents a functioning Agricultural Advisory System that has been built with the aim of bridging information gaps between farmers and agriculture knowledge workers (such as agricultural scientists and extension workers). The system not only enables personalized advisories, it can also render personalized interfaces that take into account various user impairments, for both the experts and farmers – a truly personalized experience for all the users.