Farmers for Tomorrow: A step towards digitalization in agriculture
23rd December 2014 at CIRC Sonapur
Honouring the birth aniversary of Chaudhury Charan Singh, the sixth Prime Minister of free India and a noted farmer; CIRC Sonapur in sync with the entire nation celebrated Farmer’s day through a half day long programme. The centre celebrated the day jointly with the Department of Agriculture (Govt. of Assam; Sonapur Circle) among the members of the farming fraternity of Dimoria Block. Noted guest of honour Mr. Dibakar Deka, The Agricultural Development Officer (ADO), Department of Agriculture (Govt. of Assam; Sonapur Circle); Moin-Ul Haque Junior Engineer (Block Development Office) and Mr. Gyan Bordoloi (noted farmer) aggrevated the programme with vigour and enthusiasm.
The guest of honour were felicitated by CIRC Sonapur representatives by a present of the traditional Assamese ‘gamucha’ (towel). The session was started by a power point presentation in assamese language (including video clips) on the topic ‘The role of ICT in the Agricultural Sector’ jointly by Riju Baishya and Prativa Borah. It was followed by a presentation by the ADO and a lecture by Moin-Ul Haque (J.E, Block Office).
The ADO presented elaborately on the intervention of ICT in agriculture. He mentioned about Kissan Call Centres, Kissan Credit Card, the use of mobile phone and internet in farming, the need to learn and use these digital devices. He emphasized on community farming rather than commercial agriculture as community farming is sustainable and the farmers can incur more profit. He also requested the farmers to prepare a list of the materials they require for a good cultivation so as those things can be acquired from the government in time. The Gram Sevaks were also asked to intervene in these directions and put their service to better use of the farming fraternity.
After the presentations noted Farmer Mr. Gyan Bordoloi jointly adressed the grivances of the farming fraternity where after the session was made open to the farmers and there was a string of questions and answers among the farmers and the guests of honor.
The programme turned out to be very interactive and lively. Emphasis was put on new farming methods such as organic farms/green house/orchards and community farming. It lead us to conceptualize on engaging and intervening the farming fraternity with the help of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools in order to make them easily accessible, visible and provide them a wider outreach.