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Overview |
Crop Production |
Crop Pattern |
Crop Yield |
Irrigation |
Soil Management | Precision Farming |
Relevant Products |
Relevant Links
Impact of economic reforms on Indian agricultural sector: Application of geomatics technology to reduce marginalisation and vulnerability of small farmers in India
The OpenGISÒ Model of the Open GIS Consortium Technical Committee [OpenGIS] envisages to synchronize geo-processing technology with the emerging Information Technology standards, based on open systems, distributed processing, and componentware frameworks, and to facilitate interoperability through "common specification" over internet/intranet. The "Pluggable Computing Model" pvides a conceptual framework ("reference model") that positions the OpenGIS Specification in the broad context of Information Technology. The Pluggable Tool Services include GIS Tools, Imaging Tools, Expert Tools, and RDBMS Tools. Each Tool has algorithms, data, and interfaces to services in the distributed computing environment. Benefits of the Pluggable Computing Model are as follows:-
- To permit increased
resource sharing between organizations and
processes
- To facilitate
understanding the role of the OpenGIS
Specification in the larger context of
Information Technology
- To enhance data
connectivity among users and applications
- To improve the ability of developers and users to integrate new capabilities into existing environments as well as incorporate legacy systems into new environments.
Informatics for agricultural development requires coordinated inter-sectoral approach and application of appropriate Information Technology (IT) tools, in the areas of :-
- Agricultural Research,
- Agro-meteorology,
- Agricultural Marketing,
- Agricultural
Engineering and Food processing,
- Agricultural Extension
and Transfer of Technology,
- Credit &
Co-operation,
- Crop Production and
Protection,
- Environment &
Forest,
- Fertilizers and Manure,
- Fisheries,
- Irrigation and Drainage
Systems,
- Livestock, Dairy
Development and Animal Husbandry,
- Rural Development and
Planning,
- Soil and Water
Management,
- Watershed Development,
and
- Wastelands Development
In view of the recommendations given by ISDA-95 and various sub-Groups for formulation of the Ninth Plan in the Agriculture Sector, MOA is implementing Information Technology Plan, in collaboration with NIC, to implement "NICNET based Agricultural Informatics and Communication (AGRISNET)" in the country, to achieve higher sustainable agricultural productivity and also to make "Indian Agricultural Sector On-line". This is likely to be the largest sharable Internet Portal in the world, for agricultural sector in India, on NICNET having more than 10,000 nodes to government itself.
Agricultural Resources Information System
It is clear that sustainable agricultural production depends on the judicious mix of natural resources (soil, water, livestock, plant genetic, fisheries, forests, climate, rainfall, and topography) in an acceptable technology management under the prevailing socio-economic infrastructure. In addition to the natural resources components, it is also essential to combine natural resources with capital resources, institutional resources, and human resources for sustainable agricultural development.Agricultural Resources components include
- Animal Resources
- Capital resources
- Climate resources
- Environment data
- Fisheries Resources
- Forestry Resources
- Institutional resources
- Land owners data
- Plant Resources
- Socio-economic &
Infrastructure data
- Soil resources
- Water Resources
For increasing production at micro level, an inventory of currently used, potentially available, and an evaluation of the quantity and quality of these resources is required. This requires design and development of agricultural resources information system using state-of-the-art IT Tools, as given below, to facilitate effective agricultural planning and development :-
- Data warehousing (Data
Bases & Model Bases)
- Expert Systems &
Knowledge Bases
- Networking (Internet,
Intranet and Extranet)
- Geographical
Information System (GIS)
- Application of Remote
Sensing Data
- Multi-media Information
System
- Decision Technology
System
- E-Commerce &
E-Governance, and
- Digital Library
Agricultural planning and development [Mollet84] require (a) knowledge about recent progress in agriculture, (b) the existing situation (especially the main problems impeding development), and (c) the potentialities for achieving agricultural objectives. This information is needed for re-assessing current investment and other development activities as well as for planning new measures, setting benchmarks against which to monitor progress.
Proper analysis of the agricultural sector requires that it is seen as a system of functionality inter-related and inter-dependent elements, each of which contributes to the existing and potential level of performance of the sector. A stock taking and diagnostic survey is needed early in the planning process to provide information about the wide range of factors influencing agricultural performance.
Both the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Rural Development implement, through corresponding State departments, various central sector and centrally sponsored schemes related to agricultural and rural development, on watershed basis. The landscape, climate, and agronomic characteristics of each watershed vary considerably. Each watershed contains a complex mixture of
- soil types,
- landscapes,
- climatic regimes,
- land use
characteristics, and
- agricultural systems.
Each watershed can be subdivided into agro-eco-regions having similar soil types, landscapes, climatic regimes, crop and animal productivity, and hydrologic characteristics. Integrated Watershed Development and Management has been recognized as an effective strategy for sustainable agricultural development in the country.
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