Sub Programme Area 403

The significant role of ICTs in knowledge management that supports agriculture development and small-holder livelihoods is dealt with in this section.

403.1 Transforming Public Libraries to Lifelong Learning Centres

Selected public librarians are being capacitated under the project on innovative leadership capabilities, skills and knowledge. With their acquired leadership and innovative thinking skills, they are implementing need-based services through their libraries, and hence redefining the public library as lifelong knowledge centres.

The International Network of Emerging Library Innovators (INELI India and South Asia) strengthens the abilities (attitude, skills and knowledge) of the public librarians as ‘innovative library leaders’, having understood the need for twenty-first-century skills in innovative design thinking, community need-based services, access to information, relevance of UN-SDGs, social inclusion, gender sensitivity, ICTs, building evidence of change and topics related to social, economic and environmental development. There are three cohorts of 76 library professionals as INELI library innovators from 20 states and union territories of India and 17 from five other South Asian countries, including India (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives). There are 15 experiential innovators, who are also part of INELI, undertaking the online course. These INELI innovators are the trailblazers of the evolving regional public library movement. The key highlights are:

• A total of 38 public librarians of Cohorts 1 and 2 of INELI India are participating in an online leadership course. Cohort 3, comprising of 17 public librarians from six South Asian countries, are actively participating in the online MOOC platform and have completed six modules; four modules were completed by Cohort 2 and three modules by Cohort 1. Online orientation was completed for the 15 experiential innovators.

• Convening 1 of Cohort 3 was organized in partnership with district central library, Trichy, government of Tamil Nadu. This convening showcased a global INELI innovator and INELI mentor who has redefined the public library as a community hub. A total of 16 innovators were introduced to ongoing community need-based services for target communities such as farmers, women, youth, children, the visually challenged and the physically challenged. The design allowed innovators to capture new models evolving through strategic and sustainable approaches and pillars of partnerships, for co-creating and building inclusive and SMART libraries for community well-being.

• Initiated online MOOC – online leadership course related discussion with 15 experiential innovators of Tamil Nadu.

• Revised nine modules for the online curriculum and upgraded Model from 2.x to 3.1 version hosting the INELI curriculum for better user experience both online (web) and offline (mobile application) and also automated manual tasks, wherever required.

• A total of 17 members of a transition committee are strategically planning and devising action plans for thinking about and building INELI regional network.

• A total of 54 innovators participated in the first regional convening which covered themes such as leadership, risk assessments, organizational development and networking tools for building the regional network.

• Land-to-land concept: 2 INELI innovators facilitated a 1-day leadership training workshop for 20 non-INELI public librarians.

• Agriculture developmental actions and their integration in public libraries: Innovative knowledge services such as plant clinics, soil health, audio advisories, helpline and tele-health and literacy programmes have been integrated into the public libraries and are very well received by the local target communities as shown below.

a. Plant clinic: Three public libraries organized 12 plant clinics, in which 189 farmers (male: 173; female: 16) participated and 190 samples were diagnosed.

b. Soil health: 124 soil samples and 41 water samples were collected and awareness was created on the soil health management.

c. Audio advisories: 58 audio advisory messages were shared through public libraries and covered 209 farmers (male: 196 male; female: 13).

d. Tele-health and literacy programmes: In a 7-year partnership with the Apollo Hospital, MSSRF has implemented nine tele-health awareness and literacy programmes, imparting awareness on current health issues around communicable, non-communicable and infectious diseases. A total of 15 libraries participated and the outreach was to 1786 members (male: 684; female: 1102) of rural communities.

• A total of 24 selected innovators from 11 states covering 24 districts across India organized outreach programmes of innovative services through their libraries. The overall reach was 218031 members (male: 108539; female: 109492) covering diverse sections of the communities in the region.

• The selected public librarians are facilitating a self-sustaining model through their libraries by evolving a dynamic localized network of diverse stakeholders such as government departments, Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation, NGOs, philanthropists, academicians, welfare associations, charitable institutions, individual patrons and readers’ forums from 20 states in India across six South Asian countries.

• Two regional INELI network workshops finalized the five major committees engaged in the functioning of these networks effectively and the roles and responsibilities with all the three cohorts and the next steps and key areas of immediate implementation. Asia Network of Library Innovators’ Foundation was formalized with 40 members as part of the network to build, drive and run this regional network.

• Developed communication materials (photos/web content and a video of INELI innovators’ voices and all speeches of convening 1 of Cohort 3) for sharing with INELI global and INELI India and South Asia.

403.2 Village Resource Centres and Village Knowledge Centres

At present, 3 VRCs and 13 VKCs with a physical set-up and 328 villages are virtually connected through different ICT tools, especially mobile telephony. Diverse ICT tools, namely, mobile-based audio advisories, webinars, phone-in programmes, farmers’ helpline services, audio and video conferencing, video-based learning, plant and e-plant clinics, picture-based advisories, social media apps such as WhatsApp and websites, are being used. During the past year, the initiative reached 27194 members (male: 15838; female: 11356) and accessed advisories on agriculture and animal husbandry, health, education and government entitlements (Table 2).

Thematic areaMaleFemaleTotal
Agriculture14293804022333
Animal husbandry54211581700
Health and nutrition37611641540
Civic services and government entitlement6279941621
Total158381135627194

The VKC model has been in demand by many civil society organizations and state governments. A greater effort has been invested for the sustainability of VKCs by adopting a framework of five pillars (social, human, infrastructure, physical and financial). This approach helped the VKC management committee, which is managing the VKCs with community ownership even after the project period. During the past year, the Andhra Pradesh government established RythuBharosaKendralus (RBKs) in which they have formed the farmers’ knowledge centres (FKC) based on the MSSRF model VRC-VKCs. MSSRF has been recognized as a knowledge and technical partner by Andhra Pradesh state government for running the FKCs and an MoU have been signed with the AP government to facilitate this initiative.
Soil Health Management: The mobile soil and water testing facility tested 705 soil samples and 244 water samples collected from 508 farmers, including 118 women from 94 villages of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The results identified the problematic soil as hotspots: 13 alkaline, 23 acid, 114 saline and 134 soils having high calcium carbonate content were identified. Also, overall, it indicates the deficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus. It indirectly shows that soil fertility is low and farmers have to pay attention to improve the soil organic matter and take measures to reduce soil salinity, which is largely due to faulty management practices. Soil health cards were issued to help the farmers adopt integrated nutrient management practices.
Farm Schools: The farm school in Thiruvaiyaru facilitated 13 training programmes, and 349 farmers (male: 213; female: 136) learnt the advanced practices of Kuruvai and Samba paddy cultivation (parallel to kharif and rabi seasons), especially the importance of seed treatment technology, integrated nutrient management and integrated pest management (IPM) approaches in conservation of beneficial micro-organisms. Also, it introduced the new paddy variety ADT 53 with the support of Aduthurai Rice Research Station, and 31 farmers cultivated the new variety. It was found that 43 per cent of the farmers who regularly attended the farm school training received good grain yield in the Kuruvai season (6 MT/ha) when compared with the Samba season (5.5 MT/ha). The farm school in Kannivadi facilitated 620 farmers (male: 328; female: 292) on the use of various bio-inputs as well as the use of pest traps, including yellow sticky traps, pheromone traps and so on, which protected the cultivation of vegetables and drip irrigation.
Videos for Farmers to Promote Video-Based Learning: The ‘videos for farmers’ programme is being implemented in partnership with Access Agriculture. Producing and translating the need-based videos on best practices focusing on non-chemical interventions and promoting video-based learning among small-holders are the main activities. The topics of the videos to be developed are identified based on the important issues faced by the farmers in consultation with them. So far, nine new videos have been produced and twelve translated into Tamil. During the past year, two videos, ‘Managing the Rice Leaf Folder’ and ‘Organic Growth Promoter for Vegetables’, have been produced. The VRCs are promoting video-based learning. Also during the past year, the videos were screened in 168 locations and seen by 5040 members (male: 3573; female: 1469). The pre- and post-evaluation with the viewers have revealed that 68 per cent of the farmers’ knowledge on a particular theme has been enhanced.
Smart Farming Initiatives: MSSRF is collaborating with a Hyderabad-based start-up Makers Hive to use new generation technological tools such as drone and artificial intelligence (AI) to address farm issues. An MoU was signed with Makers Hive and pilot testing inaugurated after the stakeholder meeting at Thiruplanam village under Thiruvaiyaru VRC on 12 October 2019. Subsequently, land for AI-based automatic weather station installation has been identified and the physical device installation completed. Two rounds of drone surveys for digital land mapping have also been done and the soil status of the village analysed with the help of soil testing. Necessary content was developed with the support of the agriculture department and KVKs for further rollout of the initiative in the field.
Plant Clinics: The plant clinic programme has been implemented from 2012 onwards in partnership with the CABI in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam and Odisha. Trained plant doctors diagnose the crop samples, record plant health issues and provide appropriate recommendations to the farmers. Till date, 37 plant clinics have been established and their services are reaching 1140 villages. During the year, 291 plant clinic sessions were conducted and about 4296 samples from 4298 farmers (male: 3287; female: 1011) diagnosed. In addition, the plant health campaign was conducted on major pests, such as fall armyworm in maize, gall midge, bacterial leaf blight and shoot borer in paddy, stem and root rot in groundnut, and budworm in jasmine, and the plant health knowledge reached about 16760 farmers (male: 11130; female: 5630). The pest management decision guide preparation workshop, clinic cluster exchange meeting for cross-learning and plant clinic online management system data validation are the other important activities carried out during the past year. In addition, the plant clinic programme organized result-sharing workshop with policymakers and government officials in Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. The consolidated learning from the past 8 years of experience was shared. The clinics have been helpful to the farmers for knowledge enhancement among plant health and about the behavioural changes, especially in toxicity levels of pesticides, use of pesticides after confirming symptoms and use of biological inputs for the management. More specifically, the advisories in the plant clinics helped to reduce the use of ‘red-labelled’ chemicals and increase the use of bio-inputs; they also helped in early diagnosis of the problem and guided the farmers in using the right quantity of pesticides. A study was conducted to assess the benefits of the plant clinics, and it showed about 40 per cent of the farmers who visited the plant clinic shifted the pest management practices from complete chemicals to IPM practices. Reduction in input cost up to 55–65 per cent was noticed. Further, 56 per cent of farmers had an increased income between Rs 4000 and 6000/acre.
In partnership with CABI and PEAT GmbH, MSSRF contributed to strengthening the PlantixApp, which provides support to farmers in diagnosing pests, diseases and nutrient deficiencies. A workshop was conducted on ‘field accuracy assessment’, and the plant doctors were trained on the process of Plantix testing. More than 52250 pictures have been collected and uploaded on Gatherix software, of which 10500 have been validated.
Picture-Based Insurance Bundled with Picture-Based Advisories: The current crop insurance systems are focusing on abiotic risks. However, the crops have been equally affected regularly by biotic stresses such as insects and diseases, which are increasing due to changes in the climate. In this backdrop, picture-based advisories and insurance systems for agricultural risk management are being considered as better tools to estimate risk. Here, registered farmers regularly share pictures on the crop stand to the experts, who in turn diagnose, analyse and extend advisories as well as confirm the rate of loss due to the identified pests to farmers and insurance providers, respectively. This helps to provide improved financial services at a lower cost and assist farmers in getting personalized advisories to manage the production risks and improve the sustainability of insurance services in a timely manner.
The study was conducted in 50 villages of Pudukkottai, Thiruvaiyaru region of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where regular plant clinics are organized during two seasons; paddy in both the seasons and groundnut in the second season. Farmers with smartphones were requested to register their field sites (geo-tagged) through the UzhavarCam app, which in turn is linked to a web portal (http://pbinsurance.org/tn/index.html). Farmers took repeated pictures at weekly intervals and close-up images of crop problems, whenever they observed it. Out of the total 1000 farmers targeted, 500 received advisories and the rest continued to use plant clinics. The objective is to see the synergy between plant clinics and picture-based advisory and compare the efficiency rates of the two. The farmers received information related to prevention/alert/warning, weather, varieties, sowing, nutrients, pests and disease management during the entire crop cycle.
In the first season, 1180 overview images (Puducherry, 322; Pudukkottai, 354; Thiruvaiyaru, 504) and 373 close-up images were received. Appropriate advisories according to the problems were given after proper diagnosis. Field volunteers were assigned to motivate the registered farmers to send the images at weekly intervals, and as a result in the first season 64.3 per cent of registered farmers sent repeated pictures.
Based on the experiences and findings of the previous season, it was decided to work closely with 250 farmers (5 each in 50 villages) for the second season with an addition of physical crop-cutting experiments (CCEs) in paddy. Here, to maintain the uniformity and regularity in sending the crop stand, an agent model was adopted in the second season to ensure the receipt of the pictures. Young, educated farmers were motivated to support other farmers in capturing the crop stand on a regular basis.
The CCEs were carried out in 30 villages of Pudukkottai and Thiruvaiyaru covering 147 sites. Farmers were enrolled based on the repeated pictures taken by them during the first season. In case of lesser number of repeated images, new sites based on satellite images were chosen. A total of 3028 overview images (Pudukkottai, 1689; Thiruvaiyaru, 1339) and 488 close-up images have been received. Appropriate generic and specific advisories were given, which helped the farmers to reduce the crop loss. The standard protocol was followed for CCEs and the data was uploaded in the survey CTO app. Grain yield, biomass weight, grain moisture and biomass moisture were recorded. Similarly, 250 groundnut farmers have been registered from 50 villages of Pudukkottai for CCEs. More than 87 per cent of the farmers sent repeated pictures and 30 per cent sent close-up images of the pests and diseases. The data collected are being analysed to understand the efficiency of the picture-based advisories approach in assessing crop damage and to use it as an authenticated measure to estimate yield loss. Based on this, the introduction of picture-based insurance services for both paddy and groundnut has been planned.