Title: Developing an ICT platform for enhancing agricultural productivity: the case study of EID Parry

Authors: B. Bowonder, Yelwender Yadav

Addresses: Tata Management Training Centre, No. 1, Mangaldas Road, Pune 411 001, India. ' Administrative Staff College of India, India

Abstract: India traditionally is an agrarian economy, where even today 40% of the country|s GDP is derived from agriculture and agriculture products. Lately the Indian farmer community has not been exposed to the use of ICT for its well-being, but since the Indian private sector has entered the arena, the acceptability of the latest innovations and tools by the farmer has increased. EID Parry was the first company to start a sugar mill in India. The company launched the Parry|s Corner ICT initiative to derive the synergies from its vast experience and the farmers|s knowledge pool. Parry|s Corner was pivotal in increasing the yields and reducing the expenditures for the farmers. Farmers here are able to access a wide range of information from the information kiosks such as the climatic conditions, knowledge about the urea, fertilizers, seeds and also the cropping patterns. This project was successful as it helped in the creation of skills at the local level. There was also extensive involvement of beneficiaries before starting the project resulting in shared goals.

Keywords: agricultural productivity; information kiosks; internet kiosks; information dissemination; networked community; CorDECT WLL technology; Parry|s Corner; India; ICT adoption; ICT diffusion; information technology; communications; developing countries; rural population; agricultural information; agriculture; farming knowledge.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2005.007413

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2005 Vol.6 No.3/4/5, pp.322 - 341

Published online: 18 Jul 2005 *

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