Imagine any business, let me write this way any damn profitable business...
Now list down what all it takes to make a business successful...I hope that would match with few of mine..
1) They know for what segment they are running the business
2) what is demand?
3) How to supply?
4) They know where to market?
5) They know what competition is pricing?
6) They know how increase productivity?
7) They know how to minimize costs?
8) They follow the risk minimizing tool, analysis etc...
and how they match with these criterion, one simple and two word answer that is Intelligent Information.
What is an intelligent information .. its an information which has power to influence the decision making ability in a profitable way..
Do you really think our farmer knows..
where to sell?
how to sell?
how to increase productivity?
how to save costs?
what are the new technologies?
what to sow?
What is global demand of the commodity?
What is global, local production of the commodity?
What is the area under cultivation?
What Government is doing for them?
What more they can do?
So lets figure out how to tell him all these things so that he can also make his farming a business unit not a livelihood unit, and that piece of work can only be done by Intelligent Information, reaching at right time to a right person.. How to ensure the delivery of this so called Intelligent Information...
Historically, farmers have invented and shared technologies and practices related to agriculture informally. With increasing state control over agricultural production and a cash based agricultural economy, markets have become ever more important. The advent of the green revolution has also made agriculture input intensive and externally dependent. In order to address these new development challenges, state controlled extension services were strengthened. These services, however, were generally chemical input intensive, natural resource exploiting and addressed only the larger and predominantly male farmers’ needs. The needs and priorities of marginal, landless and women farmers were neglected in state extension support mechanisms and remained isolated from new technologies and agricultural methods.
The major constraining issue is that public extension services are not need based but supply driven. The top down planning rarely considers farmers’ needs or involves them in the planning process. The focus is on meeting targets and agricultural inputs only, while training and information are not imparted according to the crop cycle or likely to improve smallholder capacity and productivity.
In addition, despite the fact that women perform more than 70% of agriculture activities, the department of extension services has no clear strategy or implementation mechanism on how to involve women and channel appropriate information to them. In general, women are not recognized as farmers because they are not landowners (they are systematically denied land titles despite reforms in land laws).
We all need to think rigorously how we can solve his needs of information and moreover how we can teach him the value of information.
