E Agriculture Development by Information
AWERProcedia Information
Technology & Computer Science
Vol 03 (2013) 1330-1334
3rd World Conference on Information Technology (WCIT-2012)
E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) Application
Behzad Sani *, Department of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Tehran, Iran.
Suggested Citation:
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application,
AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available
rd
from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS Proceedings of 3 World Conference on
Information Technology (WCIT-2012), 14-16 November 2012, University of Barcelon, Barcelona, Spain.
Received 19 February, 2013; revised 18 July, 2013; accepted 09 September, 2013.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser.
©
Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved.
Abstract
E-Agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through
improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-Agriculture involves the
conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. Information of the
required quality always has the potential of improving efficiency in all spheres of agriculture. Information
Technology (IT) has long been viewed as having great potential for improving decision making in agriculture. IT
has connected the world globally and is now changing our life style and social consciousness dynamically. The
role of information technology to develop agricultural research, education and extension to improve quality of
life in rural area is well established.
Keywords: E-Agriculture, information and communication technology (ICT), sustainable agriculture;
* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Behzad Sani, Department of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch,
Tehran, Iran, E-mail address: [email protected] / Tel.: +98-21-468-96001
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
1. Introduction
The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture is increasingly
important. E-Agriculture is a relatively new term and we fully expect its scope to change and evolve as
our understanding of the area grows. E-Agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the
declaration and plan of action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The "Tunis
Agenda for the Information Society," published on 18 November 2005, emphasizes the leading
facilitating roles that UN agencies need to play in the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been assigned the
responsibility of organizing activities related to the action line under C.7 ICT Applications on EAgriculture [4].
Figure 1. Major problems of human world
2. Role of IT in Agriculture
In the context of agriculture, the potential of information technology (IT) can be assessed broadly
under two heads: (a) as a tool for direct contribution to agricultural productivity and (b) as an indirect
tool for empowering farmers to take informed and quality decisions which will have positive impact on
the way agriculture and allied activities are conducted. Precision farming, popular in developed
countries, extensively uses IT to make direct contribution to agricultural productivity. The techniques
of remote sensing using satellite technologies, geographical information systems, and agronomy and
soil sciences are used to increase the agricultural output. This approach is capital intensive and useful
where large tracts of land are involved. Consequently it is more suitable for farming taken up on
corporate lines. The indirect benefits of IT in empowering Indian farmer are significant and remain to
be exploited. The Indian farmer urgently requires timely and reliable sources of information inputs for
taking decisions. At present, the farmer depends on trickling down of decision inputs from
conventional sources which are slow and unreliable. The changing environment faced by Indian
farmers makes information not merely useful, but necessary to remain competitive. Information
Technology is rapidly becoming more and more visible in society and agriculture. IT refers to how we
use information, how we compute information, and how we communicate information to people.
People must have computer and information technology. To participate and make informed decisions
in the agricultural industry a person must have ability to gather, process, and manipulate data [5].
3. IT in Agriculture Education Management
Since independence, the higher education system has undergone many changes. The number of
universities has gone up from 19 in 1947 to 275 in the year 2000. At the same time the number of
colleges have increased from 591 to over 10,000 and students strength from 0.2 million to about 7.0
1331
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
million. Today with over 3, 00,000 teachers, the Indian higher education system is the second largest
in the world. Considering this scenario of agricultural education the enrolment of students in
agriculture remained only 1.5% in agriculture and allied fields. However the percentage of students
studying for professional degrees is extremely low. In Japan more than 30% students are studying for
engineering degrees, whereas in India, it is hardly 5%. Everyday where one college is being opened in
India, only 6 % of Indian population in the age groups of 18 to 23 years is getting the benefit of higher
education. With this background in view, we can be able to understand, how difficult it is to face the
challenges of higher education in 21st century which is being dominated by the Information
Technology. This clearly indicates that all out efforts need to be made in higher education especially in
the field of science and technology to harness the youth potential of rural India [3].
Figure 2. Agricultural knowledge and information systems for rural development [2]
4. Application of GPS
In agriculture, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are used for geo-fencing, map-making and
surveying. GPS receivers dropped in price over the years, making it more popular for civilian use. With
the use of GPS, civilians can produce simple yet highly accurate digitized map without the help of a
professional cartographer. In Kenya, a huge elephant bull wanders into farms and destroys precious
crops. Their solution was to tag the elephant with a device that sends a text message when it crosses a
geo-fence. Using the technology of SMS and GPS, the elephant can roam freely and the authorities are
alerted whenever it is near the farm [8].
5. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture
The Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, AFITA was founded in January 24,
1998 in Wakayama City, Japan when the First Asian Conference for Information Technology in
Agriculture was held. The purpose of the conference was as follows; though the population on the
earth has not been really exploded yet, we can see clues of food crisis; that is, the lack of food in some
of the developing countries is chronic and even major powers are facing the difficulties to balance the
productivity and the environmental requirement. As the balance of the food supply and demand is
now inevitably under the strategy of the world trading mechanism and the control of the power, it is
almost meaningless to solve the crisis within a country. Only the international sharing and cooperation
for sustainable food productivity on the basis of information sharing and mutual understanding could
bring the solution. We believe that the information technology can surely contribute to the solution.
First, the information communication technology such as the Internet that is now dynamically
changing our life style and social consciousness will provide us a best tool for the information sharing
1332
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
and mutual communication. Second, we should not forget the possible contribution of information
science to effective and stable production by several models such as crop growth prediction and
decision support. Thus, the importance of the studies on agroinformatics is undoubtedly increasing.
The Asian countries are keeping the highest growth rate in the world and the requirement on food is
abruptly changing from quantity to quality. In addition, the Asian countries have their individual
agricultural features that are not common in the USA or EU countries. The rice-dependency and the
farming scale are the typical examples. In this conference, sharing such common features, researchers,
engineers, administrators and farmers who are interested in the informatization of the Asian and
world agriculture, will join together, exchange information and discuss about agroinformatics which
will help us e to find some key points to solve the world-wide food problems [1].
6. Agricultural Challenges
In this section we outline five challenges associated with agriculture that must be overcome to
achieve the desired increases in productivity: inherent heterogeneity; unanticipated disturbances;
large geospatial dispersion; security and safety requirements; and constraints. By its very nature,
agriculture works with biological systems that are inherently heterogeneous in composition and
processes. Fields can vary in soil type and moisture content down to a resolution of a square
meter. Weather patterns can vary spatially and temporally in terms of sunlight and rain. Raw materials
themselves have basic genetic variations from plant to plant and animal to animal. Indeed, genetic
variation is often biologically useful for increasing resistance to diseases and pests. But compare this
heteroge eity with the ho oge eity of other i dustrial pro esses, su h as He ry Ford’s asse ly li e,
and the challenges associated with maximizing product yield using a minimum of resources become
apparent. Agricultural processes are much more vulnerable to unanticipated disturbances than many
other industrial processes. The weather can cause floods or bring hail storms that can devastate
crops. Pest or disease infestations can rapidly affect, if not wipe out, large quantities of raw
material. When we contrast this environment to the carefully controlled (temperature, humidity, etc.)
clean-room environment of the semiconductor fabrication industry, we immediately understand that,
because of external forces, the levels of precision in crop or herd yield are far lower than in other
industries [9].
7. Why Information Technology in Agriculture
Alternates for development and growth of agriculture, that can also benefit the cultivators are
limited. Many solutions, mostly related to technology, inputs and infrastructure implemented earlier,
are losing to deliver incremental benefits in present circumstances. There is now an urgent need to
convert agriculture into agri-businesses, which are economically viable and sustainable in future. In
this situation, Information Technology offers new hopes. Many sectors of economy have benefited by
the use of Information Technology. The same can also happen with agriculture sector. Many small
scale experiments have been conducted by many stakeholders in the recent past. Both Governments
as well as Private Sector organizations is working to develop new models for Information Technology
applications in agriculture [6].
1333
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
Figure 3. Components of eSagu system [7]
Figure 4. Depiction of eSagu operation [7]
References
[1] AFITA. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, [Online] 1998. Available from:
http://www.afita.org/ .
[2] AKIS/RD. Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for Rural Development (AKIS/RD). Sustainable
Development Department (SD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2000.
[3] Chauhan, N. B. Information Technology for Agricultural Development in India, [Online] 2010. Available from:
http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in
[4] E-agriculture. A Global Community of Practice, Where People from all over the World Exchange Information,
Ideas, and Resources related to the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, [Online] 2012. Available from: http://www.eagriculture.org.
[5] Mittal, S. C. Role of Information Technology in Agriculture and Its Scope in India. Fertilizer News, 2001, 46
(12), pp. 83-87.
[6] Morarka, G. D. C. Why Information Technology in Agriculture, [Online] Rural Research Foundation, Rajasthan
India, 2008. Available from: http://www.morarkango.com
[7] Ratnam, B. V., Krishna Reddy, P., & Reddy, G. S. eSagu: An IT based Personalized Agricultural Extension
System Prototype – Analysis of 51 Farmers' Case Studies. International Journal of Education and
Development using Information and Communication Technology, 2006, 2 (1), pp. 79-94.
[8] Roberson, G. T. GPS Applications in Agriculture. Precision Agriculture. Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
NC State University, 2012.
[9] Ting, K. C., Abdelzaher, T., Alleyne, A., & Rodriguez, L. Information Technology and Agriculture: Global
Challenges and Opportunities. The Bridge on Agriculture and Information Technology, 2011, 41 (3), pp. 6-13.
1334
Technology & Computer Science
Vol 03 (2013) 1330-1334
3rd World Conference on Information Technology (WCIT-2012)
E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) Application
Behzad Sani *, Department of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Tehran, Iran.
Suggested Citation:
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application,
AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available
rd
from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS Proceedings of 3 World Conference on
Information Technology (WCIT-2012), 14-16 November 2012, University of Barcelon, Barcelona, Spain.
Received 19 February, 2013; revised 18 July, 2013; accepted 09 September, 2013.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser.
©
Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved.
Abstract
E-Agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through
improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-Agriculture involves the
conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. Information of the
required quality always has the potential of improving efficiency in all spheres of agriculture. Information
Technology (IT) has long been viewed as having great potential for improving decision making in agriculture. IT
has connected the world globally and is now changing our life style and social consciousness dynamically. The
role of information technology to develop agricultural research, education and extension to improve quality of
life in rural area is well established.
Keywords: E-Agriculture, information and communication technology (ICT), sustainable agriculture;
* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Behzad Sani, Department of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch,
Tehran, Iran, E-mail address: [email protected] / Tel.: +98-21-468-96001
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
1. Introduction
The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture is increasingly
important. E-Agriculture is a relatively new term and we fully expect its scope to change and evolve as
our understanding of the area grows. E-Agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the
declaration and plan of action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The "Tunis
Agenda for the Information Society," published on 18 November 2005, emphasizes the leading
facilitating roles that UN agencies need to play in the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been assigned the
responsibility of organizing activities related to the action line under C.7 ICT Applications on EAgriculture [4].
Figure 1. Major problems of human world
2. Role of IT in Agriculture
In the context of agriculture, the potential of information technology (IT) can be assessed broadly
under two heads: (a) as a tool for direct contribution to agricultural productivity and (b) as an indirect
tool for empowering farmers to take informed and quality decisions which will have positive impact on
the way agriculture and allied activities are conducted. Precision farming, popular in developed
countries, extensively uses IT to make direct contribution to agricultural productivity. The techniques
of remote sensing using satellite technologies, geographical information systems, and agronomy and
soil sciences are used to increase the agricultural output. This approach is capital intensive and useful
where large tracts of land are involved. Consequently it is more suitable for farming taken up on
corporate lines. The indirect benefits of IT in empowering Indian farmer are significant and remain to
be exploited. The Indian farmer urgently requires timely and reliable sources of information inputs for
taking decisions. At present, the farmer depends on trickling down of decision inputs from
conventional sources which are slow and unreliable. The changing environment faced by Indian
farmers makes information not merely useful, but necessary to remain competitive. Information
Technology is rapidly becoming more and more visible in society and agriculture. IT refers to how we
use information, how we compute information, and how we communicate information to people.
People must have computer and information technology. To participate and make informed decisions
in the agricultural industry a person must have ability to gather, process, and manipulate data [5].
3. IT in Agriculture Education Management
Since independence, the higher education system has undergone many changes. The number of
universities has gone up from 19 in 1947 to 275 in the year 2000. At the same time the number of
colleges have increased from 591 to over 10,000 and students strength from 0.2 million to about 7.0
1331
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
million. Today with over 3, 00,000 teachers, the Indian higher education system is the second largest
in the world. Considering this scenario of agricultural education the enrolment of students in
agriculture remained only 1.5% in agriculture and allied fields. However the percentage of students
studying for professional degrees is extremely low. In Japan more than 30% students are studying for
engineering degrees, whereas in India, it is hardly 5%. Everyday where one college is being opened in
India, only 6 % of Indian population in the age groups of 18 to 23 years is getting the benefit of higher
education. With this background in view, we can be able to understand, how difficult it is to face the
challenges of higher education in 21st century which is being dominated by the Information
Technology. This clearly indicates that all out efforts need to be made in higher education especially in
the field of science and technology to harness the youth potential of rural India [3].
Figure 2. Agricultural knowledge and information systems for rural development [2]
4. Application of GPS
In agriculture, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are used for geo-fencing, map-making and
surveying. GPS receivers dropped in price over the years, making it more popular for civilian use. With
the use of GPS, civilians can produce simple yet highly accurate digitized map without the help of a
professional cartographer. In Kenya, a huge elephant bull wanders into farms and destroys precious
crops. Their solution was to tag the elephant with a device that sends a text message when it crosses a
geo-fence. Using the technology of SMS and GPS, the elephant can roam freely and the authorities are
alerted whenever it is near the farm [8].
5. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture
The Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, AFITA was founded in January 24,
1998 in Wakayama City, Japan when the First Asian Conference for Information Technology in
Agriculture was held. The purpose of the conference was as follows; though the population on the
earth has not been really exploded yet, we can see clues of food crisis; that is, the lack of food in some
of the developing countries is chronic and even major powers are facing the difficulties to balance the
productivity and the environmental requirement. As the balance of the food supply and demand is
now inevitably under the strategy of the world trading mechanism and the control of the power, it is
almost meaningless to solve the crisis within a country. Only the international sharing and cooperation
for sustainable food productivity on the basis of information sharing and mutual understanding could
bring the solution. We believe that the information technology can surely contribute to the solution.
First, the information communication technology such as the Internet that is now dynamically
changing our life style and social consciousness will provide us a best tool for the information sharing
1332
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
and mutual communication. Second, we should not forget the possible contribution of information
science to effective and stable production by several models such as crop growth prediction and
decision support. Thus, the importance of the studies on agroinformatics is undoubtedly increasing.
The Asian countries are keeping the highest growth rate in the world and the requirement on food is
abruptly changing from quantity to quality. In addition, the Asian countries have their individual
agricultural features that are not common in the USA or EU countries. The rice-dependency and the
farming scale are the typical examples. In this conference, sharing such common features, researchers,
engineers, administrators and farmers who are interested in the informatization of the Asian and
world agriculture, will join together, exchange information and discuss about agroinformatics which
will help us e to find some key points to solve the world-wide food problems [1].
6. Agricultural Challenges
In this section we outline five challenges associated with agriculture that must be overcome to
achieve the desired increases in productivity: inherent heterogeneity; unanticipated disturbances;
large geospatial dispersion; security and safety requirements; and constraints. By its very nature,
agriculture works with biological systems that are inherently heterogeneous in composition and
processes. Fields can vary in soil type and moisture content down to a resolution of a square
meter. Weather patterns can vary spatially and temporally in terms of sunlight and rain. Raw materials
themselves have basic genetic variations from plant to plant and animal to animal. Indeed, genetic
variation is often biologically useful for increasing resistance to diseases and pests. But compare this
heteroge eity with the ho oge eity of other i dustrial pro esses, su h as He ry Ford’s asse ly li e,
and the challenges associated with maximizing product yield using a minimum of resources become
apparent. Agricultural processes are much more vulnerable to unanticipated disturbances than many
other industrial processes. The weather can cause floods or bring hail storms that can devastate
crops. Pest or disease infestations can rapidly affect, if not wipe out, large quantities of raw
material. When we contrast this environment to the carefully controlled (temperature, humidity, etc.)
clean-room environment of the semiconductor fabrication industry, we immediately understand that,
because of external forces, the levels of precision in crop or herd yield are far lower than in other
industries [9].
7. Why Information Technology in Agriculture
Alternates for development and growth of agriculture, that can also benefit the cultivators are
limited. Many solutions, mostly related to technology, inputs and infrastructure implemented earlier,
are losing to deliver incremental benefits in present circumstances. There is now an urgent need to
convert agriculture into agri-businesses, which are economically viable and sustainable in future. In
this situation, Information Technology offers new hopes. Many sectors of economy have benefited by
the use of Information Technology. The same can also happen with agriculture sector. Many small
scale experiments have been conducted by many stakeholders in the recent past. Both Governments
as well as Private Sector organizations is working to develop new models for Information Technology
applications in agriculture [6].
1333
Sani, B. E-Agriculture Development by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Application, AWERProcedia Information Technology
& Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 3, pp 1330-1334. Available from: http://www.world-education-center.org/index.php/P-ITCS
Figure 3. Components of eSagu system [7]
Figure 4. Depiction of eSagu operation [7]
References
[1] AFITA. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, [Online] 1998. Available from:
http://www.afita.org/ .
[2] AKIS/RD. Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for Rural Development (AKIS/RD). Sustainable
Development Department (SD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2000.
[3] Chauhan, N. B. Information Technology for Agricultural Development in India, [Online] 2010. Available from:
http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in
[4] E-agriculture. A Global Community of Practice, Where People from all over the World Exchange Information,
Ideas, and Resources related to the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for
Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, [Online] 2012. Available from: http://www.eagriculture.org.
[5] Mittal, S. C. Role of Information Technology in Agriculture and Its Scope in India. Fertilizer News, 2001, 46
(12), pp. 83-87.
[6] Morarka, G. D. C. Why Information Technology in Agriculture, [Online] Rural Research Foundation, Rajasthan
India, 2008. Available from: http://www.morarkango.com
[7] Ratnam, B. V., Krishna Reddy, P., & Reddy, G. S. eSagu: An IT based Personalized Agricultural Extension
System Prototype – Analysis of 51 Farmers' Case Studies. International Journal of Education and
Development using Information and Communication Technology, 2006, 2 (1), pp. 79-94.
[8] Roberson, G. T. GPS Applications in Agriculture. Precision Agriculture. Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
NC State University, 2012.
[9] Ting, K. C., Abdelzaher, T., Alleyne, A., & Rodriguez, L. Information Technology and Agriculture: Global
Challenges and Opportunities. The Bridge on Agriculture and Information Technology, 2011, 41 (3), pp. 6-13.
1334