In an instance of the e-revolution meeting the green revolution, farmers are opening up to ICT technologies and using the internet to communicate and register for an annual agricultural show in Pune. And in an instance that would have made Steve Jobs happy, a dozen Apple iPads will be on display at an exhibition for farmers to interact and get comfortable with.
With electronics touching every life, exhibitors believe the farmers would have lapped up the ultra low-cost Akash tablets, had they been commercially available at the show. Kisan Forum is an annual agricultural show that attracts over 100,000 farmer footfalls from across the country.
?We have been noticing that farmers who were wary of desktop computers and laptops are less intimidated by the tablet device and it could work perfectly for them,? says Niranjan Deshpande, the organiser of the event. The tablets are easy to use and if an internet connection is made available, farmers could remain connected while working on their farms and get real-time information about markets and weather conditions.
Farmers have already started adopting new media technology with many using emails to communicate with agri show organisers. This year, the Kisan Forum has for the first time used online registrations for farmers who want to attend the show to be held from December 14 to 18 at the International Exhibition Centre in Moshi, near Bhosari, Pune. ?Till now we have received 18,000 online registrations,? Deshpande said. Most are from Maharashtra ?but we are seeing a lot of registrations from Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat as internet spread is more here?, he said.
?There were doubts how the farming community would receive the web, but these registrations have shown that they are willing to accept technologies and are new-media friendly,? he added. In return, the organisers have emailed them entry passes so that they do not need to queue up for the R50 entry ticket.
During the last few years, the organisers had been using mobile phones for registration where farmers had to use SMSes. Nearly half the farmers used their cellphones to register, but the 140-character limit was seen as a hurdle and it was felt that web-based communication would be better because of greater interactivity.
Now even private companies are using ICT to reach out to farmers to sell their products and services and in the next two to three years, there will be a big change in way they connect with farmers.