Things are definitely looking up for the small farmers in the country. In the absence of inadequate marketing infrastructure and cold storage facilities along with virtual absence of technical inputs, small farmers have been indulging in farming for subsistence for years.

Since the retail boom in the last few years, there have been efforts to bring small farmers to the organised retailers. For linking small and marginal farmers with bigger retail chains and increasing yield, US Agency for International Development (USAID) has tied up with software major Infosys in Karnataka for building a pilot ICT enabled service.

USAID has provided $1 million seed money for the project, which would ensure creation of technical data base and extension agents for providing real time information on areas like crop and pest management and soil conservation. USAID and Infosys have been training the selected extension workers through the inputs provided by the Karnataka state horticulture department. ?In the next few months, we will be testing the system with 150 farmers with small land holdings for providing them with better market linkage,? Donald M Taylor, head, India Growth Oriented Micro- Enterprise Development (GMED) programme supported by USAID, told FE.

GMED started since October 2004, aims at increasing the income of the small farmers by linking them with organized retails and improving productivity by providing technical inputs.

As part of collaboration Infosys would create ICT platform for creating database on soil, climate, seeds and pest management, which can be accessed by small farmers through extension agents. The extension agents would be trained by the state horticulture department and will equipped with mobile phones so that farmers could access information instantly.

?Small farmers are always responsive to new techniques, we want to ensure that timely data is made available at the grassroots,? Taylor said. If the pilot project is successful, the Infosys is expected to expand it through Karnataka and further.

Reliance Fresh, Subhiksha and others can put their requirement of fruits, vegetables and other agricultural produce with the farmers through extension agents, so that the small farmers could plan crop accordingly.