1. Information Technology has a huge role to play in making agriculture a sustainable activity even for smallholder farmers by providing them with necessary information at every stage of farming at the right time. Discuss.

Approach:

The answer should cover all the aspects like improved decision making, better planning, community involvement, etc.

Answer:

Important roles played by information technology in agricultural activities are:

♤ By providing information about weather and climate, soil conditions, market prices and government policies, information technology can help farmers in making an informed choice regarding the crop to be grown.

♤ By providing information about the new scientific techniques, newer varieties of specific crops, methods of pest control, etc. information technology can help farmers in maximising their production.

♤ Information technology can be of great help in bringing different farmer groups and associated people together to discuss and find out the best ways to maximise agricultural production as well as income.

♤ Most importantly, information technology can provide farmers access to national as well as global markets through price dissemination systems like AGMARKNET and spot exchanges. Hence they can help farmers fetch the most remunerative price for their produce.

Based on the above points it is also clear that no single medium can fulfill the information needs of individual farmers. Hence it is necessary that a combination of group and individual sources of media like radio and mobiles is used to provide farmers all the information which can promote informed decision making by farmers.