ASHA – Hope for Farm Prosperity

1. ASHA – Hope for Farm Prosperity ICT based Agribusiness services Government of Assam initiative assamsfac@yahoo.com

2. ASHA • Goal: Empowerment and well being of Farmers and other partners of Farm Sector / Agribusiness and increased livelihood opportunities Web portal: www.assamagribusiness.nic.in

3. ASHA objectives • To provide one umbrella platform for Farmers, Government Functionaries, Knowledge Institutions and all other Agribusiness partners for easy, reliable, efficient and cost effective communication and facilitate elimination of hunger and poverty. • To provide knowledge access to Farmers and other partners of Agribusiness. • To harness the investments on Knowledge Institutions • Strengthen Farm Chain • Entrepreneurship Development • Capacity Building of all partners and stakeholders • Complementing the traditional extension

4. ASHA Agribusiness Service Sectors • Farm Sector –comprising • Agriculture • Horticulture • Animal Husbandry and Veterinary • Fishery • Sericulture

5. ASHA- Target Group • Farmers / Producer Organizations • Government Functionaries • Scientists / Technologists • Bankers • Institutions • Civil Society • Corporate / Traders

6. ASHA- Services (illustrative list)

7. ASHA: Service Delivery Mechanism • Community Information Centres (CICs) located in 219 Community Rural Development Blocks of the state. • CICs are set up Government • The services are nominal user fees based, while orientation is being offered on free of cost.

8. Framework & Photo gallery For Framework : Please visit www.assamagribusiness.nic.in/framework.doc For Photo gallery: Please visit :www.assamagribusiness.nic.in/pgallery.htm

9. ASHA Partners • Farmers and Producer Organisations • Government of Assam Departments- Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Fishery, Sericulture, Industry and Commerce, Information Technology, Soil Conservation, Irrigation, Panchayat and Rural Development, Welfare Plain Tribes and Backward Classes, Minorities Welfare and Development and several others. • Government of India- MCIT (NIC), MoA (SFAC), NEC (NERIWALM) • R & D and other Institutions: Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, ICAR Institutions, Universities, IIE Guwahati, AASC and several others ( in process). • Financial Institutions: NABARD Assam and RRBs; SBI Assam • Corporate • Community Information Centres: located in 219 Community Development Blocks. • Panchayat Raj Institutions and Civil Society - NGOs. • Media

10. ASHA Guidance and Other Partnerships Prof.M.S.Swaminathan, Chairman, National Commission on Farmers, Government of India and Chairman MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, 3rd Cross road, Institutional areas, Taramani, Chennai – 600 113, India Email id: chairman@mssrf.res.in; Website: www.mssrf.org Other Partnerships: • Open eNRICH – a joint initiative of NIC and OWSA • Mission 2007 Alliance under the Chairmanship of Prof.M.S.Swaminathan

11. ASHA In house activities

12. Assam SFAC • Assam Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (Assam SFAC) : is a Government of Assam registered Society under Registration of Societies Act, 1860 having a mission objective of “Maximization of Farmers' farm income with sustainability  in Farmer-Government-Bank-Institution & Private (FGBIP) partnership in a business model and generation of more livelihood opportunities”. For details visit- www.assamagribusiness.nic.in. • Contact Address of Assam SFAC Dr.M.Ariz Ahammed.The Chief Executive Officer Assam Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (Assam SFAC) Agriculture Campus, Khanapara, Guwahati -781 022 Assam, India Email id: assamsfac@yahoo.com, asm-sfac@nic.in CEO email Id:arizahmed@yahoo.com Tel.No.+91-361-2333560 / 2334240 Fax:+91-361-2333560 Web portal: www.assamagribusiness.nic.in

13. ASHA- in house activities (contd.) • ASHA Portal Administrator : Assam SFAC • Server / Host : NIC, MICT Govt.of India • Content Development : Assam SFAC • Connectivity : 219 CICs with VSAT + Kiosks • Capacity building : • Government Functionaries of Deptts. • Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and • Veterinary, Fishery and Sericulture. • Assam Agricultural University Scientists. • Civil Society, Farmer and Trader representatives from each District. • Local Self Governments (Panchayats) • Promotion / Marketing of initiative

14. ASHA – Unique Features & Highlights • Only portal offering services on five sectors of farming under one umbrella. • Perhaps the only web portal which brought most of GOI Ministries and State Departments related to Farm Sector on one platform. • Only portal offering most of the schemes of GOI and State Government, along with their guidelines. • Only portal offering modern cultivation / management practices of a number of crops / animals / enterprises from reliable sources. • Only portal offering the comprehensive list of training institutions of Farm Sector in the Country, while offering market information, Weather service and statistics in the state of Assam. • Only knowledge centre based initiative offering Buy And Sell And Employment Features. • The only portal offering wealth of information of Assam State Farm Sector for the attention of corporate and to facilitate Agri-business. • Initiative with a comprehensive framework for implementation. • Involvement of Hon’ble Chief Minister, Hon’ble Minister, Hon’ble MLAs, Panchayat Raj Functionaries and Bureaucracy.

15. ASHA Feed back • Very positive and overwhelming response from Farmers and Field level Government functionaries despite their earlier digitally illiteracy. • local self Government Panchayat representatives are relating themselves with the benefits of ICT. • Benefit to the scientific community (AAU) – Easy reach out to both Government functionaries and farmers simultaneously, with almost no cost • Confidence building among the Government functionaries to update their knowledge & current events. • Transformation of CICs from Youth Computer Literacy Centres to that of Community Knowledge centres supporting rural economy. • Agriculture Marketing network has been fully activated from its moribund status. • Conscious Networking of Government Departments, Agricultural University, Institutions, Bankers, Civil Society, Traders and Farmers for synergy. • Transparency in organisational structures and activities of Farm Sector related Departments and Institutions. • A sense of ownership of the initiative by Farmers, Government, University, Finance Institutions, Civil Society, Traders and others with participatory approach.

16. Learning Points • Need to expedite the localisation of content. • Increased demand for ICT infrastructure, connectivity and capacities. • Need to expand the networking of institutions, corporate, local self Governments and Civil Society. • Digitisation of knowledge by every institution and appropriate sharing mechanism. • Existence of very large hidden demand for relevant knowledge and information in the community. • need to study the growing information needs of farmers, government functionaries, traders, Bankers and R & D institutions for farm prosperity on regular basis and accordingly work out content development. • Promotion is very essential for the success of ICT based services. • CIC initiative is financial sustainable with adequate arrangements and initiative. • Given the magnitude of requirement there is a dire need for public –partnership. • The local self Governments and stakeholders should be members of CIC management committees. • The initiative is replicable, with suitable changes.

17. ASHA – As a Business • Date of Launch of the ASHA service : 30th May 2005 • Farmers enrolled as on 30/11/2005 (in 5 months) : 4000 (approx.) • User Fees collected by Community Information Centres : > 3 lakh Rs. (+0.3 million Rs.) • Number of hits as of December 2005 : > 44,000 • Target per CIC (2005-06) : 5000 Farmers • Facilities to a Farmer member of Standard Blue Card Annual Holder (Rs.100) : • 10 telephonic responses / month • 12 hour free internet surfing • 25% rebate on printing services.

18. ASHA -Vision • To reach out to 3000- 5000 farmers per CIC. • Localisation of content. • To develop an alliance / networking of institutions of content and technology of common interest • To provide value added services in partnership with Institutions and Corporate viz.,Buy and Sell, Agri-Business etc. • To expand the services through Private Cybercafés / Computer Centres; proposed Common Service Centres and Knowledge centres of Ministry of CIT and Panchayat Raj GOI respectively to villages.

19. Sustainability • Connectivity and Infrastructure: • Needs improvement both in quality & quantity • Content and Services: • Need for institutional mechanism both at national level and at local level. • Localization of content. • Reliable access to latest Web & ICT technology Services. • Care and Support: • Institutionalization of CICs and Kiosks as official delivery channels and integration with NeGP, RTI Act and PPP models with strengthen the initiative. • Coordination: • need for proper management structure at local, district, state and centre levels. • Capacity • Building-organised decentralised training arrangement with Master Trainers. • Promotion / Marketing of initiative is very critical. • Flow of Resources

20. Visit ASHA Web portalwww.assamagribusiness.nic.in Together we can make a difference Thanks assamsfac@yahoo.com asm-sfac@nic.in