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Introduction
The use of new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has revolutionized manufacturing and services the world over. In the more developed countries, the use of ICT has become central to improving productivity in agriculture and livestock production especially through its application in
precision agriculture and livestock factory farming. The potential of new ICT for rural development of South Countries is now well recognized.
The contribution of the livestock sector to India's economy, livelihoods, food and nutritional security and potential for further growth have been described by many which include
Dr. Kurupi and
Dr. Rama Kumarii
on this forum. However, as India's economic growth and more integration in global markets fuels the demand for livestock and animal products, India will need to invest more in integrating livestock production into complex, many a times global, food supply chains and balancing issues that emerge from
livestock-community-environment interactions. This would need more robust planning and monitoring of the livestock sector, the need to make livestock services up to International standards and build capacity across the sector to meet the challenges of global competitiveness in animal production and marketing. At the moment, there is evidence that India's data and information systems for the livestock sector are frail (Dr. Kurup uses 1992 Livestock Census data in his paper) and need urgent attention. Ultimately, India will need to apply new ICTs effectively in improving these systems so that they support meeting each of the above requirements for its livestock sector.
New ICTs include community radio and television, cellular telephony, use of computing devices, digital imaging, the Internet and Wide Area Networking (WAN), Wi-Fi and mixed media, for example use of radio for internet access and Internet radio, SMS services and WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) based Internet access using cellular telephony as also embedded use of micro-processors, computing devices and applications and digital media in processes and systems for data and information management and
communicationsiii.
The potential of using new ICT in India lays both in intensive and smallholder livestock systems. Its applications in large intensive systems in India will be very similar to those in the developed countries. With available literature, including on the Internet, ICT application in intensive systems is well known. This paper will attempt to identify how ICT can contribute to the continued growth and sustainability of this sector and focus on potential ICT applications in the conventional, smallholder based livestock production and services for the livestock sector in India.
There are three areas in which ICT can contribute to the livestock sector:
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Improved management of data and information
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Improved services including marketing
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Improved learning and capacity development
Improved management of data and information
Accurate and precise livestock data and information is required for policy development, strategy formulation, monitoring growth and evaluating impact of policies and programs for growth and sustainable development of the sector. This data and information is required at various levels such as:
The purpose for managing this data and information can be for:
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Planning, implementing and monitoring livestock development programs including those for animal improvement and effective natural resources management
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Planning and monitoring livestock production at various levels including village and farms
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Planning and monitoring animal health, bio-safety and food safety
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Planning and monitoring extension and capacity development
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Administration, budgeting and accounting of State and Public Enterprises and Services
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Livestock and livestock products marketing and supply chain management
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Planning livestock research
The ultimate objectives of managing livestock data and information would be related to making of decisions for a given purpose at a given level. For example, planning, implementing and monitoring an animal improvement program through artificial insemination at national, state, district or village level. ICT can be used at each level. Starting from the village, handheld devices such as the
Simputeriv and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) can be used to maintain owner and animal data and information. Information systems, using a Simputer and a
Smart Cardv , can be designed to inform the animal owner the expected next heat of the animal. The same system can be used to plan the rounds of the Inseminator for insemination making a passive insemination system into an active one and enabling monitoring of fertility at the animal level and through aggregation at various other levels such as village, taluk, inseminator and even the sire. The potential benefits of introducing an information system around low cost computing devices are immense when the cost of a missed heat for insemination or infertility can be as much as 1000 rupees a month. At the Artificial Insemination Center, the aggregated data can be used to plan the production and supply of semen and other material needed for an artificial insemination program. For an animal-breeding program at District or State level, the data will enable monitoring of pedigree and progeny and improvement in productivity. As seen in many countries, especially Australia and Israel, an efficient animal recording system is a key to rapid animal improvement and new ICTs offer an appropriate opportunity for India to implement such programs.
As illustrated above, an information system using new ICT can have a combination of or multiple purposes. They will process various categories of information. Apparently, along with the use of ICT, the will be a vital need to manage, coordinate and integrate information systems for various purposes at various levels and for various users.
In order to understand the issues of using new ICTs and managing Information systems for livestock production and development, these systems can be classified on:
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Level of users of information
* Primary category of information processed
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Animal improvement and breeding
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Animal health and disease surveillance
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Nutrition and Natural Resources Management
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Farm Management
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Community/Village level livestock and agricultural production systems management
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Market related
* Scale of information processed
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Small for individual animal, herds, farm, community, village, research institute
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Medium for a production system, district
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Large such as National, Regional or State
In India, the use of personal computers by individual smallholders may not be possible in the near future. However, with lowering of costs and introduction of multi-purpose information kiosks at community and village level such as for health, education, agricultural extension and e-governance, Internet Cafes and even with retail shops, the use of smart cards that store the farmers and animal owners information can be introduced. These smart cards may be the same as issued for e-governance or separate for agriculture and/or livestock. The smart cards may even include a photograph or a digital signature of the animal (e.g. muzzle print) since animal identification is a major issue in India.
An advantage of creating such a system would also be in enabling animal owners to have legal titles to their animals. Providing a title enables the farmer to monetize his livestock and use it for financial transactions especially as a mortgage for a loan or an advance. This can have a huge impact on poverty alleviation of livestock owners who are usually poorest of the poor.
From the smart cards and use of PDAs, extension agents and service providers, such as for artificial insemination or veterinary care, can collect data and forward them electronically either through off-line means or on-line to data collection systems which then store them in specific databases and enable access through the Internet or Wide Area networks. Users such as market intermediaries, program managers, policy makers and researchers can therefore access real-time data online at their desktops for decision making.
The potential economic contribution of precise and accurate data and information can be enormous. The ICT for enabling these information systems is now commonplace. It is becoming cheaper and can be very cheap if used for the masses. A smart card at the volumes needed in India can cost only a few rupees. A PDA can cost about 5000 rupees. A personal computer based information kiosk would be around 20000 rupees. So cost should not be a constraint. The issue is whether the Government realizes the potential of improving information systems and integration of agriculture and livestock production into an information economy.
These information systems will need greater coordination and management as also development of public databases, decision support and knowledge based tools. Compared to the livestock sector contributions to India's economy, investments in these systems will be miniscule and as the livestock sector gets more organized, the access to these information systems can be commercialized. What is really needed is greater awareness and sensitization among policy makers about the potential of ICTs and improved information systems in contributing to the development of the livestock sector, appropriate policies and investment in programs that are aimed to improve data and information systems and the ability to use information in policy and strategy development and implementation.
Improved Services including Marketing
Veterinary Services
The most obvious application of new ICT in veterinary services in India is the use of the cell phone. The cell phone enables the veterinarian to move from a static location and makes him/her mobile. Coupled to a PDA, the cell phone enables the veterinarian to plan providing services and maintain animal records. If a Geographical Positioning System (GPS), which can locate where his/her services are needed, is included in the PDA, the veterinarian can save considerable time, cost and improve the range of the services. Good animal records enable a veterinarian to consult specialists, made easier by the use of the cell phone. With imaging capacities of the i-Mode and WAP cell phones and cheap digital cameras, veterinary consultancy can further be improved. This is a form of
veterinary tele-medicinevi that India has not made attempts to exploit.
The ability to collect, collate and integrate data through information systems enables the provision of preventive veterinary medicine, herd and flock health at the village level. In India, this is the direction that public veterinary services will need to take to benefit smallholders. The use of new ICT to enable such information systems has already been described. The issue of PDAs, as being done to post men for E-dak, to veterinarians and extension agents to record data and use information locally can bring about the application of preventive veterinary medicine at a grand scale in India.
One of the major issues in veterinary extension has been the inability to provide 1-1 communications for individual farmers who each have a unique problem with their animals. The establishment of call centers at veterinary hospitals and Institutions is a largely ignored aspect of providing veterinary services especially extension. To provide the most appropriate solutions and expertise to not only farmers but those professional working in the field, call centers and help desks can be established with cellular telephony and access to the Internet
Other Livestock Services
The case of ICT application for animal improvement has been described above. Similar applications may be in enabling appropriate, low cost feeding regimes using locally available feed ingredients and monitoring nutritional status of animals.
Marketing
As agriculture and, with it, livestock production becomes more market oriented in India; there will be, for economic reasons, an increasing need to integrate the entire livestock commodity chain from input suppliers, farmers, processors, and market intermediaries to consumers who may be in foreign countries. Most animal products are perishable. The information in the commodity chain therefore also has a very short cycle time. This makes the use of ICT to manage this information obvious. Easier availability of market information, including prices and trends, has potential to change the structure of the present livestock production system in India.
Labeling for quality, food and bio-safety and consumer assurance is emerging as an essential information service for consumers and for participating in global animal products trade. Integration of ICT in livestock production and marketing thus becomes important. One of the most important issues in the marketing of animal products, especially meat, is the ability to trace back at various levels, farm, processor, market intermediary, packager and ultimately exporting country. The use of ICT is essential to implement a trace back system.
Improved Learning and Capacity development
To exploit the potential of livestock production by smallholders in India and compete in a global market will require huge efforts in capacity development. The capacity development needed is not only among the producers but also across the entire livestock commodity chain, which would also include service providers, processors, market intermediaries, consumers etc. The entire livestock system will need to innovate and spread these innovations across the commodity chain. ICTs will play an essential role in gluing this innovation system.
At the moment, there is very little done in India to use ICT to communicate information and create learning among the members of this innovation system. Most of our National Agricultural/Veterinary Research and Development Institutions have poor ICT infrastructure and capacity to use ICT to enable learning in their clients and use ICT to learn from and meet the needs of their clients.
Some new veterinary and animal science universities have initiated activities in using ICT in formal education. ICT, especially computer-based presentations, have been used as part the teaching method. However, there are no signs yet where the advantages of ICT such as the use of video clips, simulation and digital models have been used in the pedagogy of veterinary and animal science education. There are no examples yet available in India where ICT has been used for open and distance learning for veterinary professionals in the field for continuing education, which is so vital to improve the quality of livestock services. The new Universities need to make a clean break from their traditional approaches to providing veterinary education and providing learning by enlarging their client base through open and distance learning to field veterinarians and livestock professionals, livestock producers and those involved in the entire commodity supply chain. The use of ICT will be vital for these Universities and Livestock Research and Development Institutions to survive in the present climate where they now have to generate resources for their own operations.
One of the most critical areas in using ICT to benefit smallholder farmers is to enable them to learn. India has been a pioneer in using ICT for rural development with examples such as the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation's (MSSRF) Information Villages, Gyandoot, Warana project etc. These learning systems have the following framework of their components:
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An organization that structures and generates information needed by its clients, e.g. a research or development institution
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An information platform, a website, call center, help desk or even a CD-ROM production facility
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An information bus, which could be the use of radio waves, a telephone line and/or a satellite link etc which transports information
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A localization agent(s) such as extension agents, a community or farmer based organization or a non-government organization
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User community, which has its own community information space related to a theme, topic, commodity or common interest.
The overall objectives of these systems are to enhance and enlarge the community information space and enable learning so that new visions for progress are created in the community, that the community articulates its needs to its stakeholders and negotiates action to fulfill their needs and vision.
To translate this abstract framework into reality for the community involved in livestock production, which includes participants in its innovation system especially the Universities and the Research and Development Institutions, there is a need to generate content that can be used for dissemination through these organizations' information platforms. This means that these Institutions embed digitization of all their scientific and technical outputs, structure and integrate information to satisfy the needs of their clients, develop appropriate information platforms that may include CD-ROMs/DVDs, Web sites, Help desks, Call Centers etc and install appropriate connectivity be it through Internet, Telephone, Radio and Television. There will also be a need to identify localization agents who can use information and ICT to enable user communities to benefit from ICT.
For example, the MSSRF (a localization agent) collects sea wave height data using the Internet (information bus) from the United States of America's Navy (information organization) and adds value to it (enlarging the communities information space) by enabling fishermen (user community) to decide on risks in going out to sea during inclement weather.
From the above, it is apparent that the use of ICT to benefit rural, smallholder communities needs development of appropriate and innovative information systems, which may be more complex than conventional extension. This requires appropriate policies not only for livestock production, research and development but those related to telecommunication, rural development, education, information management, governance etc. It also needs capacity development not only in ICT use but also in information use, community mobilization and in building partnerships across the innovation system, especially between user communities and research and development Institutions. Thus, many of the Government's present approaches in use of ICT in rural areas, in light of learning from these pioneering projects, indicate their weaknesses. This needs to be corrected in using ICT for the livestock sector's growth and development.
Conclusion
The use of ICT to contribute to sustainable growth in livestock production in India is not a matter of providing computers and Internet connectivity or "computerization" of livestock research and development institutions. It is of developing effective information systems for planning and monitoring livestock development programs, improving livestock services and enabling learning for capacity development that use ICT effectively and efficiently. This requires fresh policy formulations and clear strategies to use ICT to leverage growth in livestock production to benefit millions of smallholders who rear animals.
At the moment, awareness and sensitization of the potential of ICT among policy makers is very limited. In a recent policy document for ICT use in India, only two points related to agriculture and none related to the livestock sector. Similarly the capacity to use and enable use of ICT for the livestock production has not flowered in India's veterinary and animal science research, education and development Institutions. Almost all my e-mail contacts among veterinarians in India have Internet mail accounts such as of Yahoo or Hotmail rather than of an Institutional domain indicating that even e-mail use in Indian Livestock Research and Development Institutions is weak. There is hardly any State Government Animal Husbandry Department Website that offers information though India has an Internet user base in millions now. There is a need to change all this for effective ICT use in the livestock sector.
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