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ASHA – Hope for Farm Prosperity ICT based Agribusiness services
Government of Assam initiative [email protected]
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
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
ASHA Agribusiness Service Sectors
Farm Sector
Farm Sector –comprising
AgricultureHorticultureAnimal Husbandry
and VeterinaryFisherySericulture
ASHA- Target Group
• Farmers / Producer Organizations• Government Functionaries• Scientists / Technologists• Bankers• Institutions • Civil Society• Corporate / Traders
ASHA- Services (illustrative list)
Scientific Production Practices
Agribusiness News Credit and Banking Corporate Corner
Market Price Events Insurance Agribusiness Institutions
Weather Contact Numbers Marketing Laws and policies
Environment Success Stories Processing Export and WTO
Schemes Producer Organizations
Technology Statistics
Trainings NGOs/ SHGs Entrepreneurship Buy and Sell
Crop / Enterprise Guide
Research and Development Institutions
Quality Certification Project Profiles
Ask Expert Disaster Management Consultancy Employment
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.
Framework & Photo gallery
For Framework : Please visit
www.assamagribusiness.nic.in/framework.doc
For Photo gallery:
Please visit :www.assamagribusiness.nic.in/pgallery.htm
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
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, IndiaEmail id: [email protected]; 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
ASHA In house activities
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 OfficerAssam Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (Assam SFAC)Agriculture Campus, Khanapara, Guwahati -781 022 Assam, IndiaEmail id: [email protected], [email protected] email Id:[email protected].+91-361-2333560 / 2334240 Fax:+91-361-2333560Web portal: www.assamagribusiness.nic.in
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Visit ASHA Web portalwww.assamagribusiness.nic.in
Together we can make a difference
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