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Director of IT&C, Tontiliba Longkumer, addressing the gathering during the launching programme of Agriculture department website and mobile app on Wednesday.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 15 (EMN): Fulfilling its long felt need to place data in regard to schemes, projects, facilities and productivity to consumers, the department of Agriculture has launched its website and a local plants database mobile application on November 15.
“Information Technology (IT) has made its way into the agricultural sector with positive results like improved planning and decision making, community involvement, agricultural breakthroughs and strategic market linkages,” said Tontiliba Longkumer, Director of IT & C, who officially launched the website and mobile app at the Directorate of Agriculture in Kohima.
Longkumer stated that the potential of Information Technology (IT) for agriculture can be assessed broadly under two heads: as a tool for direct contribution to agricultural productivity, and as an indirect tool for empowering farmers to take informed and quality decisions which will have positive impact on the way agriculture and allied activities are conducted.
He pointed out that ‘precision farming,’ which is popular in developed countries, extensively uses IT to improve agricultural productivity. The official went on to explain that the techniques of remote sensing using satellite technologies, geographical information systems, and agronomy and soil sciences are used to increase agricultural output.He also observed that the indirect benefits of IT in empowering farmers are significant yet they remain to be exploited. With the farming community presently depending on information from conventional sources which are slow and unreliable, Longkumer maintained that the need of the hour is timely and reliable sources of information inputs for taking right decisions.
While lauding the agriculture department for having been in the forefront in usage of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to reach out to farmers and the masses even in the past through AGRISNET, AGMARK etc., the IT official expressed hope that the department would continue on the same strength and enable the people of Nagaland to open their minds to the endless possibilities that technological advancement can bring to agriculture and make the State a truly successful agriculture driven economy.
Director of Agriculture, Helie Rupreo, in his brief address, highlighted that the department website was not just to make the department’s information available to the people but also to maintain accountability and transparency. Now that the website has been launched successfully with the help of IT department, he called upon all the staff to responsibly make use of what has been developed, to serve the people better.
During the programme, the developer of the website and mobile app, Purlemba, an engineer of the IT&C, demonstrated on how to use the IT platforms.
The newly launched website, www.agriculture.nagaland.gov.in, hosted at the State Data Centre, contains various sections including dept. notifications, activities, information on laboratories and institutions under the department, downloadable reports, journals and forms etc. The website also has disability features as made required by the Ministry.
On the other hand, the mobile application- ‘Nagaland Local Plants’- is a dedicated native standalone Android application which is aimed at helping users identify local plants (crops and seeds, vegetables and medicinal plants and herbs commonly used in Nagaland), their names (both scientific and local), and learn the package of practice. The application will be available on Google Playstore for Android users.
It was also informed that the application is both online and offline enabled, although, with internet, additional information can be accessed.
Interacting with media persons, agriculture department officials said the department is collaborating with IT&C to launch more applications which would provide direct service to farmers as well as amateur gardeners. They informed that awareness programmes for farmers on usage of the applications were also being planned.
When asked about connectivity issues which the state constantly faces, IT&C Director informed that coordination was being made with the BSNL and that currently, connectivity has improved.
Following the launching programme, a day-long state level training on Ninth Input Survey 2016-17 was held in the premises of the directorate office.
