DAC Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation DAHD Ministry of Livestock and Dairying DHO District Horticulture Officer. DARE Department of Agricultural Research and Education DeitY Department of Electronics and Information Technology DNAIT District NeGP Agriculture Implementation Team.
Introduction
National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A)
Background
Furthermore, it would make it easier for farmers to access these services through multiple service delivery channels. The project will also help the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) optimize its costs in delivering services to various stakeholders.
Implementation Strategy
As NeGP-A would include in its purview all activities essential to the dissemination of information through various ICT-enabled delivery channels, including software development applications, ensuring the availability of hardware and software systems, networking, manpower training, data digitization etc., the countries participating in this program are given financial assistance under the AGRISNET project under the Central Sector Scheme. Common applications (with appropriate localization bid) in respect of 12 service clusters will be deployed up to block level across the country.
Project Activities & Timelines of NeGP-A
Management Structure
Steering Committee
Operations Committee
Role of State Governments in NeGP-A
The department will have to take full ownership of the Project in relation to all key activities taking place in the States. Some states may already have one or more of the services envisaged in NeGP-A in place. Therefore, 25% of the amount earmarked for software development has been left to the discretion of the States to look after their local requirements.
He may not leave this assignment until the project is completed. To expedite project progress and also benefit from volume discounts, hardware and system software should be procured centrally (with five-year extended on-site warranty), with state government representatives being part of the tender committee. There will be adequate representation of States in the Committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Joint Secretary (IT) in DAC and comprising representatives of DAC, DAHDF, DARE IFD, NIC and DeitY for procurement of hardware and system software under NeGP-A .
Some states may have another IT initiative or project underway either under a state government scheme or a program of the Government of India. In case any of the services (including its sub-components) have already been successfully implemented in the State, the same will be communicated by the concerned States to IT department, DAC. Actual deployment will be in a phased manner in accordance with the workload and the number of staff may be increased or scaled back or revised depending on the need of the project.
Duration and Nature of GOI Support under NeGP-A
Training
- Stakeholders Classification
- Norms for the release for funds
- Conduct of Training
- Training Calendar
- Training Labs
Band A2: This group consists of senior state-level officials from all participating states and resources from their attached field-level offices. Band A3: District level officers who are primarily responsible for project implementation at district level and would be required at the front end for service delivery would be part of this band. Band A4: This group will consist of officials who will be involved in day-to-day activities at the ground level.
The resources in this bandwidth would be directly connected to the final beneficiaries on a daily basis and would be needed to facilitate service delivery. These stakeholders should also be trained in all aspects of service delivery as they would represent the Agriculture MMP to the farmers and businesses at the village level.” This amount must be used for the administrative costs for the training, including TA/DA of the participants.
These documents will be signed by the Head of Training Center where training is conducted. All training centers must be adequately equipped to give practical training to a group of 20 trainees. Training laboratories on the scale of one per five districts will be established in each state.
NeGP-A Implementation Strategy
- Connectivity
- Address Details of the Locations
- Testing and Acceptance
- Help Desk
- Reporting Physical/Financial Progress
As far as possible, officials from the state/district unit of the NIC/State IT Department/State PMU may also be accompanied in this task. Operational support will be provided to end users using telephone and online support through an appropriate Helpdesk system during the implementation and warranty period to ensure that the solution works as intended and that all issues related to day-to-day operation are resolved satisfactorily. This Helpdesk will also provide users with online service status tracking facilities regarding their queries.
All States shall track the Physical/Financial Progress in the implementation of NeGP-A as per the Format given on the NeGP-A website mentioned above.
Strengthening/Promoting Agricultural Information System
Strengthening of IT Apparatus in DAC(HQs)/Field Offices/Directorates
The state governments must indicate how they intend to deliver the services to the farmers. Any upgrading of the infrastructure will have to be done by the state government at its own expense. This will be used in conjunction with the scheme of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
Representatives of the Government of India and the concerned State Governments will be actively involved in the selection of FTAs. The cost of site preparation at district and block level may be shared by the state government. The State will contribute 45% of the funds required for site preparation, excluding training center sites, which will be fully funded by the Government of India.
States have been categorized on the basis of the number of blocks to arrive at the number of human resources to be deployed in the State PMU as per Annexure V. Ensure formation of District NeGP-A Implementation Teams (DNAITs) under the chairmanship of the District Collector /Magistrate, who will be responsible for implementation of the Scheme at the district level. Identify the additional services to be deployed in addition to the 12 clusters of services.
Strengthening of IT Apparatus in DAC in the States and UT(AGRISNET)
- Objectives
- Implementation Strategy
- Unspent balances with the States
Development of Agricultural Informatics and Communication
- Development of Portals and Applications
- Text and Voice Based Services on Mobile
SMS sent to farmers can be broadly classified into three categories viz. Farmers registered for receiving SMS messages are grouped on the basis of state, district, block and crops/activities selected by the respective farmers. Grouping farmers based on their location and their preferred culture/activity will help deliver relevant messages to farmers.
The farmers can register for this service by calling Kisan Call Center on the toll free number or through the web portal. Language preference of the farmers is also taken on the basis of which the language of the SMS will be determined. This portal will be further enhanced by other options such as unstructured supplementary services data (USSD), IVRS, voice broadcasting (outgoing calls), mobile applications (resident and internet based) for various platforms, etc.
Financial provision has been made for such mobile based services under NeGP-A as well as Development of Agricultural Informatics and Communication. In addition to SMS services, financial provision has been made for voice services to cover about 20% of farm families @ 2 calls per year. The amount due under text and voice based services will be mutually variable and will be further subject to modification depending on the extent and period of support provided by DeitY under SMS and Voice Gateways.
Kisan Call Centres (KCCs)
- Background
- Manpower to be deployed in Kisan Call Centers
- Minimum qualification of a FTA will be as follows
- Service Conditions of FTAs
- Location of Call Centers
- Kisan Knowledge Management System (KKMS)
- Involvement of Common Service Centres (CSCs)
- Linkage with the States
In case eligible candidates from the same state are not available, the service provider may appoint an FTA belonging to a neighboring state in the region with proficiency in the local language of the state. A KCC Supervisor, apart from his duties as a KCC Agent, will also be responsible to liaise with various stakeholders and resolve the local issues for smooth functioning of the KCC. In order to motivate the better performing FTAs and KCC supervisors, an annual increase of 7.5% of the remuneration will also be provided to them (to be paid by DAC) subject to continuous &.
The service provider of KCC will ensure regular training/orientation of the FTAs in the use of KKMS application and availability of latest information/literature on agriculture related issues relating to various NARP zones in the state. The KCCs will also provide a weekly feedback to the State Department of Agriculture and Allied Departments on the nature of calls, including area-specific incidence of crop diseases, pest infestation, etc. The KCC agents will also be provided with the latest versions of guide books and booklets brought out by the State Government and the local Agricultural Universities.
This number can vary from 15 to 25 from one country to another, depending on the size of the country and the possibilities of use. The network switch at the state agriculture department and at the district level will have 24 ports, while at the block level there will be 8 ports. Each country will designate one Mandi pilot to be provided with servers, desktops, UPS, printers and handheld devices.
The Computer Programmers/Computer Operators available under ATMA will also be used for NeGP-A activities. The operators provided under NeGP-A and ATMA schemes are to be used by departments (Agriculture; Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries) as per requirement. Fast and accurate data entry operations in English and language of the state; full command of office automation packages such as MS Office / Open Office; Must be able to handle basic hardware issues (including operating system, anti-virus, PDF etc.) related to computers, printers and switches.
Ensure that each department prepares IT inventory, assesses requirements against scheme norms and approves the distribution of IY systems among the departments, taking into account the existing inventory. This committee will be served by Agriculture or IT Department with the help of State level PMU. However, the District Agriculture Officer (or equivalent in various states) will continue to review the progress more frequently with other officers and agencies.
The DNAIT will implement the project and ensure close liaison and coordination between the various stakeholders in the project at the field level. Work closely with the System Integrator and Implementing Agency (i.e. NIC) to undertake the field work, understand the requirements and document the observations. DNAIT and System Integrator (Implementation Agency) will also work closely with the S/W Development Agency (i.e. NIC).
DNAIT as the owner of the project at the district level will be responsible for proper record keeping of all the assets created under the project at the district level. Support the deployment of G2C services by NeGP-A through Common Services Centers (CSCs) or other designated agencies. The team must also ensure close links with all stakeholders in the project, to provide commitment and support, help bring in process changes and overall guidance for the project.
