1. ICTs 4 Agriculture
Almost All Questions Answered – An Agri
Knowledge Exchange
Anil Bahuman
Mentor @ Developmental Informatics
Lab, I.I.T Bombay
CEO @ agrocom software
technologies
IIT Bombay

2. Indian Agriculture Sector
• Distributed in small pieces
• Unorganized
• Communication Gap
• No Standard practices
IIT Bombay

3. Where ICT Can Help?
• Making Agri Organized
– Concept of web 2.0 in agriculture for getting
organized
– Organize various groups (commodities, areas,
experts, technology, practices )
– Networking through Internet and cell phones
IIT Bombay

4. How ICT Can Help?
• Communication Gap …
– Between Farmers and experts
– Between Institutes and Farmers
– Between Government and Farmers
– Between Farmers and Consumers
– Between Plants and Experts, Farmers
– Weather conditions
IIT Bombay

5. What Agri expects from ICT Engineers and
Industry?
• User friendly system for better communication,
so friendly that training is not required
• Support for regional languages, Localized
software
• Ability to reuse this over different devices,
different makes, different operating systems
• Information Sources that offer adequate
information with minimal data transfer – since
most networks charge for data.
IIT Bombay

6. Agricultural
Expertise
Information?
Prices?
भाषा Market
Hindi/English?
Information Fertilizers?
IIT Bombay

7. Research areas and projects
Indic Text Input
Meaning-based
Search
Hardware Browser
Iconic interfaces Community Content
Interfaces fora
Wi-Fi Long
Distance
IIT Bombay
Connectivity

8. aAQUA online discussion forum
IIT Bombay

9. Almost All Questions
Answered
To create an online forum allowing questions
from the grassroots to be answered by
experts in the field with assistance from
automated agents that help recycle
archived knowledge
IIT Bombay

10. User requests and responses
in aAqua Server
aAqua Server
HTTP Internet
Crop
Doctor aAqua
SMS Bhav
Keyword
Puchiye
Browser
Mobile
Crop
network aAqua
aAqua Recommendation
Mobile
Offline
Gateway
IIT Bombay

11. Offline aAQUA
• For the areas where poor connectivity or
no connectivity
• Can by synchronized with online version
and get the updates
• Comes in a software format (CD)
IIT Bombay

12. aAQUA Reach
2003
Internet Kiosks @ Shirur, Khed and Haweli
Talukas of Pune Dist.
&
Vigyan Ashram @ Pabal, dist. Pune
&
Krishi Vigyan Kendra @ Baramati, dist, Pune
IIT Bombay

13. Khed
Pabal
Baramati
IIT Bombay

14. Farmer Demos
IIT Bombay

15. Village kiosk services
Developmental Informatics Lab (DIL)
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay IIT Bombay

16. IIT Bombay

17. aAQUA Reach
2008
aAQUA Received Questions from 290 Unique
Districts
IIT Bombay

18. aAQUA Reach: 2008
IIT Bombay

19. aAQUA Reach
2012
Total Registrations from 517 Districts
New Registrations from 385 Districts
38,592 posts from 393 Districts
IIT Bombay

20. aAQUA Reach: 2012
IIT Bombay

21. Services
• agrocom's sms services provide timely
information to Indian farmers.
IIT Bombay

22. IIT Bombay

23. IIT Bombay

24. IIT Bombay

25. AGRI APPS
Smaller Payloads for
Lower Data Transmission
Costs
IIT Bombay

26. IIT Bombay

27. IIT Bombay

28. IIT Bombay

29. IIT Bombay

30. IIT Bombay

31. IIT Bombay

32. IIT Bombay

33. IIT Bombay

34. IIT Bombay

35. IIT Bombay

36. IIT Bombay

37. Thank You
www.agrocom.co.in www.aaqua.org
abahuman@it.iitb.ac.in
agrocom, 4th floor, KReSIT,
I.I.T. Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-76
IIT Bombay