eGov-Nov-2010-[32-34]-A Livestock Farmville

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Project Name ICT for Livestock Productivity (Nandini)

Dr Pradeep Kumar Rout

The organisation Department of IT, Government of Orissa Key People n P K Mohapatra, Revenue Divisional Commissioner—Central Division—Cuttack, Orissa n Ashok K Meena, Commissioner-cumSecretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, Orissa n Satyabrata Sahoo, Secretary, Department of Fisheries and Animal Resource Development, Orissa n Dr Pradeep Kumar Rout, Director, Orissa e-Governance Services Limited (OeSL) and Principal Consultant, IL&FS ETS SCALABILITY The application can be scaled for desired expansion and contraction of resource pool. Its can be modified, added, or removed, to accommodate changing loads

By Prachi Shirur

A livestock Farmville

Project Nandini has turned

cattle breeding into an integrated process that’s benefiting farmers

in over 880 Orissa villages

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R

amani Ranjan Mohanty, a farmer from Mandasahi village in Jagatsinghpur district, used to face much problem in ascertaining the right time for check-up of his cows or to know the peak yield time or causes of repeat breeding. He had little knowledge about trimming down the calving interval and stopping milking for betterment of the next procreation.

Thanks to Project Nandini, now Ramani is one of the successful dairy farmers in the district and is investing more in his dairy farm owing to his confidence and level of encouragement through Project Nandini.

No wonder, then the man on the feild is upbeat about about the growing productivity, and better returns.

“Performance recording and proper maintenance of farmer’s handbook and provision of SMS alert for attention on the animal due for artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis, expected date of delivery, de-worming, vaccination, peak yield point and dry-off have all resulted in prolific dairy farming,” Mohanty says.

Prior to the implementation of the project, veterinary services had a fire-brigade approach. The productivity of dairy animals was poor due to non availability of animals with good breeding value and lack of proper management practice, which rendered dairy farming a non-remunerative enterprise. There was no or inadequate animal recording system. At the same time, there was lack of awareness at farmers’ level on how to enhance the productivity of their livestock. Also, there was inadequate public

infrastructure and logistics to reach the farmers in time of need.

Project objectives, implementation Project Nandini has been implemented by the Orissa Computer Application Center, Technical Directorate of IT Department, Government of Orissa, in two blocks of Jagatsingpur district—Jagatsingpur and Balikuda. The ICT for Livestock Productivity project, popularly called Nandini, aims to improve productivity of livestock by establishing a system of animal identification, registration, performance recording and monitoring.

The project has been sponsored by UNDP through the Department of Information Technology, Government of India and subsequently by the Government of Orissa. Infrastructure support like PCs, UPSs, printers, furniture and Internet connectivity have been provided to all veterinary dispensaries, frozen semen banks and call centres along with the Chief District Veterinary Office of the project area.

The stratification of livestock activity into the services domain ensures that investments in livestock will lead to sustainable development. Around this core infrastructure, veterinary services are being reoriented from curative to preventive, through village herd health and productivity management. Implemented in February 2009, the service delivery centres have been extended up to village level to enrich appropriate and on-time services at the door steps of livestock farmers in the project area. The services will be linked to the product marketing agency so that the cost of services can be recovered and farmers are not required to pay directly. The project covers 387 villages of Jagatsinghpur district and about 500 villages of Cuttack and Mayurbhanj districts of Orissa.

Project Nandini involves the use of ICT in veterinary science for effective service delivery to farmers and to systematise the productive life cycle of crossbred cows. The conceptualisation of the project happened at a forum of IT and veterinary professionals more than a year ago. The project envisions reduction of inter-calving period and adoption of appropriate breeding policy in the state. A Web-based portal for producers, consumers, marketers, and policy makers has been developed, which facilitates a decision support system (DSS) to government departments and functionaries for planning of different interventions and assured service delivery to dairy farmers.

There is a provision for data capturing, warehousing and analysis capabilities with public animal husbandry institutes, such as semen banks, district artificial insemination centres, veterinary dispensaries, diagnostic laboratories and university professors. A database of nearly 45,000 cattle along with details of their owners and contact information has been created. All data uploaded in the soft-

Tech@use Application: Web-based application using 3-tier architecture— Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP Database: MYSQL Version 5.0.51a Hardware: Dell Xeon Server 3.0 Resources: DreamWeaver 8.0, Web YOG 8.0 Platform: OS—Linux, Application Service—Apache

THE IMPACT Farmers get timely information regarding animals due for peak yield, oestrus and pregnancy diagnosis, animals to be dried off, animals due for parturition, those to be vaccinated and de-wormed

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ware are being updated.

Each animal is uniquely identified and monitored for oestruation and for special supplements and other health-related needs. The system works proactively as well as in response to a call from the farmer to a designated call centre.

Besides, a village livestock resource repository for crossbred animals has also been developed as part of the solution. This is aimed at meeting the needs of different stakeholders like government, business houses, marketing agencies, and financing agencies.

The project also establishes an inventory management system for semen banks along with demand forecasting. According to Dr Pradeep Kumar Raut, Director, OeSL, “We decided to develop a decision support system for farmers, veterinary doctors, and policy makers at the state level. The project can run through NeGP infrastructure which is in place and it can be sustained through collection of nominal user fee from farmers.”

He further informed that the solution helps the department send a fortnightly ‘to-do list’ to the service providers. The service providers also get SMS alerts on selective and need-based services.

Besides, there is a web-based application that has been developed using PHP technology and hosted through Apache Web server.

The entire application is based on role-based security, starting from stakeholders at the gram panchayat level to those at the state level. The application has been enabled to send bulk SMSs to farmers and other stakeholders on vital information reproductive cycle, preventive nutritional treatment and vaccination.

Similarly, the application has the capability of receiving responses from stakeholders through SMS which automatically triggers the closure of

a problem or a referral service. A toll free telephone number has been provided to redress the grievances of farmers.

Capacity building exercises Capacity building trainings have been imparted to service providers, officers of veterinary dispensaries, Livestock Inspectors (LIs) and Gomitras in a phased manner. The fieldlevel enumerators engaged for the project work have also been trained in the two blocks on the dos and don’ts by domain experts and trainers.

The survey enumerators including supervisors and livestock inspectors were trained prior to commencement of the survey work in the project area. At the same time, the farmers and the community has been sensitised on systematisation of animal reproduction cycle through intervention of IT. Village and block-level meetings have been conducted, involving livestock farmers, Panchayati Raj institutions, general public and service providers. Similarly, workshops and seminars have been conducted with participation from professionals like directors and officials from Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science departments of Orissa and domain experts from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology. Further, the help desk services and SMS services have effectively sensitised the communities in the project area.

Ashok K Meena, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, Orissa and Former state IT Secretary remarks, “The initiative can confidently help by identifying wide-scale cost reduction opportunities and managing cost reduction inputs such as manpower and mobility cost of the beneficiaries. It has been designed to implePradeep Kumar Mohapatra Revenue Divisional Commissioner—Central Division—Cuttack, Orissa

“Technological change in the livestock sector can generate more employment opportunities for resource-poor households and help alleviate poverty” 34

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Ashok K Meena Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, Orissa

“The initiative has been designed for sustainable improvements in cost structures, adjusting service delivery models and redesigning business models that can help farmers” ment sustainable improvements in cost structures, to streamline infrastructures and adjust service delivery models and redesign business models that can help farmers.”

Sums up Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra, Revenue Divisional Commissioner—Central Division—Cuttack, Orissa and Former IT Secretary, “Technological change in the livestock subsector can generate more income and employment opportunities for the resource-poor households and contribute towards alleviation of poverty and improvements in income distribution. Intervention of ICT in productivity is a landmark aspect of the project.”

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