Information highway: questions of powerdrive
INFORMATION is power. "Information highways" serve as economic channels for world trade now, just as the sealanes, railways and roads were the foundation of trade and commerce in times past. Small wonder, then, that -- like wealth -- its distribution is skewed; it is the economically-deprived who are also the information-poor.
Information on new agricultural techniques for increased yield, better post-harvest technlogies, simple health-care practices, new possibilities in horticulture, floriculture and pisciculture, better land and water management practices: these and other messages could transform life for the rural poor, providing greater prosperity.
All except the 1st of the 5 chapters of this book contain presentations, followed by a discussion. The features of the information age are covered in the first chapter, followed by Methods of Knowledge and Skills in the second. A full chapter is devoted to meteorological information. The 3rd chapter is on meteorology. The 4th chapter deals with information on Natural Resource Management and the final one addresses the issue of Information Technology for Self-employed Rural Youth.
The Dialogue begins with a session titled Features of the Information Age. Gilmore's paper on the CD-ROM precedes discussions on technology and Prasad's for the extension framework. Heden points to the problem of "information overload", and the creation of a Bio Focus Foundation (in Sweden) and information-filtering done through task forces to overcome this. He also notes that it is now possible to get information on a specific micro-organism by specifying the characteristics, rather than sifting through lakhs of them on the basis of their Latin names.
Dit, dot, dah... Prasad says, "A country may not generate technology but it can use it skilfully if it has a good information network." He notes that "merely information support is not going to help the poor.... when we approached the farm women for training, they asked: Where is the time for training? They need the whole day to collect wood or work for daily wages to have something to eat in the evening."
The 2nd chapter takes up this issue: While Viswanathan stresses the role of the media and of motivation, Suresh Kumar's presentation says provocatively: "The real problem is to reach out to the extension administrator or manager..... to the extension worker, not so much..... to the farmers"; and "The real problem is that we need to train the trainers."
One participant suggests that the main problem is marketing and not production. What about the small and marginal farmer, who has no surplus to sell? There is also a suggestion that in each village, a model farmer be supported by the government to function as an information centre. To what extent will the capital-intensive techniques relevant to the big farmer be of use to small farmers even if the "model farmer" does pass these on to them?
The 3rd and 4th chapters cover information on meteorology and natural resources management. M S Swaminathan feels that "in the 21st century, waterlords will be the most powerful people" and that "without equity in water sharing, there will be no cooperation in water harvesting" and, therefore, "the social dimesions of this problem need as much attention as the technological aspect".
Remote-sensing In the midst of the discussion is a paper by Auluck which does not discuss any strategies for assimilation but describes the meteor-based communication system. Rao's brief paper describes the use of satellite remote sensing technology in Anantpur district. What is most interesting is the combination of information from remote-sensing and conventional sources, with socio-economic and demographic data.
One wonders whether agriculture is the best field for using the undoubtedly exciting technology of multi-media, or is it, as a participant asked, "a case of a solution looking for a problem"?
The paper by Garry Jacobs on the information needs of Indian villages presents the strategy being evolved by the International Commission on Peace and Food. It takes note of the need to create 100 million new jobs in 10 years, and identifies the most promising: horticulture (which has a labour intensity 3 to 4 times that of traditional crops), intensive aquaculture, sericulture, and farm forestry. The limiting factors, according to Jacobs, are not money or technology, but information and skills.
The last chapter, titled Information Technology for Self employed Rural Youth has a paper by Viswanathan on information networks. While it provides useful data about various networks and databases, it does not even mention self-employed rural youth. Why then is the paper in this chapter?
A reader who stops at the end of the last chapter would miss out on what is probably the most stimulating and thought-provoking part of the book: the 2 appendices. The first is a paper by U R Raoon, Space Technology and Sustainable Development, and the second an outcome of the Dialogue. It is a note on the concept of "information villages". Rao stresses the need for adopting a "holistic approach for achieving ecologically friendly, sustainable development".
The note on information villages moots a project for the establishment of a computer-aided extension system to increase skill-based rural employment. "Information shops" that would be "modelled along the lines of pan shops" would be set up, with a personal computer, and possibly also a multimedia system with CD-ROM and data communication facilities.
Kiran Karnik is director, Consortium for Educational Communication, New Delhi