Agricultural Resources Information System

 Agricultural Informatics Division
National Informatics Centre 

 

Proceedings of Meeting on Development of National Portal on Buffaloes
under AgRIS Project   

As follow up action to recommendations of Brainstorming Workshop of AgRIS Project  held at Pilot district if Hisar, a meeting was organized on 28-10-2005 at NIC Headquarters to discuss the Content Development strategy for development of National Portal on Buffaloes.   More than 20 resource officials from ICAR Institutes located in Haryana, Haryana Agricultural University Hisar, World Buffaloes Trust, NOIDA and NIC participated in the meeting and deliberated on the issues. The list of participants is enclosed. 

2.  Dr. A.K.Choubey, Senior Technical Director, NIC welcomed the Delegates and informed the support from the DAC and Agricultural Department of Haryana in implementing the AgRIS project. 

3.   Professor P.N. Bhat, Chairman, world Buffaloes Trust delivered a Key Note address and appreciated the effort of DAC and NIC for the initiative to build the Portal on Buffaloes. He highlighted the contribution of Animal Husbandry sector towards GDP of India (22%) and big potential role of Information Technology and Bio Technology in this sector. Changing food habits of people requires demand driven strategy for development of livestock resources. India has more than 400 million livestock resources and offers a big opportunity to develop the sector. The Government regulations and safety aspects to livestock is very much essential. Livestock entrepreneurship is emerging to take benefit of availability of technology in this sector. 

Getting information is very difficult from the government offices. There is need for providing information access on time to our farming community and entrepreneurs. Resource Maps available with revenue officials, village level information required by farmers, promotion of Artificial Insemination and others must be made available on the portal. This will attract private entrepreneurs to invest more in this sector. 

4.   Shri M.Moni, DDG, NIC explained the genesis of AgRIS project and role of IT in agricultural development to realize the vision of 2020. He stressed the need for building the content using layered approach and Critical flow of information modeling. Content creation is the central activity for the development of livestock resources in the country. 

5.    Mrs Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, NIC presented the current trends and practices used in the development of Portal and demonstrated the selected e-governance portals. She explained various designing criteria for making the Buffaloes Portal to be citizen centric. 

6.   Dr. P.K.Vig, Senior Scientists, NBAGR, Karnal informed the germplasms database on buffaloes breeds, semen banks, availability of semen available with the institute. Information on breeding value, breeding farma, vaccines, infrastructure available at district level and milk production and other related parameters are available with the institute. He stressed the need of developing the format for information to be published on the Portal and the institute can provide the same from the available information with the institute.  

7.   Dr. B.K. Joshi, Principal Scientists and Head of Nutrition Division, NDRI Karnal explained the availability of research information (Animal pedigrees, breeding value, animal products etc) available with the institute and stressed the need for building mechanism for collection and publication on the portal. Field information on Animal resources from survey of farmers in certain villages in the district must be collected. NDRI can coordinate this activity after discussing with the Director. 

8.   Dr. D.K.Jain, Head, ARIS, NDRI Karnal stressed the need for revising the Village level  Performa designed under DISNIC-Plan in the context of focus on the Buffaloes. More parameters related to buffaloes like fodder and feeds, area and production of fodder crops. Feeding patterns must be collected from survey in the pilot district. Entire knowledge available on buffaloes will be jointly prepared by Dr. Joshi & him and discussed with the Director, NDRI. Funds for collection of information on prices need to be made available. 

9.  Dr. R.S.Yadav, Professor,HAU Hissar informed that a lot of improvement can be made with the utilization of Intra-Discipline research work with respect to calf mortality, age maturity, low conceive ness, package of practices. Research must be transferred to implementing agencies and farming communities for adoption. 

10.  Dr. S.N. Kala, Principal Scientists, CIRB,Hisar discussed about the transfer of technology to farmers  and information services provided by the institute. Query based dissemination of Animal husbandry practices, group discussion with experts, supply of semens dozes, performance of the animal, different fodder and nutition available, ingredients used for different purpose at different stages etc. may be made available on the portal. Block level weather information can also be collected. 

11.  Mr. Vishnu Chandra, Senior Technical Director, NIC presented the GIS based information services of NIC and NSDI infrastructure set up at NIC Headquarters to facilitate GIS services to be accessed in G2G mode. He informed that GIS could help in preparing the Infrastructure resource mps, Buffaloes Zones Map and flow of milk and other products todifferentzones. 

12.  Mr. P.K.Suri, Technical Director, NIC presented AGMARKNET Portal and suggested that Research Institutions should have ownership role in providing updated content. Inventory of existing resources should be prepared. Animal Husbandry Department may take the responsibility of providing market information. 

13.  Mr. IPS Sethi, Technical Director gave the Vote of Thanks and stressed the need for better cooperation and coordination among multiple agencies for the development of portal.  

The meeting ended with the following recommendations. 

  1. Portal on buffaloes should provide all the details related to various breeds of Buffaloes in the country (characteristics, marketing, feed, balanced diet, insemination etc.). It should be a multi-lingual portal.
  1. Content should include transfer of technology on current events, technology developed, forum for technology transfer, FAQ for farmers, information on availability of semen (animal breeds wise), performance and price of sire, formulation of feeding ingredients on seasonal basis as well as specific purpose basis, balanced fertilizer recommendations etc. Identification of content and its structure may be finalized in collaboration with the participating institutions.
  1. Access policies and mechanisms for sharing of information may be worked out. Portal design should focus to Government, Non-government and farmers center. World Buffaloes Trust may be assigned the responsibility of preparing the Concept paper for the Development of Portal on Buffaloes on consultancy norms.
  1. National Committee on Buffaloes Portal may be constituted involving participating institutions, State Animal Husbandry Department of Pilot states and Kerala, PAU Ludhiana, and NGOs namely BAIF, BHAWARI and other prominent institutions identified by the participating institutions.
  1. Intranet may be developed for AgRIS project to facilitate efficient collaboration among the partners involved in implementing the project. Message Group on Buffaloes may be created.
  1. Each delegate was requested to provide their valuable inputs at the earliest either through email or hard copy format to facilitate development of content framework.