ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture

ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture Proceedings of the National Workshop organised at Sardarkrushinagar 11 February 2016

COVER PAGE: Designed by Ajit Maru

EDITORS: Ajit Maru and Robin Bourgeois (GFAR) 2016

Citation: A. Maru and R. Bourgeois and (eds). (2016) ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture. Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Rome.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture Proceedings of the National Workshop organised at Sardarkrushinagar 11 February 2016

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION NATIONAL WORKSHOP WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES WORKSHOP OUTPUTS PARTICIPANTS PROGRAM INAUGURAL SESSION INVITED PRESENTATIONS GROUP SESSIONS PLENARY SESSION CONCLUSION ANEXXURE 1:LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ANNEXURE 2:PROGRAM ANEXXURE 3:PRESENTATIONS A. ICT for Sustainable Agriculture: Keynote Address by Dr. Ajit Maru (text) B. ICT for Sustainable Agriculture: Keynote Address by Dr. Ajit Maru (Presentation) C. Applying GIS based farm models by Dr. Walter Mayer D. Adopting ICT in Agriculture: From science & technology only to ICT-applications & sustainability supporting business models by Dr. Walter Mayer E. Sensing technologies and Data analytics in Agriculture: Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary and Dr Mehul Raval F. ICTs for Enabling Learning and Rapid Innovations in Agriculture: Dr. Ashok Patel G. An Approach for Forward Thinking ICT Application in Agriculture: Dr. Robin Bourgeois ANNEXURE 4: AGRICULTURAL SCENARIOS

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1 2 2 3 3 3 3 5 7 8 14

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INTRODUCTION The influence and impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) on agriculture, if used appropriately has the potential to surpass that of all other technologies put together so far. ICTs influence and impact not only on their own but they catalyze, accelerate and multiply the impacts of using other technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and new materials in agriculture. India’s agriculture now faces serious challenges of resilience and sustainability. With a burgeoning population of more than 1.3 billion people, India’s needs for food and industrial feedstock like cotton are vast. India’s agriculture faces many challenges. The ability of millions of smallholder and family farmers to participate equitably and efficiently in rapidly emerging, globally competitive agricultural commodities market needs to be very rapidly developed. There is an acute shortage of water for irrigation and processing agricultural products. Fertile lands are rapidly diminishing either through urbanization or degradation due to erosion, faulty agricultural practices and rising salinity. Pollution, environmental damage and waste of natural resources is endemic. Change in climate with extreme weather variability with floods, droughts and hail storms regularly plays havoc with agriculture in many parts of the country every year. With large international borders with neighboring States that are failing in governance, the threat of transboundary spread of zoonotic, animal and plant diseases that can wreak havoc to its animals and crops is increasing. Agricultural biodiversity is rapidly being lost with increasing monoculture in agriculture, land and water degradation, climate change etc. India has to increase its agriculture by increasing productivity not only of land but also in using all natural resources, especially water and energy. This increase has to be at least 100 per cent in 15 years. Along with increase in productivity, it has to also improve the quality of its produce. Thus, it has the challenge of sustainable intensification (or intensify sustainably) along with significant improvement in quality to meet international standards. It has to predict and act against disruption, including those of finance and markets, and disasters in its agriculture. The rapid urbanization of the country will demand new Agri-food systems which India will need to develop and nurture. Certain regions of India have shown remarkable growth of more than 10 per cent annually indicating that India has high levels of hidden potential to overcome the many challenges to its agriculture. Current and soon to emerge ICTs that contribute to informing and enable learning in its vast

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multitude of actors and stakeholders, managing and supporting the various processes in sustainable farming, financing, processing and marketing agricultural products and those that contribute to research and innovation in agriculture and Agri-food systems are the keys to sustainably exploit India’s growth potential in agriculture. The country requires to use ICTs along with other technologies in agriculture effectively and efficiently to meet the challenges to its agriculture. NATIONAL WORKSHOP The National Workshop on Application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Sustainable Agricultural Development was organized on 11 February, 2016 by the Indian Association for Information Technology in Agriculture (IAITA), Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes (APAARI), Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), Club of Ossiach (COO) and National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) in collaboration with Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (SDAU) the Workshop at Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India. This national workshop attempted to answer the question, how can and which ICTs can contribute to sustainable agricultural development in India? The question was to be answered by knowing what is expected of India’s agriculture by say 2030? And then answering what technologies, especially ICTs, can contribute to achieving this vision of India’s agriculture in 2030 and what capacities are needed to fruit the use of these technologies? This workshop immediately followed the National Workshop on Forward Thinking Agricultural Development in Western India and was designed to also contribute further to forward think the effective use of ICTs for sustainable agricultural development. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES The objectives of the Workshop were: 1. To identify the current and emerging ICTs that can contribute to attaining goals of India intensifying its agriculture sustainably and with resilience, improving product quality to international standards and participate equitably and with efficiency in globally competitive markets. 2. To identify related needs for capacities development for effective use of ICTs for sustainable agricultural development in India. 3. To develop elements of a strategy for developing these capacities in public, private and community sectors with emphasis on the role of agricultural universities and related Institutes in this strategy.

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WORKSHOP OUTPUTS The outputs of the Workshop were: 1. Identification of current and future ICTs that will contribute to sustainable agricultural development in India. 2. Identification of the technological, institutional and community related capacities that will be needed for effective use of ICTs for sustainable agricultural development in India. 3. Identification of the strategies for Universities and related Institutions to play a role in shaping the effective use of ICTs for sustainable agricultural development in India. PARTICIPANTS The participants in the Workshop included ICT experts and scientists, extension specialists, educationists, management experts, policy makers, agricultural development specialists, farmers and NGO representatives. The list of the participants is appended in Annexure 1.

PROGRAM The Workshop program is available as Annexure 2.

INAUGURAL SESSION Dr Ashok Patel, Executive Secretary, IAITA & Hon Vice Chancellor, SDAU welcomed the delegates to the workshop. In his remarks he elicited that ICTs are going to be the major plank for accessing knowledge and technologies in near future; and that precision agriculture is likely to play an important role in demand driven market. He held out that despite GIS and other ICT tools being used for a decade, many things are still moot. Getting emotional about the genesis of IAITA about 15 years back without funding and any human resources; he desired that much more needed to be done in view of increased accessibility of smart phones and laptop for tapping of potentials of ICTs in a better way. ICT for Sustainable Agriculture: Keynote Address by Dr. Ajit Maru Delivering his key note address “ICT for Sustainable Agriculture”, Dr. Ajit Maru, Senior Knowledge Officer, GFAR, FAO narrated that the key challenges of Indian agriculture are in ensuring availability, access and affordability to safe, nutritious and healthy diets, equitable distribution of

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Agri-food system, sustainable use of natural base, adoption and mitigation of climatic change; particularly for major weather aberrations, pollution, trans-boundary diseases that of late are jumping boundaries of nations and species, loss of biodiversity, resilience of farming systems etc. He emphasized on making agriculture more lucrative. Citing an example he informed that average yield of tomato in India is 4-5 t/ha compared to 300 t/ha in Israel. Further, the status of value addition is largely primitive and stressed on strengthening the current Agri-food chains to meet current and emerging needs of food, fuel, fabric, energy, employment and environmental services. He emphasized that newer Agri-food systems and market chains that minimized “waste” by using and recycling of biomass, energy and providing environmental services are in the offing. The use of ICTs in Agri-food systems should include information capturing, processing and above all research on two key aspects; what ICTs are useful and how can they brace up sustainably the Agri-food system and value addition chain. He discussed the use of ICTS in details in agriculture and animal husbandry sectors particularly on decisions as to what, where, when and how to grow; and when, where and how to market produce profitably. In fact, farmers need basket of options to solve their problems and that what ICTs is capable of providing. Dr. Maru explained the various ICT based solutions for smallholder farming applications like cloud computing, sensing technology, knowledge based systems, mobile devices, telematics, visualizations, internet of things data analytics and positioning devices. At present, agricultural experts counter farmers’ problems approaching issues as in silos but the farmer needs holistic solutions through single windows system. Clusters of new technologies like clouds, space technologies etc. can be used for managing information but the biggest problem is the accessibility to the data captured by IMD, ISRO, SAUs, etc. He discussed opening of agricultural data as a key need for better agricultural information in India today. The text and presentation of Dr. Ajit Maru is available in the Annexure 3A and B.

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Invited Presentations Four lead presentations were presented in this technical session. Applying GIS based farm models by Dr. Walter Mayer In his presentation, on “Applying GIS based farm models", Dr. Walter Meyers, CEO, ProGIS emphasized on common platform for creating and sharing data and its application for the benefits of end users with mutual interest. Discussing GIS data generation, integration, analysis and modeling or forecasting using available GIS tools, he explained how these technologies can be imbedded locally in agriculture through cadastral mapping. Citing a humungous proportion of problems like malnutrition at global level, he held out that ICTs are good for steering and supervision of sustainable agriculture system by having GIS based solutions for where, when, how much and what resources need to be deployed as per the precise need of the soil and crops. Discussing the top down system vogue in India, he stressed on integrating the stakeholders, land ownership and different available data with a rider of social accountability. The uses of GIS are innumerable like consolidation of land holdings, precision farming, logistics mapping, farm management, geo-info map i.e. ortho images for different tasks, tools preparation, setting milestones and even for settlement of claims, tractability for sustainability, and affectivity vs. efficiency of decisions. The importance of real time data accessibility to all stake holders involved in agriculture for large benefits of farmers and regulators can, thus, be not over scored. The presentation of Dr. Walter Mayer is available in the Annexure 3C. Sensing technologies and Data analytics in Agriculture: Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary and Dr Mehul Raval Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary and Dr Mehul Raval (IET, Ahmadabad University), deliberated on “Sensing technologies and Data analytics in Agriculture”. Focusing on prospects of Hyperion spectral image technology and its prospects in agriculture; Dr Raval talked about the machine learning process and algorithms which need to be developed for ICT applications in pest and disease identification giving an illustration of powdery mildew in cotton. Prospecting the use of ICTs in agriculture, he informed that drone and remote sensing technologies have the capabilities to calculate even the organic carbon from Hyperion data sensed remotely. He further briefed on collaborative project of SDAU in which ICTs are being exploited for image capturing, image pre-processing, image segmentation, image extraction,

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image classification and image analysis to arrive at identification of diseases in cotton by remote sensing. Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary deliberated on big data analytics of existing data and generating model and algorithms to develop decision support system. He cited examples of different market analyses. He presented system architecture for big data analytics as a service for agriculture based services like crop recommendation system using multiple linear regression model of data analysis and opined that more trust worthy variety of data need to be generated through sensors, processed and analyzed to develop web services integrated to mobiles for DSS and creating alerts for weather events, diseases, pests etc. The presentation of Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary and Dr Mehul Raval is available in the Annexure 3D. ICTs for Enabling Learning and Rapid Innovations in Agriculture: Dr. Ashok Patel Dr. Ashok A Patel, Vice Chancellor, SDAU delivered a talk on “ICTs for Enabling Learning and Rapid Innovations in Agriculture". He classically presented historical perspectives of different communication technologies with corresponding advantages over time. He explained current scenario and potentials of available ICTs in agriculture. The current ICTs could provide single window system for all stakeholders for crop distribution, nutrition, irrigation, food safety, and marketing and value chains. The real time information can be captured and stored on smart phone by RFID, video, simulation on clouds, etc. for monitoring and traceability issues in food chain. He mentioned use of printable RFID and digestible RFID for animals in lieu of normal RFID. He envisaged increased role of unicasting and multicasting information flow among all stake holders for holistic and integrated solutions to complex field issues, weather analysis and forecasting, developing farming simulations and models, monitoring crop growth and predicting yielding. The presentation of Dr. Ashok Patel is available in the Annexure 3E. An Approach for Forward Thinking ICT Application in Agriculture: Dr. Robin Bourgeois Dr. Robin Bourgeois, Senior Foresight Advisor, GFAR, FAO, Rome and Senior Scientist CIRAD, France presented a talk on “An Approach for Forward Thinking ICT Application in Agriculture”. Citing the first tool to dig soil as first technological revolution, he described the utility of robotics in

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agriculture. However, he drew an unequivocal and important lineage between ethical revolutions and relationship between human and tools. Considering the eight transformation namely, globalization, connectivity, consumption, resources, population dynamics, urbanization, technological development and prosperity that are being manifested currently world over, he explored seven plausible scenario for rural areas. These are namely, rural stations, rural ghettos, rural niches, rural poles, rural continuum, farming cities with robots and rural + urban farming. These plausible futures highlight a diversity of transformation pathways and the importance of considering societal choices and values about what are to be changed, and for that how the technologies are to be used; and of course, what are the anticipated problems related to these changes. He concluded by saying that the driving principle should be, "we should not be driven by technologies but should drive the technologies", and that overuse of technologies should not create cyclic problems of employment and livelihoods at rural level. The presentation of Dr. Robin Bourgeois is available in the Annexure 3F. GROUP SESSION A session of group activities followed the plenary session. These were organized to match with the expected outputs of the workshop. Group activities consisted in collective reflection and discussion of the implication of some of the scenarios produced in the three-day Forward Thinking Workshop, which took place before the ICT Workshop. Three groups worked in parallel on three agricultural transformation scenarios namely “From Rags to Riches”, “Sailing with a Broken Sail”, and “From Cart to Car”. Each group received a document presenting the driving forces of the scenarios and a short description of the scenario. These documents are in Annexure 4. Dr. Ajit Maru, Dr. Walter Mayer and Dr. Robin Bourgeois facilitated the group work. Each group had to reflect on and provide collective feedback on the following three issues: 1. What ICT will contribute to make the scenario happening? 2. What capacities is required for making these ICTs being developed and used? 3. What strategic elements will make possible the development of these capacities and the use of these technologies?

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PLENARY SESSION In plenary session, each group respectively represented by Dr. Surbhi Singh Assistant Professor, Home Science College, Dr J. T. Patel Professor, Agriculture College and Dr Robin Bourgeois, Foresight Advisor, GFAR, FAO presented the outputs of the group work. Reports from the working group on “From Cart to Car” scenario The Cart to Car Scenario explicitly mentioned “Precision Farming Systems” to be dominant in agriculture with 70% of youth engaged in it. Smart farming with e-commerce in agricultural commodities, technologies and services was also a part of this scenario. Thus it was primarily a system that was based on new technologies, especially ICTs. This could be a plausible, techno-centric scenario but would need significant shifts in either land holding patterns or mass innovation with innovative use of all new technologies for smallholder farming. A lot of Institutional transformations including change in land owning rules and in research, innovation, extension and education would be needed to bring in new knowledge, skills sets and use of technology. The ICTs that would contribute to make the scenario happen were: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Automation, Robotics, Autonomous, Linked Tools, Equipment and Process Monitoring, Wearable Computing Controller Area Networking/Sensor Networks/Grid Computing Big data at different scales from field, farm to global Farm Management Information System Global Positioning System – Multi satellite Drones and Low cost Satellites/Micro satellites More precise geo-spatial data and 3D maps with elevation information Humidity, Ambient Environment and Soil Nutrient sensors Photometry Visualization and Integrated Display Social Media, MOOCs, Online Learning Rural access to online financial services Traceability systems using low cost RFIDs, NFC and other new technologies Telematics Variable rate Irrigation/Fertigation and prescriptive planting Weed, Biodiversity and Pest Management through Integrated systems

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The Capacities required for making these ICTs be developed and used were:       

ICT research and innovation by agricultural and other universities for agriculture Learning to use information and technology efficiently Skills for using new technologies effectively E-commerce driven agricultural marketing systems Appropriate Institutions to formulate and support policies Commitment by Governments Community driven agricultural organizations such as cooperatives and producer organization

The strategic elements will make possible the development of these capacities and the use of these technologies were: 



  

Development of Cooperatives and Producer Organizations which also helped users manage data and information and learning efficient use of information Appropriate policies for agricultural development, marketing of agricultural products and farm inputs, financial management of agricultural sector and agricultural information management Enabling learning through ICT use in rural and agricultural communities as a part of development services Revamping of agricultural extension Strengthening agricultural universities to include research, education and skills development in use of ICTs for agriculture

Reports from the working group on the “Sailing with a Broken Sail” scenario Sailing with a broken sail scenario presents a deterioration of agriculture in the region from the perspective of the majority of smallholder farmers in the region. Only those who have large land and financial resources will survive in the agricultural scenario of “Sailing with a Broken Sail”. Most youth would have left rural areas and farming as a livelihood and seeking employment in urban areas. The technologies that are then used in farming are only need based for the large, resourceful farmers. The scenario would plausibly lead to      

Severe economic and social imbalance Inefficiencies in resource use Disturbances of demand – supply chain Smallholders to be the main losers The rural and agricultural system becomes unstable Rise in Social disturbances

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  

Downturn of entrepreneurship Bad agriculture economically, socially and environmentally Surviving small farmers will remain dependent on either subsidies or government support

The ICTs that would contribute to make the scenario happen would largely high cost and complex suitable only for use in mechanized large farms: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sensors (water, soil, meteorology) Decision support for farmers Weather data Biotechnological, Nanotechnological and ICT (multidisciplinary) research Transport and traceability Shelf life Pest and disease surveillance Mobile phones Expert systems GPS and GIS Robotics Internet Drones Digital cameras Satellites Search engines Voice over IP E-Marketing and e-commerce and e-banking

These technologies will be either imported or developed with appropriate policy, strategy and regulatory frameworks and for those who could afford to invest in them largely due to lack of investment in ICT research, development, manufacturing and Institutional support. This would improve the agriculture of resource rich farms who could access the technology by import etc. and would be inaccessible, costly, incompatible and uncompetitive for use by smallholder farmers. The capacities required for making these ICTs be developed and used would be largely governed by and for the resource rich and educated farmers. The group also considered the converse that is capacities if provided would not able such a scenario to develop. These were:  

ICT tools Operational credit system

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               

Good market access devices Link to banks and insurance companies Good resource persons Corporate in agriculture (ICT and agriculture) Local contact development Farmer organizations Trust centers – clear data ownership E-kiosks Agro-meteorology-stations Training-centers Agro TV channels Better administrative structures Consultancy centers Setup of Cooperatives Supporting NGOs ApMCs (Agriculture produce Market Communities)

The strategic elements will make possible the development of these capacities and the use of these technologies were:   

Strong Institutions with appropriate policies and regulations to support smallholder farmers access to and effectively use technology Access to new information with ability to effectively use the information Appropriate research and innovation to develop, invent and innovate technologies for use in local small holder farming systems

Report from the working group on the “From Rags to Riches” scenario The rags to Riches scenario present a plausible transformation where agricultural transformation in Western India would prioritize and focus exclusively on improving the livelihood of resource poor farmers. This scenario should not be understood as a prediction but as an exploratory means helping us to further discuss what it would imply for ICT if such orientation was promoted (even if not as an exclusive one); that is if the Western India government wanted to significantly improved the livelihood of the poorest farmers and communities. The picture below present the answers participants provided to the three questions.

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The second picture below is an attempt to organize these points in a logical, system-based, interconnected way as part of an actionable strategy. Due to time constraint, this was a first attempt and would deserve more attention.

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This session concluded with the expert comments of Dr Ajit Maru, Sr. Technical Officer, GFAR, FAO. In his first observation he stated that when the results of the working groups are analyzed, the groups mention that the application of the same technologies could lead to both “positive” and “negative” scenarios in the context of the largely smallholder based agricultural systems of the region. Apparently other factors such as those related to Institutional framework such as of policies, strategies, investment, legislation, regulatory mechanisms, standards, norms organizations and their work processes and the involvement of agricultural communities and stakeholders to manage the use of technologies would play an equally important role in how ICTs are applied to benefit agriculture in the region. In fact, he was of the opinion that a whole ecosystem of innovating and applying technology, building Institutional support and including entire stakeholder communities in agriculture would be the way forward rather than the current of focusing on a few ICTs as is being done now. In the second observation he said that the need to strengthen Institutions including those such as agricultural universities and research Institutes to innovate, adapt, adopt, extend and enable effective use of

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ICTs and Institutions related to their application especially for agriculture was crucial. In his third observation he stated that GFAR over a period of time has developed a framework to enable effective use of ICTs in agriculture. He had referred to it in his presentation. Considering the results of the Workshop sessions, he observed that the framework can be used for the India also. Referring especially to research and innovation, he held out that ICTs should not be considered different as many times it is done in agricultural research organizations but should be included in research attitude for solving all agricultural problems along with other technologies. Given the volitional skills in taking up the appropriate research with requisite partnerships and accountability factors, the leadership of agricultural universities in application of ICTs in agriculture in the region was critical. Conclusion This National Workshop discussed the challenges and needs of India’s agriculture, with using a possible scenario of sustainable agricultural development in Western India, by 2030. It tried to identify the current and emerging ICTs that can contribute to attaining the vision and goals of India intensifying its agriculture sustainably and with resilience, improving product quality to international standards and participate equitably and with efficiency in globally competitive markets. It discussed how ICTs can contribute to overcoming challenges from climate change and extreme weather variability, spread of transboundary diseases and maintenance of biodiversity. The key ICTs discussed were those of “big” data and data analytics, cloud computing, sensing technologies, knowledge based systems, mobile devices, telematics, high speed wireless connectivity, visualization, Internet of Things and development of software, application, hardware and connectivity. These ICTs would be used for informing and enabling agricultural communities especially farmers and producers to rapidly innovate their farming and processing, practice more precise, mechanized and automated agriculture, improve transport, storage and marketing and safety and quality assurance of agricultural products and support Agro-industries, Agri-business and Agri-services sectors. It also discussed how ICTs can contribute to overcoming challenges from climate change and extreme weather variability, spread of transboundary diseases and maintenance of biodiversity. Along with this, issues discussed were the needs for Institutional, such as policies, regulations, standards etc. changes and participation of communities, including the role of the private sector, public-private and community partnerships etc., with special focus

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on Universities learning and enabling learning together for rapid innovation in India’s agriculture and Agri-food systems.

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Annexure 2: List of Participant

Name 1

Dr. Sanjay P.Pandya

2 3 4 5

Dr. Sudhanshu R Vyas Dr. Kalpesh P. Thakar Dr.K.S.Patel Dr. Shivraj Singh Rathore

6 7 8 9

Joshi Sunilkumar Ganpatbhai Chaudhary Kalpesh L. Chaudhary Ashokbhai N. Jegoda Mahendrakumar N

10 11

Chaudhari Dineshbhai D Ms. Amiksha Ashok Patel

12

Mr. Gaurav K.Patel

13

Chaudhary G.K.

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Mr. Rabari Prakashbhai H. Mr. Chaudhary Jaydeepbhai Kuberbhai Mr. Damor Navdeepkumar N Patel Hardik G. Chaudhary Chelabhai G Mansuri Sahilbhai A Patel Ankitkumar P Joshi Chetan J. Chauhan Ravindrasinh P. Patel Kashyap N. Desai Vijaykumar S. Dr. Jitendra M. Patel Patel Dipikabahen B Daka Swityben R Patel Karankumar Babubhai Dr. Govindbhai R. Patel Rabari Sonalben M. Chaudhari Savan R Patel Foram B Dr. Hitesh B. Patel Er. Hina N. Kadeval

35

Alok Gora

36 37

S.M.Patel Maj (Dr) Supern Singh Shekhawat

38

Dr. Kamlesh M. Joshi

39 40 41 42 43 44

Chaudhary Ashvinkumar Maganbhai Chaudhary Dineshbhai M. Chaudhari Sapna N. Chaudhary Bharatkumar K D.B.Modi Dr. Prakash S. Patel

45 46 47 48

Chaudhari Bharatbhai A Kiransinh Gohil Dr.M. R.Prajapati Chandrakant B. Modi

49 50 51

Dr. Vishnubhai T. Patel Dr. J.K.Patel Dr. Rajeshkumar R. Prajapati

52

Mr. Aniket R. Deshpande

53

ARNAB BISWAS

54

Mr. Rakesh N. Patel

55 56 57 58

Patel Swetaben Ashokbhai Chaudhary Nehaben G. Patel Diptiben Ganeshbhai Dr. Jagdishkumar A.

59

Patel Ramanbhai Manilal

60

Piyush K. Patel

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

Purohit Yogesh J Patel Jasmee Rameshbhai Chaudhary Gopalkumar J Damor Vijaykumar A Vaghela Indrasinh H Modi Chintankumar H Bawa Jayeshkumar D. Thakkar Raj Vasantbhai Dharva Miteshkumar Dashrathbhai Patel Ankitkumar M.

71

Desai Tusharkumar A.

72 73 74

Arvind P. Prajapati Kallanagouda V. Patil Patel Bipinchandra Chaturbhai

75 76 77 78 79 80

Chaudhary Dilipbhai Sardarbhai Patel Kunjalkumar Mahendrakumar Yasir Ajeej Tamboli Dr. A. M. Patel Joshi Dhaval Jitendrabhai Dr. P.P.Chaudhari

81

Dr.Nimishkumar H. Desai

82 83 84 85 86

Parmar Karansinh M Jaypal Shivaji Chaure Nimbalkar Ranjitsinh Ulhasrao Prajapati Mayur M Dr. J. J. Dhaduk

87 88 89

Dr. D.V.Joshi Desai Harsh Vikram Solanki

90

Dr.Sweta Mishra

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

Dr B.T.Patel Sarita Sanwal Shastri Hasumatiben D Dr. Surabhi Singh P.R.Patel Karuna Sharma Kapadiya Shraddha Neeta Singh

99

Dolly Mogra

100

Simple Jain

101 102 103

Dr. S.P. Pandya Dr. Santosh Ahlawat Dr. Pragaya Dashora

104

Sheikh Bilkishbano A

105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113

Dr. B.G.Patel Dr. K.A.Thakkar Prajapati Dhara Manubhai Dr. P.M.Patel Dr. Arvindkumar G.Patel Dr. Surendra Kumar Er.B.S.Parmar Dr. S. Acharya Mr. V.M. Modi

114

Dr. Dilip B. Patel

115

Dr. Neeta Khandelwal

116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Manojkumar P. Dohat Dr. P. M.Patel Makwana Nileshkumar D. Dr. Shyma K.P. Dr. Jasmi G.Patel Dr Piyush Verma Narsangbhai V. Patel Dr. Ramanlal A. Gami Prajesh M. Patel Dr. Yogeshkumar R.Patel

126

Jayprakash R. Samriya

127 128

Ajinkya Dipak Deshpande Dr. Bhikhabhai J. Patel

129 130 131

Er. Mahendra B.Patel Prajapati Arvind P Dr. Sarita Devi

132 133

Mr. V.M. Patel Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary

134

Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary

135 136 137 138

Dr Ashok A. Patel Vangala RamNaresh Kumar Dr. Mehul Raval Chandrasinh Parmar

139

Deepak Hiremath

140

Vikar Kumar Tyagi

141

Aditya Parikh

142 143 144 145 146

Jagdish Dhanani Mr. Chaudhary Ramesh Ram Singh Rajput Dr. Dinesh K Patel M. T. Kumpavat

147 148 149 150

Dr. I. N. Patel Dr. Walter Mayer Dr. Robin Bourgeois Dr. Ajit Maru

Annexure 2: Program for the Workshop on ICT for Sustainable Agricultural Development Serial No. Inaugural Session with Keynote

Time 9:00 AM 9:00 AM 9:05 AM

9:10 9:40

Leading Presentations

9:40-10:00 10:00

Tea

10:00-10:15

Applying GIS Based Farm Models Sensing Technologies in Agriculture ICTs for Enabling Learning and Rapid Innovation in Agriculture An Approach for Forward Thinking ICTs application in Agriculture: Group Exercise Identify ICTs for Sustainable Agricultural Development Lunch Group Exercise Identify New Capacities Needed

10:15-10:30 10:30-10:45

11:15-11:30

Workshop Group Session

Workshop Group Session

Agenda Inauguration and delivery of Keynote Address Welcome by SDKAU Statement by Chair of Inaugural Session Key Note Vote of Thanks

11:35-12:45

12:45-13:15 13:15-14:30

Speaker

Ashok Patel

Ajit Maru Sanjay Chaudhary

Walter Meyer Sanjay Chaudhary and Mehul Raval Ashok Patel

Robin Bourgeois

Workshop Group Session

Plenary Session

14:30-15:45

15:45-16:00 16:00-17:00

Group Exercise Identify Elements of a Strategy to Develop Capacities Tea Break Plenary of Group Exercise and Closure of Workshop

Annexure 3: Presentations

ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture

Ajit Maru GFAR Secretariat, Rome

Key Points • • • • •

Defining Sustainable Smallholder Farming Challenges to Indian Agriculture ICTs useful in Sustainable Farming Issues Smallholder Farmers Face in Using ICTs Possible Innovations

Challenges to India Agriculture • Ensuring access and affordability to safe, nutritious and healthy diets • Equitable participation with benefits for all actors and stakeholders of Agri-food systems • Access to and sustainable use of natural resources, especially water and land, and energy • Adopting to and mitigating effects of climate change • Reducing pollution and improving the environment • Managing spread of transboundary diseases and pests • Reducing the loss of biodiversity • Improving resilience of farming systems

Sustainable Agriculture: The Challenge of Paradigm Shift

Farming – is profitable – socially beneficially – environmentally neutral or contributing positively

Current Model of Agri-food Chain

Soil Fertilizer Seed Pesticide Disease & Pests Water Energy Labour

Farm Input Supply

Farm

Farm Output

Transport & `Processing Processing

Information Flow Commodity Flow

Finance Flow

Marketing

Consumpti Consumption on

Agri-Food Commodities

Future Model of Agri-Food Chains

Biomass Conversion to Energy/Industrial and Farm Feedstock Soil Fertilizer Seed Pesticide Disease & Pests Water Energy Labor

Farm Input Supply

Farm

Farm Output

Transport & `Processing Processing

Information Flow Commodity Flow Finance Flow

Marketing

Consumpti Consumption on

Quality Water Energy Environment Livelihoods Agri-Food Commodities Heritage (Socio-Cultural, Environmental)

Quality of Life

ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture • ICTs for Sustainable Farming can primarily be used: – Inform farmers and other actors and stakeholders in Agri-food chains about commodity/product (Production, Quantity, Quality, Price, Availability etc.), reduce transaction costs and time in flow of commodity, finance and information – Monitor Processes (Soils, Water, Other Inputs, Throughput such as Plant Growth, Disease, Output, Processing, Marketing etc.) – Research to support and implement Policy Development, Investment, Marketing,

ICTs and Sustainable Agriculture

Software Cloud Computing

Data Analytics

Solutions

Internet of Things

Sensing Technologies

For Smallholder Farming

Visualization

Knowledge Based Systems

Applications Broadband High Speed

Connectivity

Telematics, Positioning Devices

Mobile Devices

Key ICTs and Information Flows Communications GPS Dynamic High Resolution Remote Sensing for Land use, Weather

Public, Private Mixed Clouds

Diagnostics Models Predictive Analytics

Broad Band High Speed Cellular and Internet Connectivity Internet of Things

Farm Management Information System Prescriptive planting Variable Fertigation

GPS Sensors RFIDS Mobile Devices Apps for Actors

Mobile and Wearable Devices Smart Phones Apps for Farmers Cameras Farmers’ Sensors Traditional GPS

Knowledge

Autonomous Farm Machinery With Sensors and GPS

High Resolution Remote Sensing

Drones Photometry

Soil Sensors Video Cameras

ICTs used on a Cow

GPS Locators

RFID Ear Tags Electronic Tags

Ambient Environment Sensors Dung Gases Sensors

Feed Intake Monitors Grazing Behavior Monitors

Video Based Heat Detection

Body Physiological And Metabolism Sensors (Wearable Computers)

Milk Yield Monitors

Movement Sensors

Different Levels of ICT Applications in Agriculture

Agri-food Chain

Farm/ Field/ Plot

The Challenge of Smallholder Farmers Information Needs for Sustainable Farming

• What, where, when and how to grow and where, when and how to market her produce sustainably? • Need a basket of options

Current ICT Applications Recommendations Around Only One Issue Information Accessed from Multiple Sources No Options to Optimize and Balance for Market Participation and/or Sustainability Goals of Profit, Social and Environmental Contribution. Soil Fertilizer Seed Pesticide Disease & Pests Water Energy Labour

Farm Input Supply

Farm

Farm Output

Transport & `Processing Processing

Marketing

Consumpti Consumption on

Agri-Food Commodities

Information Flow Commodity Flow Finance Flow

Is this what she needs to practice Market oriented, sustainable farming?

The Challenge of Solutions

Biomass Conversion to Energy/Industrial and Farm Feedstock Soil Fertilizer Seed Pesticide Disease & Pests Water Energy Labour

Farm Input Supply

Farm

Farm Output

Transport & `Processing Processing

Marketing

Consumpti Consumption on

Information Flow Commodity Flow Finance Flow

Future Needs: Optimized Whole Agri-Food System Solutions with Options and their Implications using Dynamic Data and Prescriptive Analytics on Mobile Apps

Quality Water Energy Environment Livelihoods Agri-Food Commodities Heritage (Socio-Cultural, Environmental)

Quality of Life

The Challenge of Technology Convergence Communications GPS Dynamic High Resolution Remote Sensing for Land use, Weather

DigitalPublic, Computing Networks Private Communications Mixed Clouds

Space Technologies Communications

Broad Band High Speed Cellular and Internet Connectivity Diagnostics Neural Networks Internet of Things Artificial Models Intelligence/Know Predictive Analytics ledge Based Systems

Farm Management Information System Prescriptive planting Variable Fertigation

Robotics GPS Telematics Sensors Nanotechnology RFIDS Biotechnology Mobile Devices New Materials Apps for Actors Communications

Mobile and Wearable Devices Smart Phones Apps for Farmers Cameras Farmers’ Sensors Traditional GPS

Knowledge

High Resolution Remote Sensing

Drones Photometry

AutonomousRobotics Telematics Farm Machinery Nanotechnology Soil Sensors With Biotechnology Video Cameras Sensors and New Materials GPS Communications

The Challenge of Scale for Managing Information

The Challenge of Inclusion of Actors and Stakeholders

Seed Supplier

Pesticide Supplier Farmer

Local Transporter

Fertilizer Consumer/Customer Seller Extension Support Research Manager

Retail Marketer

Retail Packaging NARO

Technology Providers Equipment Providers Support Service People Influencers

Farmers Storage Wholesale Marketer

Researcher

Processor

Bulk Retail Processing Transporter Packaging

Policy Makers

Stakeholders

Learning from Current Experiences in Informing Farmers

Issues

• • • • • • • • • •

encountered around information:

Availability Accessibility Affordability Applicability Relevance Usefulness Timeliness Trustworthiness Appropriation by Individual and/or her Community Making Effective Use of Information

Hardware

Software

Connectivity

User And Syste m M’mn t Skills

Content

Property Rights

Systems Security

Availability Accessibility Affordability Applicability Relevance Usefulness

Timeliness Trustworthiness

Appropriation Making Effective Use

Effective Use of ICTs for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture

Systems And Content Integration

Ability to Make Effective Use

Cloud Computi ng Sensing Technol Solutions ogies For Smallholder Knowled ge

Data Analytics Internet of Things

Software

Farming

Based Visualizati Applications on Systems Broadband Telemati Mobile High Speed cs, Devices Connectivit Positioni y ng Devices

Technology

Institutions Policies, Strategies, Legislation, Regulatory Frameworks, Rules, Norms, Standards, Enforcement, Organisations, Organizational Structures, Work Processes

Community Of Actors and Stakeholders Inclusion, Aggregation, Mass innovation, Cooperation, Collaboration and Collective Action Developing Social Networks

Optimized Whole Farm Solutions with Options : Institutional Innovations

• International and National Policies • Rights to Data and Information • Universal Access • Privacy • Intellectual Property • Security • Treaties, Agreements, Rules, Norms, Regulations and Regulatory Mechanisms • Standards developed through open, participatory processes • New Organizations with appropriate structures and work processes • Data Cooperatives • Public Data Clouds and Repositories • International and National Trust Centers for sharing and exchange of data and information • Transparent, Accessible Services for Analysis, Interpretation and support for effective use

Optimized Whole Farm Solutions with Options: Inclusion and Partnerships

• Farmer communities who generate and own most of the data and information • Rights to Data and Information • Privacy • Intellectual Property • Equity and Compensation • Security • Actors and Stakeholders in Agri-food chains (Processors, Transporters, Market Intermediaries, Consumers, Policy Makers, Research and Development) • Private Sector (Micro, SME, Corporate) • Finance and Insurance Services • Agri-Business • Agro-Industries • Agricultural Knowledge Services • Participation in identifying, planning, implementing and monitoring ICT application and Information Programs

Innovating Strategy

Thank You [email protected]

1 ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture Ajit Maru Senior Officer, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) Rome, Italy Summary Sustainable agriculture is farming that is economically profitable, socially beneficial and environmentally contributing positively or being neutral to it. . Converting this concept to reality is a difficult and arduous task and will require significant use of knowledge, skills and technologies. The world is transiting into what is called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. This revolution is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres and is based on use of technologies and concepts of value chain organization. This document considers the transformative influence of the Fourth industrial revolution on agriculture and the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in it on India’s future agriculture. The ICTs that contribute to sustainable farming are:    

    

Cloud computing: enables farmers and other agricultural actors process “big” data or data that is massive in quantity through sophisticated software tools, Sensing technologies: “sense” soil, environment, health status of crops and animals and report them to “data clouds” accessible universally, Knowledge based systems: are heuristic and self-learning systems that enable more accurate decision making, Mobile devices: help farmer’s access appropriate solutions and enable them to intervene even remotely. There are now more ten thousand farming related Apps useable through Smart phones and an equal number of websites providing information for farmers and agriculturists. They also include wearable devices for farmers and other actors as also for animals. Telematics and global positioning: aid autonomous operation of farm machinery that till, harvest and transport, Broadband high speed digital connectivity: to access, process and disseminate information as also participate in social networks irrespective of geography, Visualization: such as 3D virtual reality that will contribute to agriculturists able to see visually through simulation the impact of their decisions, The Internet of Things: which enables networking and sharing of data between “things” such as farm machinery and equipment which can be applied to innovations like variable fertigation that provides such enough water and nutrients to a single plant or plot of land Data analytics that make it possible to make more accurate diagnostics, forecasting and predictions of outcomes of farming decisions. 1

2 This document discusses how ICTs can contribute to overcoming the many challenges Indian agriculture and Agri-food systems face. It then considers the issues of using ICTs faced by smallholder farmers. The document discusses a framework to design and implement the effective use of ICTs and information in smallholder agriculture. The document concludes that appropriate applications of ICTs can contribute significantly to overcoming the many challenges India faces in its agriculture. There are many individual initiatives in applying ICTs in agriculture but there does not yet appear that there are efforts to integrate them as also enable effective use of information for sustainable farming. It would be important under programs such as “Digital India” that efforts are made to integrate, fill the gaps in informing and enabling farmers and the multitude of actors to effectively use information, knowledge, skills and technology in India’s rapidly emerging market oriented Agri-food systems.

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ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture Ajit Maru Senior Officer, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) Rome, Italy Introduction Sustainable agriculture is farming that is economically profitable, socially beneficial and environmentally contributing positively or being neutral to it. Along with sustainability, farming has to be resilient so as not to be easily disrupted and, when disrupted, recover rapidly with the least economic, social and environment costs The world is transiting into what is called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. This revolution is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres and is based on use of technologies and concepts of value chain organization. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every activity, industry, agriculture and service, in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance. The transformative influence of the Fourth revolution on agriculture is equally, if not more, profound on agriculture as it is on industry and services. This revolution is characterised by its velocity, scope, and systems impact and even these characteristics are rapidly evolving, unlike the linearity of the other three revolutions, at an exponential rate. This document considers the transformative influence of the Fourth industrial revolution on agriculture in India and the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in it on India’s future agriculture. The focus on ICTs is based on its potential influence and impact, if used appropriately, on agriculture. ICTs have the potential to surpass in influence and use all other technologies put together so far. ICTs influence and impact not only on their own but they also catalyse, accelerate and multiply the impacts of using other technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, geo-spatial technology and new materials in agriculture. Agri-food Systems and Value Chains As indicated above, the Fourth industrial revolution is based on use of technologies and concepts of value chain organization. The current Agri-food value chains with their information, commodity and financial flows is illustrated in the Figure 1 below:

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Figure 1: Generalized Current Agri-food Value Chain There is increasing realization that current Agri-food systems are not, over a period of time, sustainable. They are exploitative of natural resources such as water and soil fertility, overtly dependant on large amounts of inputs external to the farming system and damaging to the environment through fertilizer and pesticide runoffs and production of concentrated green house gases. They are largely designed and operated to maximise production and profit. Wastage and losses to a certain level in this system are considered as inevitable “costs” to be absorbed in the final price paid by consumers leading to issues of affordability and access to food and other agricultural commodities. Certain costs, such as damage to the environment and adverse social impacts, are not considered and usually absorbed and borne by the society, many a times leading to their detriment. Financial and information flows are similarly designed to support profit for the dominant actor in the value addition chain at any cost leading to economic susceptibility and inequity. Current Agri-food systems are also not sustainable economically as they are susceptible to market risks related to both inputs such as energy, fertilizers, labour and outputs and products which often see market failures resulting in gluts or shortages. For sustainable agriculture, the efficiency in using all natural resources and inputs, throughput (productivity) and output (product and product quality) need to be optimized for sustainable, long term use and losses and wastage minimized. Efficiency in the use of resources and many a times time, especially in case of food, between production and consumption also needs to be optimized in post-production processing, storage, transport and marketing. At consumption, as with other processes, issues of safety and quality in addition to reduction of wastage need to be considered in the interest of the consumer and society. In recent years, new designs of Agri-food systems based on concepts of optimised use of resources, reduction in losses and wastage and directed to improve quality of life have emerged. These concepts also consider issues of equitable participation with benefits for all actors and stakeholders of Agri-food systems, ensuring access and affordability to safe, nutritious and healthy diets, meeting challenges of adopting to and mitigating effects of climate change, managing spread of transboundary diseases and pests, reducing the loss of biodiversity and improving resilience of farming systems, etc. There is very little or no loss and wastage as even what is now considered waste is transformed into something useful in the value chain. Another important function in the new designs of Agri-food systems is its environmentally friendly approach and operation to contribute to environmental services such as cleaning of urban waste water and solids. The new design of Agri-food systems also include intangible benefits such as improvement in quality of life, recreation and sustaining heritage of culture and environment. A generalised illustration of future Agri-food Systems is illustrated in Figure 2 below:

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Figure 2: Generalized Future Agri-food Value Chain India’s Agriculture India’s agriculture now faces serious challenges of sustainability and resilience. With a burgeoning population of more than 1.3 billion people, India’s needs for food and industrial feedstock like cotton are vast. India’s needs to create employment and improve quality of life are also not massive but extremely urgent. While its arable lands and water resources are fast depleting, there is an increasingly explicit demand for more accessible, affordable, safe, healthy, nutritious and high quality food. The ability of millions of smallholder and family farmers who are economically poor to participate equitably and efficiently in rapidly emerging, globally competitive agricultural commodities market and sustain their livelihoods needs to be very rapidly developed. There is an acute shortage of quality water for irrigation and processing agricultural products. Fertile lands are rapidly diminishing either through urbanization or degradation due to erosion, faulty agricultural practices and rising salinity. Pollution, environmental damage and waste of natural resources is endemic. Change in climate with extreme weather variability with floods, droughts and hail storms regularly plays havoc with agriculture in many parts of the country every year. With large international borders with neighbouring countries that are failing in governance, the threat of transboundary spread of zoonotic, animal and plant diseases that can wreak havoc to its animals and crops is increasing. Agricultural biodiversity is rapidly being lost with increasing monoculture in agriculture, land and water degradation, climate change etc. In spite of these challenges, certain regions of India have shown remarkable growth of more than 10 per cent annually which reduces rural poverty significantly indicating that India has high levels of hidden potential to overcome the many challenges to its agriculture and contribute significantly to the country’s economic and social development. The core issue is how to maintain and achieve sustainably even more growth which is also resilient. It must be kept in mind that India’s agriculture is predominantly smallholder farmer based. It is expected to remain so for the next few decades in spite of the ongoing economic growth and urbanization. Developing smallholder agriculture in India now faces three major inter-related challenges. The first is the need to make its agriculture rapidly become more market oriented and capable of participating in globally competitive markets. The second is to remain sustainable and resilient in the face of the many challenges mentioned above. The third is the need to rapidly innovate, adapt and adopt new technologies. ICTs for Sustainable Agriculture

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6 The key ICTs for application in agriculture are those of mobile devices, sensing technologies, “big” data and data analytics, cloud computing, knowledge based systems, telematics, high speed wireless connectivity, visualization, Internet of Things and development of software, application, hardware and connectivity. Figure 3 illustrates generically the use of ICTs in an Agri-food system.

Figure 3: ICT applications in Agri-food Systems The ICTs that contribute to sustainable farming are:    

  

Cloud computing: enables farmers and other agricultural actors process “big” data or data that is massive in quantity through sophisticated software tools, Sensing technologies: “sense” soil, environment, health status of crops and animals and report them to “data clouds” accessible universally, Knowledge based systems: are heuristic and self-learning systems that enable more accurate decision making, Mobile devices: help farmer’s access appropriate solutions and enable them to intervene even remotely. There are now more ten thousand farming related Apps useable through Smart phones and an equal number of websites providing information for farmers and agriculturists. They also include wearable devices for farmers and other actors as also for animals. Telematics and global positioning: aid autonomous operation of farm machinery that till, harvest and transport, Broadband high speed digital connectivity: to access, process and disseminate information as also participate in social networks irrespective of geography, Visualization: such as 3D virtual reality that will contribute to agriculturists able to see visually through simulation the impact of their decisions,

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7  

The Internet of Things: which enables networking and sharing of data between “things” such as farm machinery and equipment which can be applied to innovations like variable fertigation that provides such enough water and nutrients to a single plant or plot of land Data analytics that make it possible to make more accurate diagnostics, forecasting and predictions of outcomes of farming decisions.

These ICTs would be used for informing and enabling agricultural communities especially farmers and producers to rapidly innovate their farming and processing, practice more precise, mechanized and automated agriculture, improve transport, storage and marketing and safety and quality assurance of agricultural products and support Agro-industries, Agri-business and Agri-services sectors. ICTs can contribute to overcoming India’s agricultural challenges listed above. Accessible, affordable, safe, healthy, nutritious and high quality food ICT driven Farm Information Systems The production of food on farms can now be improved and made more efficient and profitable by informing farmers just in time of availability, cost and use of inputs, weather aberrations, spread of diseases and pests and market related information. Farm throughput and output can be monitored, optimised and losses reduced as is also for harvesting and post-harvest processing, transport and storage where most losses occur across the entire value chain and farming system. Autonomous farm machinery for farming operations from tillage to harvesting is now available. These machines networked with sensors, GPS communicate with data clouds. New technologies such as prescriptive planting and variable fertigation enables seeding with different crops and within the crop, different varieties with a farm so that the most ideal seed is planted in its most ideal soil condition and irrigated with the exact requirement of water and nutrients. The use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) with different wavelengths of light to maximise at different stages plant growth is now a regular practice in protected agriculture. Farm production and profits are also modelled and simulated so that the most sustainable and profitable practices are planned, implemented and monitored through computer systems. And these technologies are not only used for plants, they are now also used in livestock farming with a large set of mobile computing devices and sensors enabling livestock farming processing from herding, feeding, milking and even monitoring health and behaviour for optimal animal welfare and productivity. These farm information systems operate at two levels, macro at national, regional, state and in countries like India at District, Taluk and village levels and at the actual farm, field, greenhouse and plot, herd and individual animal levels. Several ICTs, including satellite, aircraft and drone based remote sensing, GPS, photometry, sensors, automated weather stations, data, clouds, big data and analytics, modelling and simulation, networking, Internet of Things etc. are involved in the systems.

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Figure 4. Proposal of an Integrated Farm Information System at National/Regional Level Food Safety For traceability, identity preservation and labelling, Radio-Frequency Identity Devices (RFIDs), Near Field Communications (NFC), image recognition and labels that can be scanned and related information accessed from the Internet are used in monitoring storage and conditions during transport and marketing. Labelling with 1 or 2D bar codes supported by internet based identity preservation and traceability systems are enabling end-point consumers assurance to origin, quality, nutritive value, pricing and many other types of information. Food safety is now ensured by application of computerised data management according to good agricultural practices in farms and with the use of temperature and chemical sensors that record the conditions of foodstuffs as they are harvested, processed, transported or stored as per applicable standards. These sensors linked and networked through cloud based systems, Internet of Things and Geo-positional Systems enable real time monitoring of food and agricultural commodities at all stages of a market chain from input in farms to processing, transport, storage, packaging and consumption. Labelling is now being designed for “Smart” kitchen appliances including refrigerators and microwave ovens not only to appropriately store the foodstuff and cook it with recipes availed through the World Wide Web but also advice the consumers on their need to shop the foodstuffs. These “Smart” kitchen appliance are linked through the Internet of Things and can be programmed and switched on or off remotely to ensure the best processing and cooking for the foodstuff. And ultimately, 3D printing of food is now a strong possibility enabling consumers to taste and eat gourmet food cooked by highest starred Michelin cooks. Improving food accessibility and affordability 8

9 The introduction of Aadhar and issue of Unique Identifiers (UID) along with the Government of India’s Direct Cash transfer enables improvements in access and reduces leakages and losses in the public distribution system (PDS) of food (Ration). Participate equitably and efficiently in rapidly emerging, globally competitive agricultural commodities market Market related Information Systems All markets have three types of flows, of information, finance and commodities. All market inefficiencies and failures occur when there is asymmetry or breakdown of flow and access. ICTs are now employed in collating, managing and disseminating agricultural market related information systems at global, regional, production systems as also for individual farms and farmers. Weather data especially rainfall data and solar radiation integrated with satellite and drone based photometry for chlorophyll density and crop temperatures is now used to forecast risks from droughts, frosts, flooding, diseases and pests not only for farmers and processors but more importantly for commodity traders in international markets, yields of crops. With this information, traders are able to forecast demand, availability and market price for any agricultural commodity. The power of this information was demonstrated during the global food crises of 2008-2009 which resulted in food riots in several countries and panic in most developing countries. A handful of agricultural commodity traders located in Dubai in the International food-grains market manipulated financial, commodity and market information flows resulting in the crises. World leaders have now reacted to developing open market related information systems through the FAO. However, in India, we are yet to develop appropriate market related information systems that enable smallholder farmers to participate effectively in markets. There is an urgent need to develop information systems that inform farm gate prices of relatively small quantities of agricultural products as also provide for planning small farm operation for optimised, sustainable profits. Financial management Managing finances and their flow is critical for a farmer as also other actors in Agri-food chains. Indian agricultural has rapidly shifted from being subsistence to being market oriented but inclusion of rural people, especially farmers, in financial management and banking systems has till recently been non-existent . Accounting is an important activity of a farm. ICTs, even simple spreadsheets on a mobile device can help a small farmer maintain her accounts in the purchase of inputs and selling of products as also of her time and effort. More complex systems and applications using financial modelling can help farmer not only estimate but even forecast profits enabling her to plan her farming and anticipate appropriate profits. Without inclusion, farmers have to depend on cash to buy and sell incurring huge transaction costs and experiencing lack of transparency. Financial transaction systems such as m-Pesa and Rupay as also Automated Teller Machines in India are enabling farmers and rural people to now be included in the country’s financial and banking systems and opening avenues to transact their business through electronic means. This opens for them input and products markets including online purchase and selling. This financial inclusion reduces transaction costs and brings transparency. Coupled with transparent land records that can enable mortgaging for loans

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10 and insurance against risks, electronic inclusion in banking has a huge potential for Indian agriculture to be financial sustainable. Commodity Flows ICTs are highly beneficial for commodity flows in markets. They reduce transaction costs, enable transparency and monitoring of quality and safety of commodities especially food. They enable scheduling, timely processing, storage and retail marketing, including identifying consumer choices and forecasting demand. ICTs also contribute significantly to processing, for example, image processing to sort products. Information Flows In India today, an individual, even a poor farmer, without access to a cell phone is a rare entity. In recent years the Government, public and private sector enterprises have initiated market price information systems. However, these systems are still not relevant and useful to millions of small holder producers as they do not indicate farm gate prices and the most appropriate markets. Some pilot projects including E-Choupal and for marketing of fish in Kerala has now benefited farmers but a lot needs to be done to improve access to price information for smallholder farmers producing small quantities of produce for the market. Further, success of smallholder participating in markets is when they can aggregate their products and strengthen their capacities. With weak cooperative structures and producer companies in their infancy and lack of integration with financial inclusion and commodity flows information in local markets, smallholder farmers still find deficiencies in their equitable participation in markets. ICTs can enable virtual aggregation of these farmers strengthening their capacity to aggregate and participate with more strength in both input and output markets, plan their production and negotiate with other actors engaged in transport, storage, processing and marketing. Improving efficiency of water use and managing soil fertility The availability of more precise GIS systems with 3D mapping at resolutions of 25 cm and 10 cm altitudes which are integrated to low cost soil sensors linked through sensor networks and Internet of Things are now providing information to manage soil erosion, degradation through salinity and loss of fertility, watersheds and farm irrigation such as through variable fertigation in which drip irrigation is through sensor based outlets monitoring soil moisture, temperature and nutrient availability. The use of low cost lasers for soil levelling and new types of agronomy has resulted in saving of scarce water on millions of acres of cultivated lands. In India, the Soil health card system if linked and integrated with other farm information systems at macro and micro levels can bring an unimagined agronomical revolution of sustainable, agro-ecologically friendly agriculture. Control of pollution, environmental damage and waste of natural resources The use of ICTs in air, soil and water pollution control and management is very similar to the management and improving of water use and soil fertility. Most of the time the same technology but different types of photometry, sensors, ground observations and sets of data such as for nitrates, biological oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia levels, spread of algae and bacteria, are

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11 used as indicators of pollution. ICTs are used again at macro and micro levels to monitor and manage pollution. Coping with Climate change and extreme weather variability India’s success at forecasting cyclones, floods and droughts and intervening through disaster management programs is now gaining global recognition. India is building a network of weather stations but ultimately India will need a large number of automated weather stations at a minimum of about 9 km minimum distance (though 3 km would be ideal) between each to provide accurate weather forecasts that are actionable for farmers in their cultivation, pest and disease control, insurance etc. This would mean about a 100 such weather stations in a district and 56,000 weather stations networked to each other and providing public access information in the country! This information will need to be open access so that public, private and community sector actors can develop their farm advisory services, support pest and disease management and provide insurance etc. to farmers. More accurate weather forecasting will also bring huge efficiency in input use such as high quality seed, fertilisers, pesticides and even labour. When integrated with farm information systems they will enable farmers to plan their farm activities and use water and fertilizers more efficiently. At the macro and farm level, the measurement of greenhouse gases (GHGs) as also bio-mass production as a form of carbon sequestration etc. can help monitor the carbon economy of agriculture and farming and earn carbon credits for farmers. Preventing loss of biodiversity Large databases created by the Crop Diversity Fund, CGIAR and FAO with standardised passport and genomic data along with samples of seeds, semen, eggs and cultures of agricultural plants, animals and microbes are forming a part of major global efforts to prevent loss of biodiversity. ICTs have been use in many countries including Jordan to identify and map habitats of aromatic, medicinal plants and herbs. In Indonesia and several South East Asian countries, ICTs are extensively used through satellite and drone based remote sensing and photometry illegal logging. In South America and Afghanistan the same technology is used to monitor cropping of illegal plants. New ICTs that can identify and categorise plants as useful plants and weeds through image recognition coupled to remote sensing by drones that can also selectively apply weedicides are being researched upon in several countries including USA and Australia. Managing spread of Transboundary diseases The management of spread of transboundary disease now uses very sophisticated ICTs including GIS, ICT based diagnostics, social networking and online databases and information repositories of zoonotic, animal and plant diseases. These are monitored by WHO, FAO, CDC, OIE and several other agencies spread across the world. PROMED (http://www.healthmap.org/promed/) today is one of the largest community based, International social network reporting on all disease and pests. It uses the Internet and E-mail to share disease surveillance and monitoring information.

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12 ICTs for Smallholder Agriculture in India Till recently, it was considered that biotechnology would impact India’s agriculture most. However, in the past 5 years or more, the role and potential of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in transforming agriculture and farming in India not only in sharing information and developing new skills but also acting in synergy with other technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, geo-spatial technology and new materials is slowly being recognized to be greater. However, the application of ICTs as of now in smallholder farming face many issues. Smallholder farmers encounter several barriers to use ICTs. These include availability, accessibility, affordability and applicability of relevant and useful ICTs, timeliness in getting and trustworthiness of the information they need and are provided. Many a times smallholder farmers, especially women who are now and in future be a majority of the smallholders, have greater economic and social barriers to surpass just to access and appropriate individually and collectively ICTs and use them effectively. Small farmers and entrepreneurs many a times find ICTs limited in use due to their small sized operations and lack of capacity to invest financially and in skills to use these technologies. Most of the ICTs in use in today’s agriculture is designed for use in large farms and big businesses. For ICTs to be applied successfully in India’s smallholder agriculture, there is an urgent need to indigenize appropriate ICTs for application in smallholder farming. Using ICTs for sustainable smallholder farming and agriculture brings about more complex issues. Smallholder farming to be sustainable has to be sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. Attaining all these three characteristics of sustainable farming together requires new approaches to information management which is the key function of ICTs as applied to farming. Current models to provide information to farmers give recommendations around only one issue and information needed for sustainable farming has to be accessed from multiple sources that farmers are not usually equipped to find and effectively use. These information models do not also provide information to optimize and balance farming for effective sustainable market participation and or optimized profit, social and environmental contributions. The current information models do not serve smallholder farmers achieve sustainable farming and need to change to provide optimized whole farm solutions with options and their implications using dynamic data and predictive analytics through mobile devices for universal access. The small scale nature of sustainable smallholder farming brings forth issues such as of variability and precision as also aggregation that are masked when ICTs are used at larger scales of farming. Many of the solutions for these issues are not only technological but require changed and new Institutions and community based approaches. This becomes more imperative as the use of “big” data becomes key to sustainable farming and agriculture. For using big data effectively for agriculture, food safety and quality nutrition, India will need to initiate public data repositories access as public clouds and data cooperatives so that equitable benefits accrue to those who as a community generate the data. Thus, pursuing and throwing only techno-centric solutions to these farmers is not the solution. There is a need for Institutional and Social innovation and transformation along with technology to see that ICTs are useful for sustainable smallholder farming. Some of the Institutional changes and innovations needed are in revamping and renewing existing Institutions, policies, strategies, legislation, regulatory frameworks, norms, standards, enforcement mechanisms, organization structures and work processes to support farmers use information and ICTs 12

13 usefully. There is an urgent need to include access to agricultural and nutritional data as a component of the Indian open access to information policy.

Fig. 5: Framework for ICT applications in Sustainable Smallholder Agri-food Systems There is a lot also needed for inclusion and participation of all actors and stakeholders so that smallholders can aggregate, cooperate and collaborate in collective actions such as “Data and Information Cooperatives” and developing larger social networks not only in the context of shared resources and geographies but needs, values and interests also. Innovation especially for and by smallholders is critical for agricultural development and for smallholders to be sustainable in all aspects for the society. For mass innovation in agriculture there is a need to democratize access and use of scientific knowledge and technology. Conclusion The document indicates how integrated farm information systems at the macro/national and regional level and at the micro at farm, field and plot level can be further leveraged through ICT based financial inclusion systems such as Rupay and ATMs, market related information systems for smallholder farmers, Aadhar UID, Soil Health Card etc., Institutional transformation and community participation to bring about sustainable Agri-food systems and agriculture in India. The appropriate applications of ICTs can contribute significantly to overcoming the many challenges India faces in its agriculture. There are many individual initiatives in applying ICTs in agriculture but there does not yet appear that there are efforts to integrate them as also enable effective use of information for sustainable farming. It would be important under programs such as “Digital India” that efforts are made to integrate, fill the gaps in informing and enabling farmers and the multitude of actors to effectively use information, knowledge, skills and 13

14 technology in India’s rapidly emerging market oriented Agri-food systems. Appropriate applications of ICTs can contribute significantly to overcoming the many challenges India faces in its agriculture.

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APPLYING GIS-BASED FARM MODELS Information and CommunicationTechnologies for Sustainable Agricultural Development Gujarat, 11.2.2016

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Agenda • Introduction • Need for a holistic application • Overview of features

• Expert Models and • Overview of Circular Flow Management

• Conclusion • No sustainability without traceability • Steps towards local set up & calibration

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Global Nutrition Challenge Political •

2050: 9,5 billion people & no hunger = 100% nutrition increase

•

Global Warming & Climate Change (negative externalities)

•

Urbanization and Health (smart cities & smart rural areas integration)

•

Biodiversity (active risk management / diversification like in finance)

•

Land degradation and desertification (land becoming a scarce good)

•

Water services for Health (water becoming a scarce good)

BOTTOMLINE •

Large-scale and global environmental hazards to human health urge decision makers to move from observation to application

•

Prevention is better than Cure

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Introduction

.GIS AGRO DATA solution for steering and supervision of sustainable growth in

 Time  Location  Resources

WHEN WHERE WHAT

TRACEABILITY for SUSTAINABILITY EFFECTIVITY vs. EFFICIENCY © PROGIS Solutions | Intro 2016 | S2A

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Participants | vertical Consolidated supervisory subsidies & taxation

One view & Consolidated reporting structure within an enterprise

Data exchange for cross-enterprise collaboration

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SUPERVISION Tools

PRODUCTION Tools

AGRO Portal PROGIS | GIS Portal

Data and Process Integration

Public Authorities

Corporate Executive Boards

Operative units Production + Personnel + Machinery

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Participants - horizontal

• TRACE & TRACK DB © PROGIS Solutions | Intro 2016 | S2A

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PROGIS Features for Steering & Supervision (Public & Private) • LOCATION DB [MAPS] • Digitalization integrated “Add-in” for cadastral data

• TIME DB [PLANNING] • Data storage for tracing development and movements

• RESOURCES [ASSETS] • • • •

HR [human resources i.e. farmers, consultants, etc.] FIN [financial recourses i.e. equity, debt] MACHINERY [equipment, hardware, software] PRODUCTION [input, output, quality, quantity]

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Steering & Supervision NATURAL RESOURCES FINANCIAL RESOURCES KNOW HOW RESOURCES

• Human Resources • Proactive Education politics • Development tracking • Environment & ICT • Optimization of usage • Dynamic models & tracking • FINANCE | SUBVENTIONS | TAX • Real time production data & historical data matching • Active risk management (all levels!! incl. environment)

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• Planning • Seeding • Harvesting

DATABASES BASE for L P I S [EU]

• Finance • Agriculture • Forestry

production

analysis

location

strategy

Land Parcel Information System

I A C S | I N V E K O S [EU]

+

Integrated Agriculture Control System • • • •

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Orthoimage Cadaster Soil Weather

• • • •

National EU wide International Sales

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DATA Streams to Trust Center • •

Tools for FARMS FORESTRY

• • Develop

AGRI-DATA INPUTS

Tools for LAND CONSOLIDATION ENVIRONMENT – NAT. RISKS

PPP AGENCY

Deploy

Deploy

FINANCE INSURANCE (FIN.NET) (RISC.NET)

Information proceesed IISby Apps

FEED IN&OUT Public Users DB TRUST CENTER

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Private Users

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TOOLS | LOCATON & TIME • DATABASES • Ortho image • Cadastral image • Planning image • Production image • Harvesting image • Financing data Input & Output visualised in: time & location & € data 1.3.2016

Tractor plough

Tractor Seeding machine NPK fertilizer

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5.5.2016

30.9.2016

Tractor Sprayer Pesticide

Harvester

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ICT PRODUCTS & PROCESSES TASKS TOOLS PREPARATION MILESTONES

Individual projects Standardized

analysis

 Land consolidation, enviro-, risk-mgmt: tools, apps

 Precision Farming: PF-tools, machinery, EC-Sentinel

products

 Logistic: Logistic-HQ & mobGIS & communication

soil  Farm- & Forest-management: DokuPlant & ForestOffice & Experts

 Geoinfo – maps: LPIS – WinGIS - orthoimages 3-4 y

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location

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ICT TOOLS WinGIS for Vector & Raster data

I. orthoimage + cadastre and houses

V. LPIS dataset

II. orthoimage + BING road map

VI. GPS tracking result

III. roadmap + WinGIS location search

VII. laser scan dataset

IV. thematic map done with Intl DB

VIII. harvest map + machine tracking

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location

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ICT TOOLS LOGISTICS

in time

location

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ICT TOOLS LOGISTICS for PRODUCTION & MARKETABILITY

EU

• 40.000 farmers on in use • 40.000 km² in real time

JIT

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• 45 cooperatives with over • 100 harvesters & mobGIS

• Cost saving • Price stability

in time

location

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ICT TOOLS FARMFORESTRYADVISORYMANAGEMENT

analy sis

when what

where

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IV. SUPRA- and INTERNATIONAL • Cooperation - INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS • and INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND NGOS III. NATIONAL

ICT TOOLS

• USE BOTTOM UP & TOP DOWN: • OPEN DATA for all users • TRUST CENTERS – a MUST • for public and private use

INTEGRATED FARM FORESTY ADVISORY MANAGEMENT

• integrate labs, satellite images, coop.. • with ICT, agro, telecoms (last mile), ... II. REGIONAL • INTEGRATE VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL: • Logistics + mobGIS, integrate industry I. LOCAL

for

• planing, documentation of activities • energy-, carbon-, nutrient-balance

LOCAL REGIONAL NATIONAL PRECISION FARMING

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• cost- profit calculation, inventory

• Virtual Farming, Precision Farming • Environment-, risk-management • (Sub-)regional SAFER-centers • GlobalGAP, FSC, PEFC, TC, .....

• localized subsidy management • business plan, insurance data • thematic maps, …..

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ICT TOOLS & THEIR INTEGRATION

Smart COUNTRY

Competitiveness

INTEGRATED NATIONAL FARM FORESTY ADVISORY MANAGEMENT

Smart CITY

Smart RURAL Area

V. PRECISION PREDICTABILITY VI. PRECISION STEERING

for PRECISION FARMING & INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

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Smart FARMS

Independ ence

III. PRECISION CONTROL II. PRECISION URBANISATION I. PRECISION FARMING

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STAKEHOLDERS & PROCESSES ICT BACKBONE INTERSECTION for PUBLIC USERS PRIVATE USERS

© PROGIS Solutions | Intro 2016 | S2A

Supra National

Public

• Ministries • Regional and local admin • Advisory organizations • Subsidy organizations • Chambers if av. • Land consolidation units • R&D and education

• UN • FAO • WHO • EU

Private • • • • • • •

Farmers, cooperatives Agro banks, insurance Certification bodies Control organizations Supply agencies Transport sector Food – feed industry

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Benefits • • • •

Location and Time integrated production data Real Time financial data (by production data) Risk Management Tools development Powerful features for enhanced • Productivity • Sustainability • Market access and marketability of production

• Steering Tool for environmental & climate risk

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Circular Flow Management

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D E M O N S T R A T I O N UPON DEMAND Integrated Data and Production Analytics in

Circular Flow Management as basis for

Sustainable Precision Farming

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First Steps • • • • • •

Local Demand Analysis (I/O; HW/SW) Regional Demand Analysis & Integration Education of Staff (Planning / Production / Controlling) Financial Structuring Inventory Production Planning Set up & Calibration • • • •

Hardware Software Integration of HW & Data (horizontal / vertical Management) E-mail: [email protected]

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Adopting ICT in Agriculture

FROM SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ONLY TO ICT-APPLICATIONS & SUSTAINABILITY SUPPORTING BUSINESS MODELS Dipl.Ing. Walter H. MAYER, CEO PROGIS, farmer, forester, consultant We need in agriculture & forestry a worldwide location based Circular Flow Management supported by usable integrated technologies supporting various stakeholders from small or large farmers to industry and service providers, embedded into a strategy that supports sustainability targets to reach better effectiveness instead of today´s efficiency only and supports the seventeen United Nations Development Goals for the 2030 Agenda.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: With this presentation and article “From science and technology to applications and sustainability”, PROGIS wants showcase on one side the technologies that have been developed and are available today and will be available in the near future. New developments have been taken into consideration as well. We have today thousands of applications installed at customers worldwide and developed around them a businessmodel that if implemented will guarantees to get the best out of the technologies for all involved stakeholders. We had taken into consideration that all this happens within a fast changing environment: Politically, organizationally and technologically. We had to think also about the 17 development goals defined by the UN including its sub-targets. Further one had to recognize that we are in front of a huge education need on all agro-forest-environmental levels including financing, ethics and environment and natural risks and of the commons and their management. All this beside the standard agricultural and forest day by day needs. We had also to recognize the local know how and how to integrate it into existing ICT structures and had to address the ownership of data of a private piece of land. We spoke further that technology integration and stakeholder cooperation is of importance to get most out of technology. We explain how with ten steps a model within an entire country can be setup: Starting from the evaluation of the existing structures and gaps to a necessary backbone of a public to be setup infrastructure to farm- and/or forest-management systems for single farmers or for advisory services. We talk further how to manage groups of farmers or regions regarding a regional to be implemented logistics systems for the input and sales of harvests towards Precision Farming. This not only to support shortsighted targets but also to support Circular Flow Management as the nature shows us, supported by new lab technologies or new  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet:http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

satellite images that show within a few days the chlorophyll status of a field or even the soil moisture to save fertilizer or water. Beside Virtual Farming as a model of integration of many smallholders to larger entities without losing their independency, we also talk about the integration of environment management or natural risk reducing services done by smallholders under integration of the local population to see it as target to close the gap from farmer to customer. On top we addressed landconsolidation to show how to optimize the future with the help of technology. We spoke about the involved beneficiaries and spoke, how setup systems that all of them get their benefits. We developed models how advisory services (extension services) can use ICT technologies for a bettering of the smallholder farmer´s support. Final thoughts were given to new technologies that are in front of us, their marginal costs that are embedded and the focus on commons in relation to agriculture and forestry to react and accept this challenge. A few words about Garret Hardin, Carol Rose and Elenor Ostrom in regards to commons and the way was introduced how a new information model could help to solve these problems with the support of farmers. The final words was to enlighten the relation between agricultural and food sector to show the big discrepancy between agriculture and food-system. ©PROGIS-WHM

We have during the last years heavily increased efficiency and were happy that with the same or even less amount of fertilizer or pesticides or machinery costs or diesel input per ha we could increase the output at lowered costs. We worked efficient but not effective! Efficient means to have better results in relation of input and effort. What we did was not effective if we had had defined a target: To work sustainable! Effectiveness is the relation of result and target and we forgot simply to define the target! Although if we have as humans, as families, as enterprise or as countries targets, the globe did NOT define targets yet - UN as the organization for this topic is struggling with 200 members and different ideas - otherwise we would not work only efficient but not effective. Precision Farming of today is efficient but not effective, knowing that the business-models of today are NOT sustainable on the long run! As smallholder farmers, also large farms, support food production but also environmental caretaking and embedded management of natural risks and this is of higher importance than food production only, we have to support smallholder farmers special with advisory services, equipped with latest technologies, guided by experts and organize control as well. We have to integrate efficiency not only in agriculture and forestry but also into industry and throughout the whole chain to get better results with less input. What we did was only slowing down the process of pollution or of raw materials scarcity – instead of 100 years we run out of “A, B, C” in 200 years only - qualified maybe for grand-children´s but not for grand-grand-children´s survival.

INTRODUCTION: THE SITUATION IN THE PAST Increased productivity, more efficiency, higher output, loss of quality, economy versus ecology, emissions and externalization of costs, positive structures changing to negative ones, fanaticism for growth rate, ongoing bank disaster since 2007, no or too less change,…

 PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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During the last decades worldwide productivity was THE word in business to increase output, also income, revenues etc. We all were pushed by growth rates and all the countries calculated that with growth-rates of 3-5% per year, several countries significant more, we want be able to repay our debts. For a few decades it seems to work, warning voices haven´t been noticed. Economic and ecologic failures stayed unheard. I remember a professor at the University that spoke about carbon problems in 1972 – it took 30 years to recognize them and now we are already further 15 years struggling to get acceptance and understanding of the problem. We were in Austria happy to have another professor that started very early in avalanche and torrents management to work on avoiding problems than to repair later on damages. Afforestation on high altitude was the way instead of using concrete and iron down-streams. It was 1000 times cheaper and created a nice Alpine landscape. The nature trained us as, if you make a failure in a rough natural environment – mountains - the answer of the nature will be rough too. Maybe one will not be able to survive a failure! So you are forced to learn fast to be able to survive. Surviving of the fittest? We know it! Charles Darwin told it! No, wrong, it was the cleverest that survived! When the growth rates came down, mourning showed up. Like the “dance around the golden calf” everything had to subordinate towards this growth rate fanaticism. Quality was lost, externalization of costs took place, emission increased, finally the US and European bank disaster showed up in 2007-2008 and since nearly 10 years we all are worldwide struggling: banks, ecology, no growth rate, too less work places, countries with debts, refugees and so on. I remember 30 years ago to make an expert´s report for a large forest enterprise that got sulfur pollution from beside others a big coal power station that bought cheap coal with 7% sulfur in it and worked at this time from the sixties on without filter. The forest was due to the sulfur pollution damaged dramatically. We made reduced growth rate calculations with statistical samplings, business economics calculation and finally had the damage over nearly 30 years calculated. We wanted to cooperate with the Chamber of Agriculture that did the calculation for smallholders but they refused. I did not understand this at that time. The Chamber of Agriculture is governed from the same political party as the Chamber of Industry. They did not want to see the reality but to calm down the problem only and give the farmers some money for the damage. The damage per ha that they calculated compared to my calculation was significant less but wrong. We needed new expertise, decisive expert opinions, twice during the court case that had the same results than my calculation. After 28 years we won, this in a democracy like Austria. What would happen anywhere else? The reason for it was externalization of costs. The power station made benefits, the damages were on the nature side, in that case the forestry as we could proof it, the agricultural side would have been much more tricky to proof and we had no legislation and no legal threshold values that we started to collect years before we did the expertise. We collected to be able to do the calculation years ago lots of data that brought us the information we required. Today, sulfur question is solved, more than 90% reduction of the sulfur exhaust during 25 years is equal to make the problem disappear. Where is the difference with carbon today? We have around 100 giant companies worldwide that are responsible for 80% of the carbon exhaust. We have since a few days a famous car company that exceeded a legal threshold. Others might do the same. Who is responsible for the damages on the world due to much carbon exhaust today? Worldwide we had to manage 200 different legislations – too complex to manage. What about the mix of different chemical components as we find them in reality: First dust, then sulfur followed by NOx, O3 (ozone), carbon …. etc. Do you know when you are drunk after mixing beer, wine and schnapps? No! But the effect of a combination is harder what means the critical value is lower.

 PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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(PRECISION) FARMING AND FORESTRY OF TODAY Agriculture ICT came into awareness and Precision Farming was presented in a wider scope during the last 10-15 years. Let us do it more precise, we again will have less costs and higher revenues. First it was mentioned by US and European experts – only for large farms; then the switch came – with better organization also for smallholder farmers. Experts spoke about less fertilizer or pesticide intake, up to 30% we could save, and others spoke about the additional ecological benefits. Everything is right and we can grow more with less input but in that moment when we started in small groups to discuss this questions we came up with the energy use, the need to reduce energy and the questions: “Is not energy THE key indicator for an optimized farm?” With less input – everything can be converted to energy – more output. Is Precision Farming – also Precision Forestry shows up as a more and more often used term the golden calf of the 2nd decade of the 21.Century? Or is it just another hype like the growth rates during the last decades? Is precision farming not only the prolongation of the existing overshot for efficiency and again forgetting the effectiveness that the nature shows us. We again run behind higher productivity as we did in the past, forget long-term targets and just want to have nice bookkeeping results on the end of the year – short term results only. We still have in agriculture and forestry a business-sector that does up till today not integrate e.g. the asset values of the ground, the soil in agriculture or the stocking forest in forestry at the end of the year. If you over years cut too many trees and have nice bookkeeping results every year but reduce the value of your forest significant - this is not valued! If you overuse your soil, reduce the humus content, as we did it in the US and Europe, then you reduce the assets of your soil. We do not take this into consideration what is simply wrong. Years ago, I understood that it was not easy to run a new forest inventory year by year but today if you have done it once you easily can upgrade this within 5 seconds with a clever IT system. The same happens with the soil and some lab results. We do not do this but we should as more and better forests as well as a better soil – humus is buffering 20 times more water than bare soil – give many ecological and risk-reducing values. We have to valuate these facts and pay farmers for these services, as we are able to do this today. The same system might calculate economic AND ecologic values. In that moment the Precision Farming of today might be seen in another light! Further, when you change the value of a field or a farm and all are working more sustainable than we change the value of a country as well.

THE NEED FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Let us speak about the urgent needed sustainable future. We have in agriculture and forestry the outstanding situation that we until today do not use a yearly precise calculation of our assets. We make a forest inventory of an enterprise only all ten, maybe out of cost reasons only all twenty or thirty years and in agriculture, most farmers do not see the need of a yearly inventory of the nutrient contents of their soil. Harvests are sold and only the machines and their values we know. In discussions I often use the sample of two identically forest enterprises; one manager is cutting the old trees along the roads and has an excellent bookkeeping result – but no old trees after a decade. The other manager invests into afforestation, sanitary cuttings etc. and increases the value in the forest but has compared a not so good bookkeeping result. In farming we could do a similar example if we calculate the quality of the soil, e.g. we lose humus and have 10 years later a humus poor soil only. We changed in both models the most important asset values of a forest enterprise and a farm but did not take into consideration these values. We simply did not work sustainable. The business-model shown above can only be done a few years, then we run out of something, wood or humus etc.  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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On the globe we work in a similar manner – we use raw-material, increase carbon to a level that the climate is under pressure not to mention all other emissions and do not calculate the most important assets we have – our nature. We need a sustainable managed land that on one side based on the capacity of the land produces food and/or feed or logs but in special cases also generating commons. In many cases it is not an “or” but an “and”. A piece of land can produce several products or services but please not all of them and not all at the same time. Years ago I could with an easy task bring peace in a conflict between fisher-men and kayak/rafting sportsmen at an Alpine river on 30 km with a simple model: Fishing from 6 – 9 o`clock and then rafting until 16.00 and then fishing again. Both groups representatives signed an agreement and the problem was solved. Again – we can´t do at the same time on the same location many different things and optimize all of them like produce crops, do hunting, generate a nice landscape, support biodiversity, allow recreation for all etc.; this guides to an overload of the nature, is not sustainable and conflicts will arise. We need to “manage” it – just the principles have to be clear as well as the responsibilities, the benefit of the outcomes and the needed payment to create it - sustainable!

BENEFITS OF A SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE OR FORESTRY – ALSO THE COMMONS When we look at agriculture and forestry - and for me it was always a combination of both as the average farmer in my mountainous region in Austria owns always farmland and forestland - we have to understand that we have on one side to produce – sustainable - logs in the forests or crops or grassland for the animals on our farms. In parallel we produce the so called commons, these goods that belong all of us, the nice landscape, less risks and protection of floods due to well and sustainable managed farms and forests. When I look at the Austrian forest legislation in 1975 with an, at that time new forest law, it was written that with the usefulness of the forest resources we automatically create protection, social services and recreation services. Does this come alone? Who takes the responsibility if we need more or less from the one or the other source? As long as the farmer only has income from one side, selling of logs, and we all - the population - want to have better ecological or social services, we run into a conflict. On other point we need responsibility. Only the local private owner is able to fulfill this responsibility if the business model behind is correct because only he is permanent available at the local area. With 7 billion or in future 10 billion people we can´t manage our assets in the same manner as 100 years ago with one billion. But we do not change it. Again, IT will help as we can plan better, make better decision with lots of data and better information, are able to control it and experts define together with local people, farmers and foresters the local target. Embedded into regional, national and global targets, we will be able to manage and smooth the conflict of today between landowners and public society. ICT alone is to less although it is the enabler. We have to integrate all stakeholders in the same manner as we have to integrate them into the normal farm-management processes as we see it with e.g. logistics where farmers, industries, service providers with machines, experts of laboratories, drivers of machines etc. have to cooperate to be able to manage one integrated process. The processes around the commons are also complex and need several technologies and stakeholder integration to setup models that fit to all stakeholders according their empowerment to be responsible also for direct or indirect financing of the outcomes.

THE WAY TO A SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE/FORESTRY I met recently an Austrian farmer – “10.500 l average milk per cow on my farm”, he told proud. After the question “how much do you earn” he answered sheepish: Nothing! We know the situation of smallholder farmers worldwide but we have to understand, if they do not earn an income anymore their environmental caretaking social responsibility will break down. You can´t ask someone who has to less to eat to take care on the environment, it means that  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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“more” of everything is not equal to sustainability. We have to optimize the entire process inclusive the environment under sustainability principles and need models where a farmer has a social responsibility as landowner to manage his farm sustainable – ecological, economic and social - but he has to get an income that allows him to do so. Instead of increasing productivity – to have losses at the end – we have to optimize the entire system and this is possible only with better information, and data are the requirement for it. Uncontrolled growth with the help of nitrogen brings me more harvest results but maybe less micronutrients in my crops. Who investigated it in detail? I see sometimes in supermarkets giant strawberries with no taste – that isn´t the product we need.

The EC forced more than 15 years ago all member states for the subsidy planning and control as requirement for receiving subsidies to setup ortho-image based LPIS (Land Parcel Information System) systems. Due to not streamlining the needs, these systems were setup in 28 member-states in total around 65 times, a part regional, and did only focus on subsidy control! All farmers had, mainly supported by advisors, chambers, payment agencies and private organizations to declare their fields (field polygon and the size) and then year by year define on which field with how many ha of which crop they have been growing as basis for the subsidies. This beside the amount of animals as well as where and if GAP/GAEC – many details - (GAP - Good Agricultural Practice, GAEC - Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition) was managed. It wasn´t taken into consideration that the collected data could have been used from many stakeholders in the agro-food or forest-wood chain with additional applications creating any amount of benefits due to better stakeholder cooperation

STAKEHOLDER COOPERATION:             

Farmers: better advise, better management, nutrient and pesticide reduction, better harvest result, less logistics costs, higher quality etc. Foresters: excellent planning tool, forest inventory with all details, yearly one-click update possible, all activities under control, link to logistics etc. Farm-Forest-Advisors: tools support advise, better management of farmers, higher ROI at customers = more benefits = better income + motivation Ministry: just in time and precise statistical data, precise subsidy mgmt., better control, use farmers for environment- & natural risk-management Bank: Business-plans for (micro-)finance, better customer understanding Insurance: easy link to insurance policy sales, many farmers linked, data available for micro-insurance, better ROI due to better information Telecoms: providing infrastructure = more traffic in rural areas due to heavy IT use, start for SMS-based payment, flat rate for logistic services Industry: (food/feed, wood) logistics increases quality and enables just in time delivery, better information on customers, statistical data for optimization Cooperatives: member management, services like logistic f. transport, harvest etc., smallholder precision farming as new service, support farm help etc. Certification bodies & controllers: easy data access via new trust centers® R&D: know how transfer into practical use, feedback for further optimization Environment- and natural-risk-management: Optimize environment with farmer´s social responsibility, benefit and local know how Marketing: IT-supported; split of advice- & sales

Since short time the word “inclusive” – I used many years the word “integrated”, the same meaning – is used!  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION Beside stakeholder cooperation, we need more and better technology integration, not only in agriculture, in general. Problem of today is also the sector-oriented education that in many cases does not allow the setup cross-sector or also cross-border solutions. The nature works as an integrated system and learning from the nature needs to upgrade our understanding of the methods of the nature – bio-economy, also represented by ICT solutions driven by bio-economic principles. Technology integration needs to have integrated technologies like ICT, GIS, GPS/dGPS, GPRS, ortho-images, satellite images, precision farming, laser scanning, mobile devices, smartphones, apps, ….; further we have to understand the background of information in relation to availability, accessibility, affordability, applicability, relevance, usefulness, timeliness, trustworthiness, appropriation by individuals and/or her/his community, making effective use of information etc.

PUBLIC SECTOR - ONE IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDER In an optimized model, the PUBLIC SECTOR could be responsible for following tasks and infrastructure setup:  Maps (ortho-images, LPIS, soil maps etc.)  Sensor-network: for meteorology, soil-sensors for (1) soil moisture and in future (2) nutrients  Expert data for o Agriculture (machinery and costs, diesel use, performance per ha, .....), fertilizer (organic and inorganic incl. chemical contents, ..), pesticides (incl. marketing names and chemical active substances, ..), seeds and crops (with parameters like costs, 1000 corn-weight etc., ..), methods (with timing and used resources, ..), o Forestry (with growth tables (m³/ha) and forced trees acc. natural growth conditions) o Environment- and natural risk-management: with methods and needed resources, where do we do what and when!  A network of experts from Ministries, Universities, private advisors etc. that will support an advisory service network that should be setup with private – maybe franchise structured – advisors and support them for special cases. Standard advice has to be carried out by the advisors themselves.  The public side has to control that advice process and sales process are strictly unlinked.  The public side has to be responsible for the subsidies if available in a country and the management and distribution of them.

PRIVATE SECTOR: FOR PRODUCTS AND COMMONS The PRIVATE SECTOR has  to organize the advise process for groups of farmers,  under the umbrella of the Ministry also to organize the setup of cooperatives with the target (also integrate-able into one cooperative)  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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o o o o   

Machinery Cooperatives, Social support Cooperatives, Management advise Cooperatives, Cooperatives for the common sales and buying process(es)

under the umbrella and regular advise of the Ministry also to organize land consolidation to optimize the use of land under the umbrella of the Ministry to organize agro-financing / -insurance. Commons have beside products also to be taken into consideration under a new social responsibility of the ground owner. Commons have to be managed, regional defined, planned and controlled under integration of local experts.

THE CENTRAL LPIS/IACS ICT SYSTEM, if possible, combined with an intelligent trust center as well as acc. the existing communication infrastructure, a combination of offline and online solutions has to be setup: Definition of attributes which must be collected together with the spatial data, in terms of further use in the LPIS (Land Parcel Information System) database. Example of required attributes: Unique land parcel ID inside a region Unique ID of the region Land owner Land use Depending on the availability of Internet connections there are different possibilities to collect the LPIS (land parcel information system) data. If there is an internet connections available, land parcels ought to be digitized on the base of up-to-date aerial images from e.g. Microsoft Bing Maps. WinGIS comes with a direct interface to the online images (aerial images, street/terrain maps, hybrid maps) of Microsoft Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps). In case of no internet availability, it is possible to make the aerial images available for offline use (distribution of image tiles and import in WinGIS projects as base map for the digitalization land parcels). Alternative solution: Using GPS/DGPS devices (e.g. simple GPS loggers) or TabletPCs with integrated GPS receiver to collect the positions of border points and transmission of them to WinGIS as raw data for the digitalization work. In connection with the digitalization of the spatial data (field) also the predefined attribute values must be inserted to corresponding database entry. Rural OSM (Open Street Map): In addition to land parcels, also the rural road network we can capture (by using the methods described above). In this case, WinGIS acts as a digitalization tool and an interface to the features and resources of the Open Street Map project (http://www.openstreetmap.org). Aggregation of data: Spatial data (land parcels) and the corresponding attribute values will be exported, uploaded and combined on a higher regional or nationwide level by using e.g. SQL or Oracle database management system and GIS server systems.  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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EDUCATION: The next big challenge will be EDUCATION: We have today not the know how that is needed to run “inclusive” systems, we need integrated agriculture-forestryenvironment-natural-risk know-how what is available but needs to be trained, we need in parallel the deep understanding of business ethics and the capability to use newest technologies. The existing education is not prepared to do this, will need to long until educated personal on different levels is available. A post-graduate education is needed and we prepare the setup of it on different levels. If you want to get information when available, we expect to have it ready for setup within short time. Please send us a mail to [email protected] under “education” if you are interested to take part.

BENEFITS FOR 7, IN FUTURE 10 BILLION CITIZENS In September 2015 the UN General Assembly released a document for the post 2015 development agenda: “Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”: 17 Sustainable Development Goals were identified: 1. End poverty 2. end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture 3. well-being for all 4. inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning 5. gender equality 6. sustainable management of water 7. sustainable and modern energy 8. sustainable economic growth 9. sustainable industrialization and foster innovation 10. reduce inequality within and among countries 11. inclusive cities and human settlements that are safe, resilient and sustainable 12. sustainable consumption and production patterns 13. combat climate change 14. sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources 15. sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss 16. inclusive society and institutions 17. revitalize the Global partnership for sustainable development Within these 17 development goals, additional 169 sub-targets have been identified. Details see the UN agenda.

10 STEPS TO AN INTEGRATED ICT CONCEPT FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF COUNTRIES The following pages are based upon the experience we could get during the last decade. It is the fundament as all of the applications are developed, installed partly in thousands or ten-thousands installations at customers around the globe. The feedback of customers, additionally hundreds of negotiations with partners, customers, science, politicians etc. gave us the know-how, how to setup a model that is capable to run an entire country one side and to gives the farmers with the help of technology the  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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capability beside food also to manage the commons. In general, it has to be optimal integrated into environmental caretaking and the management of natural risks. During the last years further new technologies occurred - some will help also agriculture a lot. Main tasks to make them profitable for sustainable resource management is technology assessment based on detailed know how of a country’s situation and needs, further technology integration concepts including an ICT infrastructure that integrates next to Ministries or public bodies also large private entities within agriculture and forestry. Ortho-images or networks of weather - stations are part of the concept and must be access-able by WMS (Web Map Services) from all parties, if wished – it is a political decision - against an access fee. Beside technology and the ICT backbone one has to understand all stakeholders and correlations of the information flow within the agro-(forest-, environment- natural-risk-) -processes with all tasks. Business-models have to be set up integrating different stakeholders allowing IT-supported cooperation. Benefits have to be identified and valuated, to know financial commitment(s). Guidance has to be recommended by local and international experts of all sectors. A first step is the evaluation of existing public and private structures and the information flow within/across them, available gaps and future needs of information within these sectors. This needs acc. experience a 3-6 months assessment consultancy.

Pic 1: WinGIS with orthoimage, LPIS and farmers database as local application or used via WMS services for fast, countrywide coverage and carrier of many powerful applications: DokuPlant, ForestOffice, Logistics, PF, EnvirOffice, Land-consolidation, …

Pic 2: Farm management with DokuPlant® integrating GIS, time-management, expert information and applications for costs, nutrients, carbon, insurance, subsidies, thematic maps etc.

The second question will be the ICT backbone of ortho-images and weather- and soilsensor-stations. The quality, quantity, costs and returns and the existing structures have to be evaluated as well as integrated. The production of a high resolution orthoimage (Bing® Maps in EC&US, 30cm resolution) or other av. maps or new flights (satellite orthoimages with 40cm av.!!!) can be accessed for an entire country for planning and control, not limited to a.m. sectors, to build-up an online mapping service as a must. After this stage a third one will occur, how is the GIS element managed – not only the top down but also the bottom up side - in a manner that the benefit reaches the farmers and other stakeholders. When the geo-component is decided and ready – e.g. in  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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Europe/US we have WMS services with orthoimages, 30+ cm resolution available, in other regions of the world satellite images with 0,4m, 1, 2, (5)m - that easily can be linked (also other images can be taken) – but - a map alone is too less. Having our spatial engine WinGIS®, the first, very fast and powerful object oriented GIS with its own development environment (SDK) that allows programmers easily link their dbapplications to maps, we focused where we have been coming from – out of a consultancy office focusing on agriculture – forestry - environment and natural riskmanagement. As this is one of the most complex markets within the GIS sector one has to understand the needs of the different chain partners within this market. A map alone is too less and does not help and cooperation of chain-partners is must-have! Preparation of LPIS (Land Parcel Information System) is the first mission for WinGIS® - to digitize all fields and other land plots including the owners or the users of the plots to build up a countrywide land parcel database. An Open Street Map technology for the rural area road-network might be integrated. PROGIS®` WinGIS® is an easy to use, easy to learn, powerful and cost efficient GIS software with extensive geographic application possibilities. Due to the integration of the online map data of Microsoft Bing Maps as „embedded Module“ – also other maps can be integrated - the access to worldwide available geographic data like satellite and aerial images, road maps and address databases is already part of the software package. The WinGIS® import and export interfaces support the most common GIS/CAD file formats like the ESRI™ shape files, the AutoCAD™ DXF, MapInfo´™ MIF and also text based file formats like CSV or GPX for data import from e.g. GPS devices. In a few steps, external spatial data can be loaded into the users WinGIS project. Imported attribute data are stored in the internal database module of WinGIS. By using the ActiveX developer component, application developers have the possibility to link their application very easy with WinGIS in order to visualize, edit and administrate any data with a geographic relation. As next the fourth step, the farm- and or forest-management has to be set in place taking into account the needs of different users next to farmers/foresters. Some of them will be able to run it alone, some of them will need help and support = advise. A new possibility shows up for advisory services, independent if public or private. They will work as service providers for the stakeholder group within a region, using state of the art technology. With such a model, country coverage can be established soon. Beside advisory service, also large farms or even food-industries can guide this service processes as everybody will benefit of it. If once a model is ready, WHERE, WHAT and WHEN an activity must be done - an enlarged GIS application is needed – the advisor/service provider will support this process from distributing seeds or fertilizers till the use of machines. He does business calculation, nutrient and/or carbon balances, cost calculation, subsidy management or even business plans, supporting insurance companies and creates maps. The data comes from expert models done together with local experts.  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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DokuPlant® has as fundament the GIS-based local LPIS, an integrated expert database (with all relevant agricultural data and cultivation recommendations supported by local expert partners) and a perpetual documentation tool. With this FMIS tools, extension officers are enabled to plan and control every field with a click, for a farm, a region or a whole country. Following information will be generated from every field and can be accumulated for the whole country: Activity management, crop rotation, cost calculation, nutrient balance for N, P, K, Ca, Mg and carbon balance. Models are ready to support carbon balances for complete countries to enable carbon financing for complete countries based on measurable indicators and if needed energy balance, input/resource needs, harvests results etc. The (1) PC-GIS, (2) real-time management and the (3) expert-data base are integrated within the FMIS database application. The mapping of plots/fields will be supported and a perpetual calendar enables the display of any performed activity: what – when where. The integrated database is filled with agro expert data, generated in close cooperation with local agro-forest-environmental scientists/experts. It contains e.g. for Germany 2.500 agro-machine data (from KTBL, costs, time, …), data on thousands mineral/organic-fertilizers and crops incl. varieties, 850 pesticides with chemical contents and 400 plants with average yield and seed needs. Further, it includes the prescribed complete working process for a year with all activities and resources. It is pre-defined for all crops and enables planning with one click: Where (plot in the map) do I plan what (select crop from the expert data bank). Individual farmers can modify the expert data at any time. Similar like DokuPlant, Forest Office® has an expert model supporting local growth tables of local species; if they are not available, how to setup them can be trained. When the data finally are stored in cooperation with large IT providers within an Agro-TrustCenter® - rules have to be defined together with public and private bodies – that stakeholders incl. the farmers are sure that their data are not misused. If we try to split private ownership of land and ownership of the information of this piece of land, we start to destroy private ownership of land and our democratic principles that will end in a disaster. If in a fifth stage, logistics + mobGIS® is implemented, all mobile devices from tractor to harvesters can be managed, guided and controlled via a WinGIS based dispatch center. Logistic needs for group of farmers/foresters/industries can be supported on base of accumulated data from FMIS (see above). Process- and time optimizations, where to deliver what” or “where to pick up what and when” and how to come to that location (with the help of the rural Open Street Map (OSM) as well as a just in time delivery from field to industry will be realized. The systems lead to an optimization of daily and seasonal routing, accurate information of harvest status, GPS positioned data visualization, online two-way communication between central and mobile terminals and order processing is supported. The software consists of a GIS central station and  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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any number of mobile units (“mobGIS”), integrating GIS, communication (GPRS/UMTS) and GPS. It handles crops for food/feed or biomass production, liquid manure deposits, forest harvesting or any other logistic task. Up to 30 % cost reductions or more could be achieved. This technology-implementation is to communicate with all mobile devices from a central office and is the precondition for a future Precision Farming (PF) or Precision Forestry implementation.

Pic 3: Logistic + dispatch centre + mobile GIS + smartphone.

Pic 4: Precision farming: Expert know, lab support and powerful tools

PF means that we can distribute on existing technology not only a contract where to drive and what to do but also a map, a Precision Farming map as step six. The key question will be who is managing these maps? It is a deep agricultural know how necessary. Not the machine is intelligent, it is the map that brings the know-how to the machines and we need information: Soil analysis with GPS, previous-, following and in-between-crop, crop residues on the field with their chemical content, satellite information regarding chlorophyll content etc. With this inputs agro-experts are able to create fertilizer maps and/or pesticide maps for site-specific management. The integration of the new CFM (Circular Flow Management) model of PROGIS with the integration of NIRS backed labs for feed-, manure- and soil-analysis gives the necessary input for PF based maps, otherwise PF stays incomplete. A new possibility is the integration of the EC Sentinel satellite image data with 9m resolution that embed the chlorophyll content of a field or even the soil moisture. This information can be downloaded all 5 days and the access to the data can be managed free of charge by PROGIS, just the service has to be paid. A customer can order an image at e.g. 15.6. and 15.8. of a year. He gets it delivered a few days later under his field polygons so that it can be used as fundament also for precise farming together with other data the farmer might have. The service can´t be done for a single farm or field but for large groups of farmers or regions what also reduces the price to cents per h. First time we have the chance to use satellite data as fundament for PF for an entire country! If wanted the following seventh step can be implemented: Virtual farming®, the optimization of fields with neighbors together. Create larger and better shaped fields, split with calculation verified costs and revenues per m² according PF-documentation of activities (=costs) and harvest results (=returns) to increase farmer´s profit.  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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Pic 5: CFM to integrate feed–manure–soil know-how into PF-maps

Groups of farmers in a region or in a country can also optimize the environment within a step eight from changing quantity/quality of water, creating nice landscapes, do bioenergy production or carbon buffering till influence local climates or produce recreational areas. These services have to be worked out with social responsibility in mind but knowing that hard work has to be done to offer them. Similar like environment services also natural risk reducing services as step nine can be done by groups of farmers in a region or a country: To buffer more water upstream that less water downstream creates no floods is an agricultural/forest service. To manage all this more, better and accurate, just in time information is needed. The farmers become transponders, experts provide know-how and project-setup, verify and control and farmers get paid for services. Technology available is called EnvirOffice®, again with local expert models. On top of all and as module ten, land consolidation, a job driven often by government agencies (in A: “Agrarbehörde”), optimizes the situation of a region in respect to infrastructure (water, roads, landscape etc.) as well as focusing on the optimized situation of the farmer´s fields. A further question stays: “How ICT helps to integrate farmers as part of environmental caretaking, supporting commons?”

Pic 6: Environmental caretaking and risk management are new services to be offered by farmers

Pic 7: Land consolidation and managing of commons will help farmers AND all of us!

The nobel-prize winner Elinor Oström got it 2009 for business science evaluating this question and found results beside native tribes in virgin forests (Africa, South-America) also at Swiss farmer´s cooperatives. She worked out rules: (i) Precise defined borders, (ii) congruence between rules of acquisition & allocation, (iii) local requirements, (iv)  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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org-structures for collective decisions, (v) control & penalty, (vi) conflict solving mechanisms and (vii) a minimum organization structure. We have such structures also in Austria in Alpine regions. Farmers have their private farm in the valleys and on mountains cooperatives exist. It started with the liberalization of farmers in 1849 followed by new commune laws, ground-books and from 1883 the partitioning law of common grounds and definition of use rights for farmers. 1883 – 1925 in the different Austrian countries the regional legislation was setup and a public organization “Agrarbehörde” was established as the public structure to incorporate and control the cooperatives. They have technical and legal departments and in Carinthia (southern region in Austria) 40 people working for 1715 cooperatives with 138.083 ha (avg. 80 ha), 1885: 3013 coops in 230 communes, 1913: 2065 cooperatives with 136.175 ha. The single coop is managed by a board (chairman, treasurer, cash controller) and a general assembly. The future will show virtual cooperatives, based on local sub-targets with inclusive regional, EC- or even worldwide targets and co-defined and supported also by local communes. They will be managed under a public entity with local farmers engaged and will work also for regional defined and needed environmental- or risk-management targets that are project oriented setup and developed and managed by this public entity in close cooperation with the communes and the general population. When a project/task is finished, involved, farmers are paid acc. services they as a person and/or their land delivers to the general-public regarding these commons. In the past - we had few people on the Earth and many commons - we did not need to manage them. In future with 10 bio people and increasing pressure on commons, we must manage them. Farmers/foresters have to fulfill these works based on a social responsibility as private or cooperative owners. Information is the key to manage them better as we can plan, work, control and pay according local targets supported by the communes representing the population and developed together with experts! As chairman of a cooperative I know that the willingness to pay only shows up if the general people understand that not managed commons will disappear what will harm everybody! The beneficiaries: In general – much of the information prepared by the agricultural ICT backbone will be used by several stakeholders and will be a benefit for several businesses. It means chain-partners will be ready to pay to get access to the information! The model in detail has to be worked out together with local structures and representatives from different stakeholders! A public-private used ICT infrastructure, consisting of new ortho-images for the country covering GIS and IT solutions for rural area management in connection with land-management and extension-services, agriculture management and logistics can be used by different governmental organizations and can also be used by private structures and is: - Supporting the Minister of Agriculture for his needs to organize subsidies, - Supporting the Ministry for landscape changes, cadaster, ground tax - Supporting consultants in their advisory work - Supporting food chain partners: traceability, documentation  PROGIS  Software GmbH, Postgasse 6, 9500 Villach, AUSTRIA Tel. +43 (0) 4242-26332, Fax +43-(0)4242-263327, email: [email protected], Internet: http://www.progis.com Konto Nr.: Raiffeisenbank Villach, 3-0051.2384, BLZ 39496, Landesgericht Klagenfurt, FN 187888g, UID-Nr.:ATU48814207

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Supporting logistic services to do right actions at the right field to find the right roads, be there at the right time and deliver goods to the food industry “just in time” is a support to all suppliers and buyers of farm goods Supporting the agro control organization for subsidies Supporting bankers - business-plans enabling financing farmers on ROI Supporting insurance companies to do the right policies for the right crops Supporting the ecology expert or also the natural-risk-manager for the appraisal of the risks related with field or ecological coherences Supporting human medicine experts to judge the influence of the activity of the farmers (food and environment) towards the whole population Supporting farmers to give them tools for bettering economic calculations, better access to markets, gets new service business in environment etc.

To all mentioned groups the ICT-backbone can produce valuable services. For this service lots of ROI-money could be acquired but stays a political decision. (ROI calculations for single sectors can be done on request). Naturally also a model is imaginable, where public (MOA) and private (banks, insurance, investors) share the investment and setup a Joint Venture. Stakeholders of all the processes can be small/large farmers, advisors, Ministries, public organizations, banks, insurance, telecom, food/feed industry, cooperatives, certification companies, controllers, environment- and natural-risk-management etc.. Everything we talked is developed, must be fine-tuned with integration of local experts of all sectors and can be implemented everywhere within 3-5 years. Mankind produces worldwide crops (1.5 bio ha), animals (3,5 bio ha) and forests (