A training programme on
mExtension: “All-in -one” Mobile Phones for Agricultural Extension
National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad, India
In collaboration with
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
September 12-16, 2016
Venue: AC& RI, TNAU, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Mobile phones are revolutionized the communication process and becoming “all-in-one” magical device to create, store, access and sharing of information for anytime and anywhere. Irrespective of age and gender, rural or urban, everyone uses a mobile phone today. The last decade has seen a flourish in the number of mobile based agricultural advisory services in India. These services have given timely information to the farmers but more importantly, has given them improved bargaining position in developing countries which they rarely had earlier. And the reality that they are helping the farmers is not much far placed from the hype surrounding them.
Services that started with farmers’ help-lines accessed through landlines and occasional messages (SMS) have evolved slowly to multimodal and multimedia delivery of advisory and to m-agriculture applications for smart phones. Mobile phone applications for agriculture are evolving rapidly and ever changing-newer applications and m-agriculture initiatives are added frequently to facilitate information access and sharing among the farmers and other stakeholders of agriculture. In this rapidly changing m-Agriculture scenario, this training programme’s prime objective is to create awareness and develop skill on mobile phone based agro-advisory services.
Content
- mExtension initiatives (SMS to multimedia)
- mApps and different functions of extension
- mExtension- content generation, and impact assessment
Methodology:
- Presentation
- Demo on mApps
- Experience sharing
- Hands on training
Participants and nomination
- The participants in the program would include senior and middle level officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal husbandry, Sericulture, Fisheries, faculty from SAUs, Scientists of ICAR, SMS from KVKs and NGOs.
- Boarding and lodging and other tuition expenses of the training participants will be arranged MANAGE. However, TA and DA of the participants have to be borne the sponsoring agency/ participant.
- For nominations, please mail to Dr. Saravanan Raj, Director (Agril. Extn.), MANAGE, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad (e-mail: raj@manage.gov.in/ saravananraj@hotmail.com).
