Abstract:
Recent advances in information collection, distribution and on-demand access have resulted in increased economic activity and business process efficiencies. However, a large population of economically deprived, educationally lagging and geographically dispersed rural areas in the developing world has been left behind. This report attempts to show that innovative use of existing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can improve farm economics and bring the benefit of technology to even the remotest farming operation. This report also proposes one such economically viable use of mature and proven technologies which can be implemented in Pakistan to benefit the rural farming community.
First, relevant technology products and services are identified. Mature technologies from other domains were analyzed to minimize implementation risks. Similarly established protocols were selected for implementing data collection and web services integration. A relational database was selected to store current and archival data and to account for future expansion.
After careful analysis of technical and deployment challenges, an Intelligent Farm Information System (IFIS) is proposed for implementation. This system will integrate existing data sources and web services providing relevant data about the weather, soil conditions, area under various crop cultivation, fertilizers, pesticides, market supply and demand trends, local and national pricing and international commodity futures trading. This data combined with the specific data provided by each individual farmer will be used to give customized and timely advice to maximize crop yield and financial returns for the farmer. Mathematical models for data mining, pattern recognition and search optimization can also be implemented in the future to improve the system.
