India launches Agricultural Wikipedia

by amyjudd | January 22, 2009 at 10:55 am

482 views | 16 Recommendations | 9 comments

Scientists in India have launched an Agricultural Wikipedia, which will act as an online database of agricultural information in the country.

It goes by the name of Agropedia.

It provides crop and region specific information so that farmers can not only find information about their region, but can also provide information to other farmers and researchers.

The website currently contains information on nine crops — rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeon pea, vegetable pea, lychee, sugarcane, groundnut and sorghum — but its creators say that all agriculture-related topics will be eventually covered.

Content will be continually added and validated through review and analysis by invited agricultural researchers, in a manner similar to that used by Wikipedia and using open source tools, says V. Balaji, head of knowledge management and sharing with the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a partner in the project.

The site also houses blogs and forums where anyone can provide and exchange knowledge.

It costs 85 million rupees and will be built up over the next 30 months with backing from the National Agricultural Innovation Project.
India is considered a leader for promoting ways to use technology to improve farming and rural areas of the country.

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Paschen

at 11:02 on January 22nd, 2009

Now that is good news, I just hope it will be of a high standard.

dmorrison10

at 12:56 on January 22nd, 2009

This is a photo of a shantaben (widow, literally means "peace (shanta) sister (ben)" and her son. She is an agricultural worker and the only wage earner in the family of four. Location: Nokna Village, Rajasthan, India. Photo taken by Dan Morrison (www.1Well.org)

Dan1Well has contributed a photo to this story.

ichi

at 15:48 on January 22nd, 2009

Malaysian Agricultural Park , the only agro-forestry park around, is located in Shah Alam and the rain forest spans up to 1290 hectre. The park is unique because

People come here to either explore, or for recreation. One of the many reasons to why the park is visited by many is because of the many activities that is in store for the visitors. Services provided are live demonstrations, cultural exhibits, accomodation, permanent displays and descriptions, and activities for educational purposes.
Families and friends come her to relax, or to enjoy a picnic.

ichi has contributed a photo to this story.

amyjudd

at 12:50 on January 23rd, 2009

What a great idea. More places are needed like this to create awareness and explain how to do things like this.

sanaking

at 02:28 on January 23rd, 2009

Great video of Vandana, she's amazing! Agropedia sounds cool too!

Interestingly, the pics of mine used in this article is from a ecosan test field. That is, rather than dumping our [human] waste into the rivers/lakes/etc, folks have been gathering our urine and dried feces (separately), the Urine is rich in the key ingredients of fertilizer, N, P & K, and so the rice fields are watered with it. That pic was of a test crop, comparing yields with different dilutions of urine, no urine, and possibly also a fertilizer one I can't quite remember. AWESOME.

Geneva B

at 12:43 on January 23rd, 2009

Wow, that is quite an innovative way of dealing with waste! Going forward, I think any solution is going to require creativity and innovation. Thank you for sharing!

amyjudd

at 12:51 on January 23rd, 2009

Wow, what an idea - this sounds great. More people can learn from this for sure. Thanks!

gerrypopplestone

at 22:50 on February 9th, 2009

Excellent, and especially the video of video of Vandana Shiva. She says it all!

My only worry about Agropedia is that it does not permit access to those who cant read. And it would be difficult to take into account the very real and different problems in different Indian States - Bihar versus the Punjab, for example. But it is a step in the right direction and will certainly appeal to the early adopters (rural sociologists reckon these are the critical farmers for taking up new ideas). That takes account of the innovations the risk takers/early adopters are looking for. But the other key issue is advice to farmers who have problems they need resolving. That can only come about through a close connexion between experts and farmers, where the experts are interested in really listening to the small farmers and then going out to answer these issues. That cannot come about through a broad net like Wikipedia! The UK has an excellent farm advice service where there is a great deal of trust between farmers and advisers.

Some friends of mine, years ago, went off to farm 17 disused terraces in rural Portugal. What they found was that everyone in the village watched their progress, as they did every farmer's work. If they did well, everone knew about it, and some farmers might copy their innovations! If they did badly, they were the laughing stock of the village. Gossip is a very powerful sanction in the countryside! In Thailand, the King has six experimental farms in the six Thai regions, given over to the typical problems that local farmers have. This is why people in the countryside love their king. I think what Indian small farmers need is a proper local agricultural advice and support service, able to help farmers with their very real problems.

Andrew.gd

at 03:22 on February 10th, 2009

Toda women cultivating crops
Ooty, Tamil Nadu

The Nilgiri Hills of south India, are home to several indigenous groups, most notably the Todas, Kotas, Kurumbas, and Badagas. The women in this photo are from the Toda tribe, living just outside from the hill station, Ooty.

Traditionally, the Toda economy was based on the breeding and use of female, longhorned, short-legged, and somewhat ferocious mountain water buffalo. Toda are a vegetarian community and therefore keep these animals for their milk and milk products, selling most male calves to Nilgiri butchers.

Whilst in the past Toda would exchange milk products with other products cultivated by their neighboring tribes, today the system has changed. Toda who still keep enough buffalo mostly sell their milk through cooperatives or directly to coffee shops, and they use money obtained to buy rice in the Nilgiri markets.

Nowadays, almost all Toda families are involved in agriculture, mainly as landlords. Nevertheless, many are starting to till the soil themselves - which is a big change from the past, when the Toda were proud pastoral people who despised the agriculturalist's way of life. Their main agricultural products are potatoes - but they also produce cabbages and carrots.

Andrew.gd has contributed a photo to this story.