ASHA – Hope for Farm Prosperity

ICT based Agribusiness servicesGovernment of Assam initiative

assamsfac@yahoo.com Presented By : Aditya Tiwari

ASHA objectives• To provide one umbrella platform for Farmers, Government

Functionaries, Knowledge Institutions and all other Agribusiness partners for easy, reliable, efficient and cost effective communication and facilitate elimination of hunger and poverty.

• To provide knowledge access to Farmers and other partners of Agribusiness.

• To harness the investments on Knowledge Institutions• Strengthen Farm Chain • Entrepreneurship Development • Capacity Building of all partners and stakeholders• Complementing the traditional extension

ASHA Agribusiness Service Sectors

Farm Sector – comprising Agriculture Horticulture Animal Husbandry and

Veterinary Fishery Sericulture

ASHA- Target Group

• Farmers / Producer Organizations• Government Functionaries • Scientists / Technologists • Bankers • Institutions • Civil Society • Corporate / Traders

ASHA: Service Delivery Mechanism• Community Information

Centres (CICs) located in 219 Community Rural Development Blocks of the state.

• CICs are set up Government

• The services are nominal user fees based, while orientation is being offered on free of cost.

ASHA Partners• Farmers and Producer Organisations • Government of Assam Departments - Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and

Veterinary, Fishery, Sericulture, Industry and Commerce, Information Technology, Soil Conservation, Irrigation, Panchayat and Rural Development, Welfare Plain Tribes and Backward Classes, Minorities Welfare and Development and several others.

• Government of India - MCIT (NIC), MoA (SFAC), NEC (NERIWALM) • R & D and other Institutions: Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, ICAR

Institutions, Universities, IIE Guwahati, AASC and several others ( in process). • Financial Institutions: NABARD Assam and RRBs; SBI Assam • Community Information Centres: located in 219 Community Development

Blocks. • Panchayat Raj Institutions and Civil Society - NGOs. • Media

ASHA

In house activities

Assam SFAC

• Assam Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (Assam SFAC) : is a Government of Assam registered Society under Registration of Societies Act, 1860 having a mission objective of

“Maximization of Farmers' farm income with sustainability in Farmer-Government- Bank-Institution & Private (FGBIP) partnership in a business model and generation of more livelihood opportunities”.

ASHA- in house activities (contd.)• ASHA Portal Administrator : Assam SFAC

• Server / Host : NIC, MICT Govt.of India

• Content Development : Assam SFAC

• Connectivity : 219 CICs with VSAT + Kiosks

• Capacity building : – Government Functionaries of Deptts. Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Fishery and Sericulture. – Assam Agricultural University Scientists. – Civil Society, Farmer and Trader representatives from each District. – Local Self Governments (Panchayats)

• Promotion / Marketing of initiative

ASHA – Unique Features & Highlights

• Only portal offering services on five sectors of farming under one umbrella. • Perhaps the only web portal which brought most of GOI Ministries and State Departments

related to Farm Sector on one platform. • Only portal offering most of the schemes of GOI and State Government, along with their

guidelines. • Only portal offering modern cultivation / management practices of a number of crops /

animals / enterprises from reliable sources. • Only portal offering the comprehensive list of training institutions of Farm Sector in the

Country, while offering market information, Weather service and statistics in the state of Assam.

• Only knowledge centre based initiative offering Buy And Sell And Employment Features. • The only portal offering wealth of information of Assam State Farm Sector for the

attention of corporate and to facilitate Agri-business. • Initiative with a comprehensive framework for implementation. • Involvement of Hon’ble Chief Minister, Hon’ble Minister, Hon’ble MLAs, Panchayat Raj

Functionaries and Bureaucracy.

ASHA – As a Business• Date of Launch of the ASHA service : 30th May 2005

• Farmers enrolled as on 30/11/2005 (in 5 months) : 4000 (approx.)

• User Fees collected by Community Information Centres : > 3 lakh Rs.

• Number of hits as of December 2005 : > 44,000

• Target per CIC (2005-06) : 5000 Farmers

• Facilities to a Farmer member of Standard Blue Card Annual Holder (Rs.100) : – 10 telephonic responses / month – 12 hour free internet surfing – 25% rebate on printing services.

ASHA -Vision• To reach out to 3000- 5000 farmers per CIC.• Localisation of content. • To develop an alliance / networking of

institutions of content and technology of common interest

• To provide value added services in partnership with Institutions and Corporate viz.,Buy and Sell, Agri-Business etc.

• To expand the services through Private Cybercafés / Computer Centres; proposed Common Service Centres and Knowledge centres of Ministry of CIT and Panchayat Raj GOI respectively to villages.

www.assamagribusiness.nic.in

• Together we can make a Difference

Thanks