PROJECT
PROPOSAL ON
ESTABLISHMENT
OF VILLAGE KNOWLEDGE CENTERS IN KARNATAKA
Preamble :
The
National Development Council (NDC) in its 53rd meeting held on 29th
May 2007 has resolved to launch a special additional central assistance scheme
called “Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana” from 2007-08 in order to reorient the
agriculture to meet the needs/demands of farmers. The scheme is designed to incentivise the state to draw up
plans for agriculture and allied sectors more comprehensively and set up
investment in these sectors. The
Government of India has given an allocation of Rs. 169.67 crores to Karnataka
during 2007-08. The Department of
Agriculture, Government of Karnataka prepared 16 projects with the help of UAS
Bangalore, Dharwad and ISEC. The same was sent to PMO, Hon’ble Union Minister
of Agriculture and Cooperation and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission,
Government of India. These projects have been developed has a result of the
discussions with officers of the state Dept of Agriculture, Advisor (Agriculture),
Planning Commission, Government of India, Chairman, Rainfed Authority of India,
Government of India and other specialists. In fact, all these projects have been
peer reviewed and suggestions have been incorporated. These projects have also
been presented before the Hon’ble Prime Minister while he was in Bangalore to
review Karnataka’s agriculture and allied activities on 3rd August
2007. This project has a time frame of five years. A provisional allocation of
Rs. 8.00 crores has been made towards “Establishment of Village Knowledge Centers in Karnataka”.
The details of the project,
objectives, impact and the road map for implementing the project for the year
2007-08 is provided below :
Need of the Study :
The
social impacts of ICT are strengthening
the rural economy by creating employment opportunities, revising the tide of
rural migration and improving access to information and knowledge, creation of
new generation of IT removal of functional barriers
between government and citizen for effective governance, empowerment of
rural poor and providing necessary infrastructure.
Importance :
The
National Commission of farmers has recommended the establishment of Village
Knowledge Centers (VKCs) all over the country using modern information and
communication technology (ICT) to ensure the benefits of digital revolution and
knowledge connectivity to 6 lakh Indian villages by 2007.
This can be achieved by mobilizing the power of partnership particularly
between the government, industry and non governmental sectors. Thus, an effort is being made to provide technological,
financial, organizational capacity to the un-reached farmers.
It is proposed to establish VKCs for sustainable growth which provides
quality, timely and reliable information to the farmers.
This will be achieved through internet connectivity, video conferencing
facility and community radio facilities.
The information services provided by these centers will also include
information on government entitlements, employment opportunities, weather
forecast, health and current market prices.
Rural yellow pages available through on line provide various directory
information too.
Objectives :
VKCs
will be established to serve the farming community under the technological
guidance support, and sustained assistance of both the Agricultural Universities
in the State with the following objectives.
To
establish VKCs
at RSK level, to connect VKCs to
KVKs through expert centers at district level, develop need based location
specific digital curriculum development for effective implementation, capacity
building of stakeholders for
efficient utility and to evaluate the benefits derived from VKCs on production,
productivity and socio economic status of the farmers.
Expected out come :
With
the help of interactive video conferencing facilities the technology will reach
many villages through single window delivery mechanism against time and space.
It is proposed to establish 132 VKCs under UAS, Bangalore and 132 VKCs
under UAS, Dharwad. The proposed project covers 176 blocks
distributed in 749 Raitha Samparka Kendras (RSKs).
The assistance for technological backstopping will be utilized by using
14 Extension Education Units (EEUs) and 26 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)
spread over the State of Karnataka.
Action plan for 2007-08
The proposed
budgetary provision of Rs. 8.00 crores will be utilized towards :
1.
Documentation of information on latest production technology
2.
Maintaining required data base that would be regularly up-dated
3.
Establishing interactive video conferencing from one to one, one to many
4.
Providing market intelligence, weather forecasting and providing
infrastructure facilities