Wired Village” Project: Facilitating the Sugar Cane Production Process
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| Institution: |
National Informatics Centre (NIC)
the Government of Maharashtra
the Education Department
the Warana Group of Co-operatives (WGC)
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| Implementation Date: |
Jan 01, 1998 |
| Summary: |
The Warana “Wired Village” project in India is an example of the adoption of ICT by a rural community in the state of Maharashtra, India. There, the local cooperative is using ICT to streamline the operations connected with sugar cane growing and harvesting. The project aims in fact at giving villagers access to information in local language about crops and agricultural market prices, employment schemes from the government of Maharashtra, and educational opportunities.
There are fifty-four functioning village information kiosks that are facilitating the sugar cane production process at three stages: first, during the yearly registration for plantation when changes to property are recorded; second, with the issuance of harvesting permits; and third, with payments information. Village kiosks have a PC with a printer and most are connected to the sugar administrative building via wireless telephone. Farmers can go to the village information kiosks to receive payment slips. Moreover, they can purchase fertilizer at deposits located next to the kiosks in cash or by using credit
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| Impact: |
The project has already increased the efficiency of the sugar cane growing and harvesting process, both in terms of time saved by the farmers on administrative transactions as well as in terms of monetary gains. Before computerization, it used to take two or three days for farmers to find out how much they had spent and how much they had earned during the harvest, while now all it takes is a visit to the village kiosk. And as a result of computerization, fertilizer stocks are now smaller and better managed, which is said to have brought savings of about US$750,000 to the cooperative.
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| Source: |
Information Technology in Developing Countries newsletter |
| Project Home URL: |
http://www.mah.nic.in |
| Documents: |
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