Impact Of ICTs On Agricultural Development - Tahir Munir Butt - Bog

Agriculture is one of the major activities to achieve the targets of rural development particularly in those countries where agriculture is considered as the main engine of growth for rural economy. The major problem was to bring improvement in the quality of life of rural people without ICTs services and applications. In rapidly changing local and global agricultural market and price mechanism, it is difficult for traditional and poor farmers to maintain their farm productivity and competitiveness in the local and global market, without using the advanced technological information which is cost efficient which ensures high productivity. There is dire prerequisite to rethink in agricultural extension strategies. By using modern ICTs, farmers will become able to get information via telephone, toll-free no., cell phone, robo calls, SMS and internet for better input application, cropping decisions, management of pest and diseases, animal husbandry and marketing. The government should start regular ICTs program like applications robo calls, SMS etc. to ensure timely availability of agricultural information to the farmer and also established of Information Hub Center (IHC)/Kiosk.