The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr S M Krishna, inaugurated a
Workshop on Agro-Climatic Planning and Information Bank (APIB) on June 25, 2001
at Bangalore. Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO presided over the inaugural
function. Mr T B Jayachandra, Minister for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka
was the Guest of Honour. The Workshop was to launch the service dissemination
from the pilot Centre on APIB.
Agro-Climatic Planning and Information Bank, (APIB), is a concept-demonstration
project executed by ISRO and the Planning Commission towards establishment of a
single window access to all agricultural related information and decision
support to users of agricultural and allied sectors. The objective of APIB is
to use the power of information technology to collect scattered information and
provide access to any type of information as and when needed. The Regional
Remote Sensing Service Centre (RRSSC) of ISRO has carried out this
demonstration project and covers the erstwhile Tumkur, Shimoga and Bijapur
districts, which represent three broad agro-climatic zones of the country. The
development of this system has taken into account the main users, namely, the
farmers, financial institutions, agro-based industries and traders, extension
officials, researchers/consultants/journalists and state level administration.
The APIB involved extensive interactions in data collection. Universities of
Agricultural Sciences at Bangalore and Dharwad, Indian Institute of
Horticulture Research, Karnataka State Department of Agriculture and Department
of Horticulture, Karnataka State Agro Industries, Karnataka State Agricultural
Marketing Board, various private organizations and many more agencies were
involved in this effort.
The data collected have been organised in a database for analyses and retrieval
using modern computer tools. The information is available in the regional
language so that it is more useful to the actual users.
Some of the information that can be retrieved from this data base include: crops
that can be grown with farmers' soil and water resources, varietal/hybrid
selection for principal kharif crops, comprehensive package of practices from
public and private sources, fertilizers, plant protection, cost of cultivation
and prices in various markets, area under cultivation and yield, dairying and
insurance. The information will be made available to the farmers through the
Extension Officers of the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture