About Manipur

Manipur, state of India, located in the north-eastern part of the country. It is bordered by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Assam to the west, and Mizoram to the southwest and by Myanmar (Burma) to the south and east. Like other northern states, it is largely isolated from the rest part of India. The state lies at a latitude of 230 83’N- 250 68’N and a longitude of 930 03 E- 940 78 E. The total area covered by the State is 22,327 km2. The capital lies in an oval-shaped valley of approximately 2,000 km2 surrounded by blue mountains and is at an elevation of 790 meters (2,590 ft) above sea level. The slope of the valley is from north to south.
Nowadays, due to increase in the population, the shrinking of agricultural land has become a matter of concern in Manipur. The total agricultural area of the state (both valley and hills) is around 1,95,000 hectares while the states needs to produce 25 lakh tons of rice in a year to feed its over 25 lakh population estimating a consumption of 25 kg of rice per head a year.

Prime Focus

To empower the agriculture farmers by providing right information at right time through mobile based agro-advisory system

Implementing Partners

College of Agriculture
Central Agricultural University, Imphal
Iroisemba – 795004, Manipur

Proposed Development / Deployment in State

The Broad area of Agro-advisory services includes:

• Crop advisory services (Crop planning, variety selection, nursery management practices, scientific cultivation techniques, post harvest and value addition etc. in major agricultural crops in Manipur.)
• Animal husbandry advisory services (Livestock production management practices along with vaccination, deworming, disease management, processing, post-harvest handling and marketing) for important domestic animals such as piggery, dairy and poultry.)
• Fisheries advisory services (Scientific aquaculture practices along with disease management and water quality parameters and value addition product of low value fish etc., composite fish farming system, different fish-based integrated farming systems, fish seed production.)
• Advisory system for water harvesting system, maintenance and repairing of important agricultural implements e.g. tractor, power tiller, sprayer, duster, aerator etc.
• Input information on (Seeds, fertilizers, plant protection measures, organic manures, bio-pesticide, animal breed, animal feed, fish seed, fish feed, lime, farm implements and machinery etc.)
• Information regarding different services of financial institutions (for banking, loan and crop insurance etc.)
• Information services on different agricultural schemes and subsidies available for the farmers of Manipur.
• Training and demonstration of advanced farming technologies.

Name of the Location/Districts to be covered

• Imphal east
• Imphal West
• Bishnupur
• Thoubal
• Kakching

Agriculture to be catered through IIDS (Mobile Based Advisories)

Major agricultural crops are grown in Manipur

No. of Farmers to be registered with detailed farm information (Farm Ponds / Farm Land / Crops

No. of Farmers: 8000

Type of problems (broad category)

There are several difficulties confronting the agriculture sector, and some of the problems faced are slow agricultural growth due to underdeveloped infrastructure in hilly terrain of the State, lack of irrigation, acidic soil, low yield for many agricultural commodities, low-level of farm mechanization, low-production due to poor land efficiency, lack of agri-marketing opportunities, lack of proper storage facility, inefficient finances, etc. Lack of technical knowledge and low awareness about technological advancements available in the region for climate smart agriculture is another major bottleneck for high productivity in Manipur.

Common Insect Pest and Diseases in each Category

• Agriculture:
  Rice:
  - Insect Pest – Yellow stem borer, Gall Midge, Brown plant hopper, White backed plant hopper.
  - Disease – Sheath blight, Blast, Bacterial leaf blight.
  Maize
  - Insect Pest – Fall army worm, Pink stem borer, Helicoverpa armigera.
  - Disease – Maydis leaf blight, Banded leaf & Sheath blight
  Rapeseed Mustard
  - Insect Pest –Mustard aphid, Mustard sawfly, Cabbage butterfly
  - Disease – Alternaria blight, Downy blight, Powdery mildew

• Animal husbandry:
  Pig: Swine fever, Ocular infection, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) Piglet anaemia, skin diseases, hernia etc
  Cattle: FMD, Milk fever, Babesiosis/Theileriosis, Black quarter, Mastitis, Haemorrahic Septicaemia etc
  Poultry: Ranikhet, Fowl pox, IBD, Coccidiosis, Bacillary white diarrhea, Respiratory diseases etc.

• Fishery:
  Indian major carps: Fin rot and Tail rot, Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS), Dropsy, Bubble eye disease, Different parasitic diseases

Current Status of Extension:

There are nine Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s in Manipur. All KVKs are involved in extension work for the farmers of Manipur. Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur has its KVK in the District of Imphal-East at Andro. With the help of all KVKs, College of Agriculture, Imphal, ICAR institute and state line department extension activities are provided to the farmers.

Need of Mobile-Based Advisory and its benefits to Farmers:

The farmers’ fields are remotely located and it becomes quite difficult to get timely advice from the experts. The mobile based advisory will provide a fast mode for sharing and exchanging desired knowledge from experts. It will quite cost-effective also in comparison to other modes. It will assist in taking timely and well-informed decisions based on accurate weather conditions and information about market and demand for any particular agricultural produce.

Need of Mobile Based Advisory for Subject Matter Specialist

It will help the extension functionaries/Subject Matter Specialist to get information from the farmers immediately which will help in providing advisories in time.

Training and Workshops to be held in 3 years:

• Training to Farmers:10-15 (avg. 25 farmers/training)
• Training to Project Staffs: 8-10
• Animal/Fish Health Camps: 10-15 (avg. 100 farmers/camp)
• Project Awareness/ Sensitization Programme:140-150 (Avg. 50 farmers per workshop)

Methodology

Registration of farmers

Each farmer has to register himself/ herself with the assistance of Field Coordinator to get the desired services by providing required details; e.g. agriculture advisory services they need to provide their farm details. Each farmer will get a unique ID number and all the transactions will be recorded in the database. 8000 farmers will be selected from five districts depending upon the number of farmers in the villages.

Registration of Fish Ponds

Details of the fish ponds of the registered farmers to be registered separately. A format will be developed in consultation with other project partners and Digital India Corporation, New Delhi to record the information of the fish ponds. Specific tag number (Identification number) will be provided to the each pond. Whenever the farmer calls for any problems in his fishery farms, he/she will be asked to identify the respective fish ponds with the Tag no. and the expert will come to know the details of the history of the ponds from the system.

Tentative Information regarding Fish Pond to be recorded
- Area
- Depth
- Type (Seasonal/Perennial)
- Existing Culture Practice
- Soil and Water Quality Parameters (Soil texture, planktons, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Alkanity, Hardness, Organic Matter, NPK etc.

Awareness / Sensitization and Training Programme

To aware the people regarding the project activities, encourage them to take the benefit of project in maximum extent by the beneficiaries, continuous awareness/sensitization programme and need-based training programme for the project farmers will be conducted. Moreover, animal/fish health camps will be organized for the benefit of the farmers in the registered villages.

Delivery of farm advices (Pull Based)

To get the advice/information service the farmers will call to the lab. Farmer’s queries will be answered by the technicians at advisory labs who will also record. If the Level-I expert at the lab is unable to answer the query, he/ she will record the query and transfer to the Subject Matter Specialist (Level-II experts) at the concerned centre of the University and the specialist will answer the query virtually.

Delivery of Information Services (Push Based)

The system will also aggregate location-specific data from various reliable information sources and disseminate it in the form of text and voice messages to the registered users depending on the user’s specified (as mentioned during their registration to the service) time and mode. This information would be aggregated by the system as well as manually by the project staff.