Agricultural Economics Research Review

The paper has highlighted the utility of a ICT-based expert system, called ‘CaneDES’ as an extension tool for disorder diagnosis and suggesting suitable management strategies for sugarcane crop based on visual symptoms. The CaneDES has been evaluated by the sugarcane development staff of sugar mills involved in sugarcane technology transfer and extension work. This software was recently offered to the sugar mills on trial basis. It is expected that appropriate utilization of ICT software CaneDES by the end users, if minimizes total sugarcane production losses by 1–3 per cent, the production of sugar and other value-added products would increase significantly. The implementation of CaneDES could be a win-win situation to sugarcane farmers and sugar mills. It may induce a paradigm shift in efficiency, accuracy, timeliness and competence through ICT innovations for crop disorder diagnosis. Ex ante evaluation of CaneDES has revealed the B-C ratio of 8.78, NPV of 3.36 crore and IRR as 32 per cent. The findings have concluded that R&D investments on the institutional innovation CaneDES would be financially-viable and socially acceptable. The sugar mills may utilize the ICT-based CaneDES and the existing computer network of sugarcane information system for the welfare of sugarcane growers. CaneDES can also be used for disorder diagnosis of other crops with minor modifications in technical parameters and knowledge database.