Impact of information and communication technology on agricultural sector in Karnataka: A study on Raitha Samparka Kendras

In the recent decade, many Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in Indian agriculture have emerged, either substituting or supporting extension services by providing forms with access to agricultural information. In Karnataka Raitha Samparka Kendra (RSK) has been playing a prominent role to reach many farmers with timely and accessible content. But, the content that the RSKs deliver has more relevance if it is localized and context specific, as this improves the value and action ability of the information, which can have important impacts on farm management. The localization of content is influenced by how the RSKs program access, apply, and deliver the content. This paper examines the content development and management process of RSKs in Karnataka agriculture. There are important lesson learned from study of this process. Content management and development through RSKs are important to examine because, agricultural extensional services would be able to increase the efficiency and effectiveness in farm management. Though, there are many other services working in Karnataka for agriculture extension, RSKs are working for farmers at gross root level and it is trying to bridge knowledge gap of the farmers. RSKs play a prominent role in knowledge management for agriculture in rural livelihood. The effectiveness of RSKs will improve with centralized activity at Panchayat level with digital agricultural information and expert inputs.