Need for National Information Infrastructure and ‘Central Research Institute for Agricultural Informatics’ under DARE/ICAR

Information and Informatics are crucial, potentially influencing the efficiency of production, marketing, processing and administration as well as education, research and extension in agricultural sectors. Agricultural development processes rests heavily on availability and accessibility of information to managers, scientists and farmers. Yet these aspects of agriculture get least consideration and therefore, inefficiency, ineffectiveness and failures have become obvious in managing the resources in the sector. Attempts in developing Information Systems as well as promoting Informatics Research in Agriculture have failed in India due to lack of conceptual clarity, effective measures and integrated approach. The paper outlines the national scenario in this regard and proposes the creation of a Directorate of Agricultural Informatics under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, establishment of a Central Institute for Agricultural Informatics for teaching, research and development of agricultural informatics and the establishment of National Information Infrastructure for Agriculture that includes a network for Information management in the sector. Objectives, organizational structure and characteristics of the institutions proposed are discussed in the paper.