Video Conference on “Innovations in NeGP-Agriculture”

24 Pages·2015·0.77 MB·English

Video Conference on “Innovations in NeGP-Agriculture”

Organized by Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS), Hyderabad with Technical
Support from National Informatics Centre (NIC), Delhi on 9th April, 2015 from 10.30 AM to
01.00 PM

Chair Person: Shri D Ramakrishna, Senior Consultant, CIPS, Hyderabad
Speakers:
1. Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar
Sr. Consultant, NeGPA, PMU
Office of the Commissioner Agriculture
Govt. of Maharashtra
Mobile No: 09822273619
e-Mail: [email protected]
2. Dr. N. Anandaraja
Assistant Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Mobile No: 9443444383
Mail Id: [email protected]
List of participating States and Locations:
1. Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore
2. Maharashtra: Pune-NDC
3. Karnataka: KA-ZP. Raichur, Gadag
4. Goa: NIC-Panjim
5. Uttarakhand: NIC-Dehradun
6. Tripura: Agartala
7. Chhattisgarh: Naya Raipur Studio-1
8. Jharkhand: Ranchi NIC2
9. West Bengal: NABANNA
10. Telangana: NIC-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Urban
11. Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal-EVCS
12. Jammu and Kashmir: Jammu-NIC-Sectt.
13. Kerala: Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kozhikode
14. Sikkim: Gangtok
15. Himachal Pradesh: Shimla
16. Meghalaya: Shillong
17. Haryana: Panchkula
18. Bihar: Patna-NIC
19. Arunachal Pradesh: AR-Itanagar-NIC
About NeGP-Agriculture:

Date of commencement: Phase 1 has been completed during November 2010 to August 2012.
Scheduled date of completion: 2014-15
Name of the Implementing Agency: Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of
India.
Summary of NeGP-Agriculture: National e-Governance Plan-Agriculture (NeGP-A) aims to
provide an integrated platform to the farmers for making informed decisions. The information
is proposed to be delivered through various channels like internet, electronic media, Krishi
Vigyan Kendras, Agri clinics, Common Service Centres mobile phones (broadcast, Interactive
Voice Response System, Interactive Messaging using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
and Voice Recognition),touch screens, etc. which enables easy access to information for
farmers.
The aim of Agriculture MMP is to consolidate the IT initiatives, in order to provide integrated
services to the stakeholders.
Over the years Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) has taken up several IT
initiatives such as
1. AGMARKNET
2. SEEDNET
3. DACNET, etc.
Similarly State/UTs have either developed or in the process of developing IT applications such
as AGRISNET under various programmes of DAC. Such applications will be integrated with
Central Agri Portal (CAP) and State Agri Portal envisaged under NeGP-A. The portals will have
the options of providing online feedback for the stakeholders, which improves the transparency
and effective monitoring.
The objectives of this scheme are as follows:
In order to achieve the aforesaid vision, the department has also articulated key SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) objectives which need to be
achieved through the Agriculture MMP. These objectives are
 Improve access of farmers to timely and relevant information & services throughout crop-
cycle
o By providing multiple delivery channels to access information
o By reducing time between generation and dissemination of information
o By providing information to the farmer through a uniform platform
 Bringing farmer centricity & service orientation by providing location specific and up-to-
date crop management related information in terms of:
o Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) - how many days, season specific, crop specific,
location / zone specific
o Packages of Practice (POPs) - How many days, season specific, crop specific, location /
zone specific
o Providing personalized advisory services
 Increasing effectiveness of government service delivery in
o Certification and licensing related to Manufacturing and MARKETING through use of ICT
o Providing easier and approachable channels for grievance registration and tracking
 More effective management of schemes of DAC through process redesign aimed at
o Effective Monitoring of the Schemes (timeliness of implementation etc)
o Reducing time required for data consolidation and reporting of schemes at all levels
 Enable private sector participation to benefit farmers by providing an integrated platform
to promote value added services in
o Extension
o MARKETING (both input and output)
o Post harvest & Storage
Components of NeGP-Agriculture:
There are 12 Cluster of services and 78 components. Presently, 47 components have been
made live these include web enabled delivery of services and mobile based interactive services
of farmers. 7 States have been covered in the 1st year under 90:10 funding pattern. The 12
clusters are identified below:
1. Marketing Infrastructure
2. e-Certifications for imports and exports
3. Prices, arrivals and procurement points
4. Weather forecast and Agro-Met advisory
5. Crops, Machinery, Training and GAPs
6. Soil Health
7. Pesticides, Fertilizers and Seeds
8. Livestock Management
9. Drought Relief and Management
10. Irrigation Infrastructure
11. Fisheries
12. Monitoring of Schemes and Programmes
As part of the dissemination of information relating to the replication of innovative practices,
CIPS has launched a major sensitization process through a series of Video Conferences (VCs).
These VCs are aimed at ensuring the participation of different states with very little dislocation
and by providing maximum coverage to officers as also field staff in different parts of the
country.
CIPS has been entrusted with a project titled “Capacity Building Programmes of Innovative Best
Practices under Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) of State Governments and Govt. of India" by
the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Govt. of India.
As a part of the above project, CIPS has conducted a Video Conference (VC) on “Innovations in
NeGP- Agriculture” from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM on 9th April, 2015 (Thursday).
The VC was focused to bring all the states together and to sensitize State Government
Departments on the key benefits of e-Governance in Agriculture.

Objectives of the VC:
 To provide a platform for cross-fertilization of ideas/innovative practices and to share
the experience of States/UTs in the areas/usage of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) for greater service delivery
 To appraise the participants about the latest ICT learning and e-Governance initiatives
by Government of India State/UTs and also provide them the necessary insights in to the
processes and technical aspects of these initiatives
 To establish networking forum between the experts/champions of these initiatives and
to exchange and share the ideas/perspectives and development(s) in the area-from
across the State/UTs
Welcome address by Shri D Ramakrishna, IAS (Retd.), Senior Consultant, CIPS:
Shri D Ramakrishna, IAS (Retd.), Senior Consultant, CIPS has set the
tone with a welcome speech. He introduced Centre for Innovations in
Public Systems (CIPS) to the participants and also introduced the
project titled ‘Capacity Building Programmes of Innovative/Best
Practices’ supported by Department of Electronics and Information
Technology (DeitY), Government of India (GoI), under the grant entitled
“Capacity Building Programmes for Innovative/Best Practices for
Mission Mode Project (MMPs) of State and Govt. of India” as part of the
National e-Governance Plan. He suggested the States/UTs to look at the
possible replication of the best practices in Agriculture in order to bring
good governance in the country.
1. e-Parwana, Maharashtra: Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar, Sr. Consultant,
NeGP-A, PMU, Office of the Commissioner Agriculture, Govt. of
Maharashtra

Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar has over 6 years experience in managing
complex engagements in Project Management, Business Process Re-
engineering, Market Research and Software Implementation.

He has worked with clients in IT, Manufacturing and Government
domains across ERP implementation, Process Re-engineering, Software
implementation and Project Management.

Some of his assignments include large scale IT implementations in key
Government clients, Research reports on emerging markets for Indian
IT/ITeS, Process Improvement for a Steel Manufacturer and
implementation of Microsoft Ax HR module.

He has Cleared CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) exam in June 2013, standing
among the top 10% candidates

Specialties:
Business Analysis
Functional & technical process design
Software implementation
User Acceptance Testing,
IT road-map & Go to market strategy
Primary and secondary research
Experience in working with mission critical government agencies

Pre-sales: Response to RFPs and EoIs
Shri Harshvardhan Mirajkar introduced himself along with the senior officials belonging to
Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra. The senior officials were
1. Shri. Vikas Deshmukh, Hon. Commissioner, Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra
2. Shri Vijay Deshpande, Direcor NIC
3. Shri Mukund Hardas, Dy Director (Project) and NeGPA State Nodal Officer,Department
of Agriculture, Maharashtra
He listed out the ICT projects that are being implemented by Department of Agriculture,
Maharashtra for better service delivery. They are
 e-Thibak: Online system for application & processing of Micro irrigation subsidy
 e-Parwana: Licensing for Manufacture, Import, Distribution & Retailing of Seeds,
Fertilizers and Pesticides
 Maharain: SMS based recording of daily rainfall from all Circles of Maharashtra
 Cropwatch: Information system for online reporting of week wise crop area sown
during the season.

 Horticulture Information System: Contains the details of Horticulture sown crops
 Horticulture Census: Census of Horticulture specific crops
 CROPSAP (Crop Pest Surveillance & Advisory Project): On the field Surveillance of
pests and reporting over sms
 Soil Health Card: Decision support will be provided for farmers about crops and
fertilizers
suitable for their land
 Maha Krushi Sanchar CUG: Largest Mobile Phone User Group which has benefitted
about 15 Lakh farmers under the scheme
 Agriculture Census: Census of Agriculture land holdings
The above mentioned projects had won various awards and among these projects e-Parwana
project has won maximum awards. The awards won by e-Parwana project are listed below:
 Skoch Order of Merit 2013,2014,
 eLets PSU Award 2014
 State eGov Certificate of Recognition, 2013
 e-Maharashtra Jury Choice Award 2013
 e-India Jury Choice Award 2012
Before briefing e-Parwana project, he explained about e-Thibak project.
e-Thibak:
e-Thibak is an Online Application to perform all administrative activities. Initially all the
applications were manual at taluka level and there was no uniformity. After introducing the
online system, they had maintained standard procedures for applying and obtaining subsidy.
The cost of micro irrigation components have been standardized. Beneficiary data is made
available in public domain.
He described the solution saying before installation, the beneficiary’s data will be entered into
the system. Hard copy from the farmer is accepted and data entry is made in the system. Based
on this, the pre-sanction is granted. After installation, invoice will be generated in the system
upon which spot verification will be done. In spot verification, taluka level officer goes and
inspects whether the instrument has been installed properly. After this process, the subsidy is
decided and the payment is made.
The diagrammatic representation of the above process, is shown below:

Bill Invoice Entry
Pre Installation Proposal Ack.
Proposal Scrutiny
Spot Verification
Beneficiary Entry
ApplicationEntry
Hard copy
acknowledgement
Post Installation
Scrutiny of applications
Quotation entry
Grant of pre-sanction
Subsidy Fixation
Subsidy Payment
Proposal Scrutiny
Fixing of Subsidy
Demand of Subsidy

He explained the Pre Vs. Post implementation of e-Thibak project:
Criteria Pre- eThibak Post eThibak Benefits
Application Multiple visits to dept.  Online form  Saving in time &
for subsidy offices: submission money
 Online Supporting  Realistic
 Application form
document checklist application tracking
 Supporting
 Online application  Reduction in
documents
tracking farmers’ visits to
 Application/subsi
Dept.
dy status
Farmer’s  Dealers  Standard rates of  Well informed
informatio  Limited choic components, farmers
n source  Multiple sources available online
 Same rates across
manufacturers
Duplicate  Fake/duplicate  Each application is  Subsidy saving in
beneficiari beneficiaries, unique the tune of Rs 50
es leading to subsidy  End-to-end tracking Cr.
‘leakage’  Re-application

rejected based on
fixed criteria
Transparen  Beneficiary data  Block wise list of  Transparency
cy provided only beneficiaries leading to public
upon follow up available online trust
with Dept

e-Parwana:
Before introducing e-Parwana, there was lot of burden on the Department in the process of
licensing. There was no way to track how much revenue is getting generated by the way of
accepting the fees. It was also felt that the implementation of Government Act’s was difficult.
There was no way to monitor the quality of inputs produced. Also, there was no single source of
information on the inputs.
Because of the above challenges, the Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra has introduced
e-Parwana. He listed out the key objectives of the project mentioned below:
 Effective and useful implementation of Acts, Rules and Orders
 Uniform & convenient process across the State
 Effective monitoring and reporting
 Expediting license granting process
 Reliable product information for farmers
 Validation of license anytime
 Advance notice for license renewal
Description of e-Parwana Solution:
Before e-Parwana, the applications were submitted at Taluka Level. e-Parwana has eliminated
one step by submitting the application to District Level functionaries. It has reduced the list of
documents from 30-40 to 10. Documents like Toilet certificate was removed from the list.
Online payment is introduced using Government Receipts and Account System (GRAS). Online
filing of Monthly Sales Returns is being implemented. SMS based alerts were sent for License
validation, License renewal and Application Status.
He had briefed the technical architecture of e-Parwana, saying that the Department has
designed a three-tier Model-View-Controller. It is developed in Open Source using PHP, Java
and Apache app server. Database is also developed through Open Source using Postgre SQL and
Jasper Reports.
Modules of e-Parwana:
 License Application & Processing System
 Monthly Sales Return (MSR)
 Product Information
Features of e-Parwana:
 License Application & Processing System
 Monthly Sales Return (MSR)
 Product Information
Beneficiaries of e-Parwana:
 Farmers
 Pesticide Industry
 Fertilizer Industry
 Seed Growers/Producers
 Dealers of Seed, Fertilizers and Pesticide
 Importers and Exporters of Seed, Fertilizers and Pesticide
 Agriculture Department – Quality Control Division
Pre Vs Post implementation of e-Parwana Scenario is shown below:
Criteria Pre- eParwana Post eParwana Benefits
License • Manual • Online • Processing time –
procedure from 3 months to 1
• Non uniform • Reengineered
month
• Time • Uniform
• Monthly
consuming
applications up
• Repeated from 10 to 30
office visits
• Advanced renewal
SMS alerts
Monthly • Manual • Online submission • Reduction in efforts
sales submission
• Demand forecast
returns
• Huge paper possible
work
• No electronic
database
Product • Available only • Online submission • Easily available
information in paper information in
• Marathi & English
format, mostly Marathi
in English
• Manual
submission
License • Most renewal • License expiry • Better license
Renewal after license details available enforcement
expiry
• SMS alert for • Increase in timely
• Difficult to license renewal renewals
track invalid
• Users can also
licenses
‘pull’ license
• Rare advance information
renewals
(Check Validity:
EPARWA<space>LICV<spa
ce><Licence no> to
9766899899(from BSNL)
or 09766899899)

Key Learnings of e-Parwana:
He explained the key learnings of e-Parwana saying that roll out of the project in a phased
manner ensures efficient implementation of the project. Introducing Change Management in
the beginning of the project ensures future sustenance. Understanding the requirements of the
farmers plays a very crucial role in the implementation of the project. He further said that single
source of information should be made available keeping in view the requirements of the
farmers.
Merits of e-Parwana:
He explained the merits of the project saying that the department has developed application
and hosted it at the NIC without cost. The Department bears only the cost of manpower
(programmers). Approximate cost of the project is about INR 8 Lakh/year. Revenue generated