After championing a number of innovations in plant breeding and crop research, the Anand Agricultural University (AAU) in Gujarat has come up with another solution to bridge the farmer-scientist divide. AAU and US-based Jasmine Netsolve Private Limited (JNPL) have embarked on a pilot project in village Navli based on a Digital Video Assisted Redressal Technology (DVART) device to facilitate realtime interaction between the farmers and agricultural scientists.

Now farmers at Navli, the AAU adopted village, only have to punch three buttons at a device installed in the Gram Panchayat premises to find a cure for their problems. The farmers have to punch the green, red and yellow buttons on the DVART device which is equipped with a camera. The moment the farmers press the green button, their video will be captured on the screen, where they can convey their crop-related concerns. The red button will record the video and in half an hour the video will reach the AAU IT centre while the yellow button comes with an enclosure to house the specimen of the plant in question. The picture of the problematic specimen will also be taken and forwarded to the AAU IT centre.

If the IT- enabled project running on pilot basis at Navli is successful, most issues related to crops infestation and animal husbandry will be solved in a jiffy.  Himmat Vansdadia, Director JNPL said that this was the first DVART project in the country. “This is a pilot project, along with AAU we plan to set up a DVART device in 25 villages of Gujarat. We had also applied for patenting this technology nearly three years ago to the Government of India. However, patenting takes at least four and half years,” he said.

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