Summary
Highlights
In dry areas like Bihar and Jharkhand, rainfed farmers and their numerous small water bodies are often overlooked in public investments. This program aims to make them visible and integrate them into government initiatives by mapping these unacknowledged resources.
A mobile-based ICT application is used for primary household surveys. Village-level workers collect data, including GPS stamps of water bodies and households, water body technical details (seasonality, size, pH), and farmer information. This data is uploaded to a GIS-enabled website, providing a comprehensive, real-time database.
The database generates advisories based on standardized technical protocols for different water body types. It also tracks the entire production cycle of each water body, from pond preparation to harvest, pulling all transactional data into the system.
The database creates reports for programs like MGNREGS and watershed plans, connecting farmers to larger public systems. It also facilitates direct connection with technical institutes like CIFA, where experts can provide tailored advice based on the detailed, real-time data, photographs, and farmer interviews.
Technical advisories generated are used by village-level workers to guide farmers on aspects like fish stocking and feeding. This system also generates demand for fish fingerlings, connecting farmers with nurseries and integrating them into the broader fish economy at a block level.
Unlike traditional ICT use for bureaucratic monitoring, this initiative uses ICT as a tool for knowledge sharing, database building, and technical connectivity between farmers, scientists, government officials, and markets. Currently operating in two states with about 2,000 water bodies, the goal is to reach 100,000 water bodies, aiming for a minimal 500 kg fish harvest per water body.
The service is currently free for farmers as it's implemented by village-level workers as part of funded programs. While the software development is program-supported, there are ongoing costs for maintenance and the salaries of field workers. The long-term vision is for the platform to become market-linked, potentially leading to payment-based services for sustainability.
Data is generated annually, logging every action a farmer takes on the pond to monitor changes like siltation and capacity reduction, ensuring ecological balance and resource base understanding. Ongoing costs include software maintenance and the salaries of village/panchayat level workers, currently met by the project with a future goal of institutional platform support.