Biztech

Use of ICT, only way to solve farmers’ problems

The only option for easily solving the problems faced by the farming community is the appropriate use of ICT said the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Re-engineering Government Program Director Wasantha Deshapriya, in his address at the inaugural session of the

Agricultural Extension Conference 2009 held at the Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Gannoruwa, Peradeniya.

Addressing the opening session of a two-day (Aug. 27-28) event under the theme “Agricultural extension conference - 2009: experience and challenges in agricultural extension: meeting farmers need”, Deshapriya said:

“ICTA having realised that the only option for solving most farmer problems lies in the appropriate use of ICT, has launched a variety of programs targeting the farming community.

Seventy per cent of the Sri Lankan population consist of rural community.

ICTA aims at making the benefits of ICT reach the people, especially the rural folk in remote villages,” Deshapriya said.

Referring to the two-pronged approach of ICTA’s farmer-friendly projects the Program Director said,: “ICTA is engaged in making the benefits of ICT accrue to the people in two ways.

One way is to provide local knowledge, information and content connected with agriculture in the vernacular via e-Society.

ICTA gives priority to projects organised with the aim of speedily expediting the daily activities of the farming community.

A web based Wikipedia containing information related to all major local crops enriched with audio, video and flash animation and a web based e-learning system has been established.

‘Nava Goviya’, toll-free immediate provision of agriculture information and the project in Dambadeniya for empowering dairy farmers are some of the projects successfully implemented at the moment”.

How IT changed my life:

‘Sri Lankans talented and IT savy’

Ashan Kumar met Vice President Technology and Operations, eMarketingEye (Pvt) Ltd Manupriya Jayathilake to understand How “IT” changed his life.

“Developing a skilled IT workforce would help Sri Lanka be more visible in the global IT solution market. Our people are talented and IT savvy. Our developers are capable of delivering world class products.

As a country we should not miss this opportunity” are the thoughts of Vice President Technology and Operations eMarketingEye Manupriya Jayathilake. Born in the hill capital, the youngest in a family of three brothers and a sister, he schooled at Kingswood College, his childhood dream was to become an Engineer.

His experience of a computer was when the computer industry in the country was in its infancy where he recognized the opportunity to become a pioneer in the arena of IT. He started following various courses etc, building a sound foundation to launch his career.

He selected IT as his career path as he believed that IT can make a valid contribution and become a driving factor in any industry. “I felt applications for IT were near infinite, offering exposure to a multitude of disciplines resulting in a dynamic and challenging career” said Jayathilake.

IT has had an impact on most of his adult life. His journey into IT began in 1996 having assisted in an accounting software development project for a leading private school in Kandy. Thirteen years down the road, he had the privilege of working in different areas within the IT industry, such as Software Development, Database systems, Hardware and Networking, IT security, Infrastructure and Service Management.

Having specialized in IT solutions for the Travel and Hospitality sector, he had the opportunity to travel abroad, train at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California and attend numerous trade exhibitions.

He is rated as one of few Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) holders in Asia and enjoys a certain amount of recognition in the Asian Search Engine Optimization field. He said, “As a country we need a long-term strategy in developing IT skills in Sri Lanka. I believe that we need to make our people more IT literate whether they are young or old. As the Internet opens up avenues of tapping a large knowledge source, both professionals and businessmen can benefit in many ways by improving their skills and selling their services or products online”.

I probed into the way forward for IT development in Sri Lanka. He expressed a three pronged strategy:

1. Improve IT literacy and computer awareness - starting from the school level

2. Actively market Sri Lanka as an IT services provider - offering various incentives for setting up development centres in Sri Lanka.

3. Take government institutions online - offering most services via the internet would promote IT in the government sector and would further set an example to the private sector.

“I believe there is no future without IT for me. The evolving behaviour of IT keeps me curious with an active mind. In IT, you always experience a faster paced development compared to other industries. You should be ever vigilant as new technologies translate into new, more effective solutions.

I enjoy my work as I always like to be a problem solver, keeping abreast of the latest trends” said Manupriya.

eINDIA 2009, a forerunner of e-Asia 2009

- ICTA’s COO Reshan Dewapura

The three -day eINDIA 2009 event, was held in Hyderabad, India recently.

Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA)’s Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura who participated at the inauguration in Hyderabad said that eINDIA 2009 was a valuable forerunner of e-Asia 2009 which would be held in Colombo from December two to four, this year.

eINDIA 2009, India’s most reputed ICT conference, organized by the Centre for Science Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), an Asian NGO, in collaboration with Elets Technomedia was held in Hyderabad from August 25 to 27 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC).

Minister of State for Higher Education Ministry of Human Resource and Development, India, D. Purandeswari, inaugurated the event. In addition to (ICTA)’s Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura who delivered his address on the first day, top level representatives from major ICT organisations in the region also delivered addresses at the conference.

eINDIA 2009 was co-organised by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT and the Department of Information Technology, Government of India.

The IT and Communication Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh was the Host State Partner for the event. The conference was simultaneously supported by India’s Ministries of Broadcasting, Human Resources, Panchayati Raj and Agriculture.

eINDIA 2009 included five seminal conferences namely ‘egov India’, ‘Digital learning India’, ‘Indian Telecentre Forum’, ‘eHealth India’, ‘eAgriculture India’ and focused on five emerging application domains of ICT for Development - e-Government, ICT in Education, ICT and Rural Development and ICT enabled Health services.

The three-day conference and exhibition was a unique platform for knowledge sharing in different domains of ICT for development and facilitated multi-stakeholder partnerships and networking among governments, industry, academia and civil society organisations of different countries, including the host country- India. The objective of the event was to bring together ICT experts, practitioners, business leaders and stakeholders of the region to one platform, through keynote addresses, paper presentations, thematic workshops and exhibitions.