ICT in agri sector will increase productivity: Moni

Chennai, Apr 18 (UNI) National Informatics Centre (NIC) Deputy Director General M Moni today observed that use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agricultural sector would increase productivity.

Inaugurating a two-day ''National conference on Changing Dimensions in Library Resources and Services in the Digital Era,'' organised by the SRM University in association with Foundation for Information and Communication (FIC), Chennai Chapter at SRM campus in suburban Kattankulathur, he said as per a NASSCOM report, one per cent investment in IT leads to four per cent profit.

The Union government has targeted ten per cent GDP by the end of the 11th plan period, which means four per cent growth in Agri sector, seven per cent in Livestock sector and five per cent in fisheries.

Stating that 50 per cent of the employment were generated from agricultural sector, he said if ICT gets into agricultural sector, coupled with adoption of library resoruces, it would result in increase in productivity and automatically bring in one per cent GDP growth.

He also suggested the SRM University Management to set up a Centre for Rural computing, which should adopt one district and map the socio-economic and agricultural activities of each individual.

Speaking on the occasion, University Pro-Vice Chancellor T P Ganesan said the application of ICT in libraries was influencing the collection building, services, infrastructure facilities and other resources to reach the concept of different dimensions of the library such as digital library, electronic library and virtual library.

About 120 eminent library and information professionals from across the country were participating in the confernece, which would discuss various aspects like library as a knowledge centre, resource development and management and issues, digital resources and user expectations, security systems in library, digital preservation, institutional repositories, information literacy and information resources andsServices, digital library initiatives and evaluation of web resources and services.

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