ICTA News 15 August 2009 615 views No Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

The first national conference on information and communication technology in agriculture held at the Moratuwa University IT Faculty along with an exhibition recently contributed much to make  the benefits of ICT accrue to the farmers.

The   conference jointly organised by the FIT (Faculty of Information Technology) of the University of Moratuwa (UOM) and the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Ruhuna (UOR), the Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association and the Information and Communication Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) provided an ideal platform for the move towards the five-fold objectives of the conference aimed at making farmers’ life more comfortable by the use of ICT.

Participating at the Conference as the Chief Guest ICTA’s chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe stressed on the timeliness and importance of the core message of the conference of working out ways and means for causing  the benefits of ICT reach the farmers.

The conference with addresses including those by the two University Vice Chancellors as guests of honour, Vice Chancellor UOM, Prof. Malik Ranasinghe and Vice Chancellor UOR Prof.Susirith Mendis, Deans of Faculties,  FIT, UOM, Prof. (Mrs.) Dileeka Mendis, Faculty of Agriculture, UOR, Prof. (Mrs.) Thakshala Serasinghe, UOM, FIT, Head Dept. of IT Prof. Asoka Karunanda and ICTA e-Society Programme Head Ms. Chitranganie Mubarak endeavoured to bring together the best thinking on the subject. The objectives of the conference were: To create awareness of the availability of IT institutions and facilities for agriculture sector; to integrate the existing agricultural services (e.g. Dept. of agriculture, faculties of agriculture, etc.) and knowledge through modern IT; to enable easy access to the information, knowledge and technology available in different institutions and organisations; to use modern IT for enabling the sharing and dissemination of agricultural experience and knowledge among interested parties in the society and to form a coordinating body to improve IT facilities and programmes and promote the use of IT in agricultural development.

Contributing to the conference from the fund of experience of several e-Society projects  ICTA e-Society Programme Head Chitranganie Mubarak said: “Through several grassroots projects implemented by the ICTA, it is very clear that awareness creation and training are key to empowerment of rural communities”. Proposing “Agent Technology and Ontology’ as a solution to effective use of the vast resources of agricultural knowledge available in Sri Lanka, UOM, FIT, Head Dept. of IT Prof. Asoka Karunanda emphasised the need for integrating the services and knowledge in agriculture so that the general public could  benefit regardless of their knowledge of ICT and agriculture.

Chief Guest ICTA Chairman Prof. P. W. Epasinhge addresses the conference.

A section of conference participants viewing some of the   exhibits

(From left at the head table ) Professors – Mangala De Zoysa FOA-UOR; Thakshala Serasinghe Dean, FOA, UOR; Malik Ranasinghe, VC, UOM; P. W. Epasinghe, Chairman ICTA; Susirith Mendis, VC, UOR; N.D. Gunawardena, Dy. VC,UOM; Dileeka Dias, Dean, FIT, UOM;  Asoka Karunananda, FIT, UOM

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