Knowledge on wheels for Farmers education for improving farmer’s livelihood

Indian agriculture is largely dominated by small and marginal farmers. How can we help them to improve their daily work?

Government of India has declared doubling their incomes by 2022 as a national goal. Improving farmers’ incomes in a manner that is ecologically and economically sustainable is among the top priorities in national policy. There is need to reorient the farming communities to these enterprise paradigms and equip them with the skills & creating a supporting ecosystem required for the transition. Dassault Systemes Foundation has decided to help this mission using advanced technology through farmer’s education / skill development.

La Fondation Dassault Systemes India is supporting this project being executed by Centurion University of Technology & Management, Odisha in India (CUTM) who has expertise in Agricultural domain. CUTM has developed VR ready 3D Content for training farmers on innovating and advanced agricultural technology. CUTM has developed VR based learning content “Farmers Experience Zone” using 3DEXPERIENCE Platform to simulate ‘what if scenarios’ to test concepts and develop optimal solutions to increase yield rate of the farm and 3D VR enabled learning contents for 10 innovative farming methodologies. “The Knowledge on Wheels” is equipped with VR gadgets, 3D Projectors to provide VR based learning experiences to the farmers in this mission.

Focus Area for the project

Skill Enhancement, Farmers Training, Agriculture, Rural Economy

Objective

The objective of this program is to skill; small and stressed farmers on advanced agriculture. Mobile van equipped with 3D farmer experience centre is designed for deployment of such training in rural areas to impart on the field training equipped with latest VR Technology. This would be a cutting edge training facility for farmers who do not have access to formal education or the ability to attend courses in University campus

Theme

Development of the Farmers experience zone for training, involves: Creation of Digital Farm, Modelling of the Farming machinery system behaviour, Farming machinery optimization for environment purpose, Ploughing path design and optimization, developing VR based training modules for about 10 agri-tech areas like organic farming, precision irrigation, protected agriculture, organic agriculture, anaerobic rice cultivation, to name a few.

Target audience / participant profile

Indian agriculture is largely dominated by small and marginal farmers. Hence this program is focused on training small and marginal farmers on new and efficient ways of farming. Objective is to reach out to the farmers located in remote / small villages, through a mobile van which will be equipped with such training infrastructure for providing training at the door step of the farmers.

The inauguration and launch

La Fondation Dassault Systemes India chairman Sudarshan Mogasale, and Prof Rajdeep Mohanty – Pro Vice Chancellor Centurion University launched the “Knowledge on Wheels for Farmers Experience Zone” on 15th January 2019 during farmer’s conclave in Odhisha state in India. The launch of “Knowledge on Wheels for farmer’s education” was done in one of the big farmer’s conclave in Odisha, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Government of Odisha called in local language as “Krushi Odisha”. The Agriculture and Finance Minister of Odisha and Principal Secretory as well as Agricultural Production Commissioner of Odisha, visited the Knowledge on Wheels and appreciated the entire concept and innovative approach for farmer’s education.