IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 19

complexity), it is possible to make these types of systems of direct benefit to the poor and even to disintermediate their use by the poor as the end user, as in
this case. One can envision a new class of software
systems with similar features to this one. for example,
a software system could provide decision support in
such areas as irrigation, pesticide use, crop selection,
nutrition, and overall in a variety of areas of direct significance to climate change adaptation and resource
management.
Changing the Decision Processes of Poor
Farmers in Key Areas, e.g., Climate Change
As above and particularly in the area of climate change
adaptation, increasingly innovative approaches to
decisionmaking and planning on the part of agricultural populations will be needed. It will be necessary
to find ways to integrate local and vernacular knowledge (for example, concerning appropriate crops and
cropping under various climatic conditions) with
broader climate and land use/resource management
modeling. Lessons learned from the fRS - both from
the perspective of system design and regarding (the
difficulties in) implementation could have wide and
increasing relevance.
FRS and the Future of Telecenters
The exploration of alternative delivery channels for
the fRS - via telecenters and via commercial mobile
delivered agriculture information bundles, suggests
possibilities for the future of both agriculture information dissemination and for the delivery channels
themselves, particularly telecenters. There has been
considerable discussion and criticism concerning
the usefulness and sustainability of telecenters and
electronically enabled information distribution in
rural areas such as those in Bangladesh. The success of the fRS would provide considerable support
for the longer-term sustainability of telecenters in
rural areas. Successful fRS will provide an ongoing revenue source and will attract users to local
telecenters and to agricultural information bundles
from commercial mobile operators.It is notable that
the simplicity of the user front end and the power of
the information processing back end is a significant
feature making possible the use of these largely disintermediated (and technology supported) delivery
channels.
FRS and the Future of Agricultural
Extension
The utilization of the fRS by the Extension Service
(which is currently only using the manual system with
very few end users) could be transformative of the AE by
providing them with electronic devices (a mobile phone
or even an Netbook or tablet) as the access point to the
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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fALL 2013

system. There have already been discussions with telecom operators concerning accelerating dissemination
of the use of the fRS by involving extension workers.
Should AE become a major source for fRS dissemination, it would be quite likely (and feasible) to build a
suite of other digitally enabled applications around the
fRS as part of the information tool kit for extension
workers.
FRS and Supporting Grassroots Evolution
to More Sophisticated Farming
As discussed, the fRS model could become the basis
for a range of similar systems with simplified front
ends and sophisticated back ends providing information intensive services and supports to even the poorest of farmers in Bangladesh and beyond in areas
such as irrigation (Katalyst is already examining this
area), pest management, soil management, livestock
management, and climate change adaptation. fRS is
demonstrating that this approach to the use of ICTs
to support development is feasible and beneficial and
should pave the way for other similar services.
FRS and the Private Sector Role in
Disseminating Knowledge to Farmers
The fRS is demonstrating a possible role for the private sector as part of the overall information ecology
of rural Bangladesh. Certainly there is sufficient possible return for the individual farmer in acquiring and
using the fRS information to support a revenue-based
model for dissemination. There may be distinct advantages in having private sector involvement if it means
that the fRS will be more widely accessible and if it
were to become positioned as a revenue anchor for
other less immediately beneficial services or for supporting the longer term sustainability of telecenters in
largely rural areas. It would be worth monitoring the
longer term significance of this private sector role in
what to date has been an area of largely public sector responsibility. Such monitoring should be done in
areas of quality of service, quantity of distribution of
service, service innovation and longer term service
support as a guide for future developments. Bureaucracy within government institutions and the slow
procedure through which fRS gets updated and maintained at SRDI and disseminated at DAE's end remain
as two main bottlenecks in enhancing the popularity
of the fRS. Since the fRS is an innovative tool for
disseminating information to farmers, it needs constant promotion at the farmers' end for it to become
popular. for this to happen, the data and the software
need to be maintained and updated by SRDI at regular intervals; and the DAE, Agriculture Information
Service, and the private sector need to promote it at
the field level. The SRDI needs funds and personnel while the DAE and AIS need directives from the
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