At the inauguration of the First National Virtual Congress of Farmers, (NVC) a part event of the 93rd Indian Science Congress, The President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam met with drought stricken farm families of seven villages from across India via video link. He answered their questions on drought management and improved agricultural practices.

Villages included:

• Addakal (VASAT South Asia Hub) in Andhra Pradesh
• Waifad and Anandwan in Maharashtra
• Koraput in Orissa
• Pokhran in Rajasthan
• Pudukkottai and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu

The northern most village center in Rajasthan is separated by nearly 3000 Km from the southern most village center in Tamil Nadu.

VASAT under the aegis of ICRISAT is an active member of the National Alliance for Mission 2007, which organized the first NVC. The alliance seeks to make every village a knowledge center by the year 2007. An expert center was organized at ICRISAT - Patancheru for the Virtual Congress. ICRISAT based experts were joined in by experts from CRIDA, the Dept. of Biotech, (Govt. of India), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and MSSRF. The other expert center was at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) at Chennai. ISRO organized the two-way hi-speed satellite linkage for the event.

The Governor of Andhra Pradesh, Sushilkumar Shinde; Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy; along with Director General Jacques Diouf of the FAO and Director General William Dar of ICRISAT were also present.

Dr MS Swaminathan, Chairman of the National Farmers’ Commission, said that the new deal for rural Indian is not possible without knowledge connectivity in villages. Dr. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO offered his views on Knowledge Connectivity and the Satellite Age. An Electronic Market Information System exchange was launched and the Fellows of the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity were also introduced at the launch event.

VASAT- SA conducted a workshop on the use of learning management systems (LMS) for four state agricultural universities in India at ICRISAT-Patancheru from 6 to 10 December. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) extended its support in organizing this workshop.

Twenty-three senior staff, including four at the level of Deans/Directors, from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) and Maharashtra Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (MAFSU) participated in the workshop. These Universities have recently launched distance education programs covering agricultural and livestock related information.

In his message to the participants, Dr William Dar, Director General, exhorted the State Agricultural Universities to partner with ICRISAT in creating a new paradigm of mass training for food security. Dr. I R Nagaraj, representing the DG and Dr. Dave Hoisington, representing DDG (Research) spoke briefly about taking advantage of the recent advances in the information and communication technologies for increasing crop and livestock production.

Topics covered during the workshop were related to instructional technologies, Learning Objects Standards and Practices, Metadata Issues in Open and Distance Learning, Features of Learning Management Systems (LMS), Case studies on use of LMS, Introduction and demos on the use of ATutor, ACADO, and Moodle, and PowerPoint as a tool to develop course modules. Besides the participants were also provided hands on using ATutor.

Resource persons for this workshop, besides those from ICRISAT, were from the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd, Pune, and B R Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. Additionally, Dr. K R Srivatsan of Indian Institute of Information Technology- Kerala, Dr Erik Duval of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, Drs Ramesh Reddy and Sabine Grunwald from University Of Florida made presentations via desktop video conferencing.

Providing a feedback on the relevance and use of the workshop, all of the participants indicated that the discussions and contents of the workshop helped to improve their understanding of the topics, and imparted knowledge and skills to adapt LMS procedures for their on the job needs. The participants felt that the audio and video conferencing interactions were as effective as “normal” in-person presentations. The participants expressed that the quality of presentations and interactivity with them were superior.