Dhaka: Aiming to expand e-Krishi (e-agriculture) in rural areas, the government has taken an initiative to set up 254 ICT-driven Agriculture Information and Communication Centers (AICCs) in 254 upazilas of the country for disseminating agricultural information among farmers, officials said.

They said the National ICT Infra-Network for Bangladesh Government Phase II Project (InfoSarker) under the ICT Division has chosen 254 farmers’ clubs based on communications facilities, availability of electricity and clubs’ own houses from 14,000 farmers’ associations/clubs of the country to turn those as ICT-based AICCs for disseminating information.

The AICCs are expected to go into operation some time in December next.

As part of the initiative, the InfoSarker Project is going to organise a workshop at the auditorium of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) on Wednesday to build the capacity of farmers about using Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

‘ICTs can play a very important role in bridging information gaps, and that’s why the government is going to set up 254 more AICCs to expand e-Krishi in rural areas of the country and bridge the information gaps,’ said State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

The minister said agriculture is becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive and the government has been promoting the ICT use in agriculture to provide information to farmers, and has focused on ICT innovation for improving agricultural production and enhancing value chains.

Farmers will require increased information to make more and more complex decisions on their land use, selection of agricultural commodities they plant, choice of markets to sell their agricultural produces and other necessary decisions that impact the livelihoods of their families and society, Palak said.

He said the members of farmers’ clubs will play the role of ‘smart farmers’ through providing agricultural information which will contribute towards boosting the country’s farm output.

According to sources, with the establishment of 254 AICCs by the InfoSarker Project, the total number of AICCs will rise to 499 as the government earlier set up 245 AICCs across the country.

Project Director of InfoSarker Md Saiful Islam said this project has been playing a very significant role in the journey towards implementation of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ though establishing connectivity.

The establishment of 254 AICCs equipped with modern technologies will be another bold initiative of InfoSarker Project of ICT Division to expand e-Krishi, one of the important components of Digital Bangladesh, he said.