(a) whether the Government has conducted any survey regarding awareness about the use of Internet facility in the rural India;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the people uses Internet to find out the latest information on farming techniques and fertiliser etc.; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a)&(b) Madam, in the latest survey on Social Consumption Education conducted during National Sample Survey (NSS) 71st round (January-June, 2014) by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), information on whether any member of the households (aged 14 years and above) has access to use internet facility was collected. Survey results showed that 16.1% of the rural Indian households, with at least one member of age 14 years and above had access to internet facility in the survey year, 2014. There were 1675.44 lakhs estimated rural households having at least one member of age 14 years and above as per this survey.
(c)&(d) NSSO conducted a Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households during NSS 70th round (January 2013- December 2013) in the rural areas of the country in two visits with reference to the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013. The survey collected information regarding the agricultural household’s access to technical advices in the field of agriculture specific to the crops they harvested during the two halves of the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013. “Radio/TV/News Paper/ Internet” was one of the sources used for reporting access to technical advice.
As per the results obtained from the survey, 19.6% of the cultivating agricultural households in the rural India reported access to “Radio/TV/News Paper/ Internet” during the period July –December 2012 and 17.0% of the cultivating agricultural households in the rural India reported access to this source during the period January-June 2013.
Further, Department of Fertilizers has two portals namely Fertilizer Monitoring System(FMS), http://www.urvarak.co.in and Mobile Fertilizer Monitoring System (mFMS), http://mfms.nic.in. These portals are used by people for information on availability and sale of fertilizers at Manufacturer level, Wholesaler level and Retialer level. The information is available at State and District level.
FMS has information on fertilizer manufacturers and importers, list of rake points for fertilizer movement, current concession rates of decontrolled fertilizers, Maximum Retails Price of decontrolled fertilizers.
Mobile Fertilizer Monitoring System (mFMS) has information on number of fertilizer companies, plants, wholesalers and retailers. It has information on which kind of fertilizer is being supplied to which retailer. The sale is captured at level of (a) Company to Wholesaler (b) Wholesaler to retailer (c) Company to retailer. Sale transactions upto retailer level and monthly stock at district/ state level are also available.
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