Dissemination of agricultural innovations and technologies plays a crucial role in taking the research results to resource poor smallholder farmers.   The demand of farmers regarding knowledge on innovations and technologies has been growing in order to face the challenges posed by climate change, depleting natural resources, food security and safety, market opportunities and value addition etc.   The Information and Communication Technologies/Information and Communication Management (ICT/ICM) can offer immense opportunities to the farming communities in the rural areas to update their knowledge and bridge the gap between farmers and the researchers.

ICT/ICM encompasses the broad fields of data/information processing and communication by means of computers, telecommunications, radio, television, internet, satellite, mobile phones etc.  It covers all emerging aspects including innovative practices to efficiently manage the digital resources.  There are good examples of use and application of ICT/ICM for AR4D in the Asia-Pacific region which will provide better insights into different aspects such as innovative application of new ICTs in rural areas, institutional partnerships; management of digital information resources, socio-economic impact of ICT/ICM, and the role of public and private sector agencies in fostering ICT/ICM for agricultural development.

APAARI has been instrumental in disseminating agricultural innovations and technologies through success stories on important themes with the aim to enable  all  ARD stakeholders to adopt innovations and technologies for the benefit of  resource poor smallholder farmers.   Besides popularizing the success stories in agricultural development, APAARI has undertaken documentation of success stories on ICT/ICM for AR4D in the Asia-Pacific region that provides better insights on the use and application of ICT/ICM for empowering the farming community.  This publication includes success stories on ICT/ICM in agriculture from five countries, viz., Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

These success stories focus on a variety of ICT/ICM initiatives in agriculture that included innovative television program Moti-O-Manush in Bangladesh, ICT-enabled information  services to farmers through aAQUA initiative in India, improving adoption of  technologies  and marketing in vegetables with the help of Krishi Community Radio in Nepal, appropriate use of ICT tools and methods through Farmers Information and  Technology Services (FITS) in the Philippines, and Cyber Extension in support of  agricultural extension system in Sri Lanka.  These success stories highlight the role of ICT/ICM in strengthening the present agricultural extension system in the respective countries for efficient transfer of technologies to the farmers.   It provides useful lessons on the use of new information and communication technologies, public-private partnerships in ICT initiatives, impact of ICT/ICM in agriculture, orientation and participation of farmers and mechanisms for better implementation of ICT/ICM initiatives for AR4D.

Pulses are an important protein source for Asian people, many of whom largely depend upon cereals and pulses for their daily requirements. South Asian countries together are the world’s largest producers and consumers of pulses comprising mainly chickpea, pigeonpea and mungbean. Mungbean, being high in protein and easily digestible, constitutes a balanced diet in combination with cereals. Moreover, being one of the most short duration legumes, it has great scope of fitting in between rice-wheat cropping system in entire Indo-Gangetic plains. Unfortunately, the production of pulse crops over the past few decades has declined in almost all traditionally pulse growing countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Accordingly, the need for increasing production and productivity of pulse crops,including mungbean, is being felt acutely throughout the region. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center has played a significant role in evolving improved vegetables and mungbean germplasm in Asia. Working with national research partners in nearly two dozen Asian countries, AVRDC programs have led to the release of a large number of varieties adapted to local conditions, thus benefiting millions of farmers and consumers. The new mungbean varieties are high yielding as well as early and uniform in maturity. These varieties have bold seeds and possess resistance to major diseases,including yellow mosaic virus. Expectedly, the improved varieties have been adopted widely by the farmers in South and South-east Asian countries. This publication “Short Duration Mungbean: A New Success in South Asia” by Dr. M.L. Chadha relates to the development, performance and adoption of mungbean varieties, which successfully address the major constraints to production in the region.

The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) has been publishing success stories on various aspects of agricultural research and development that have large scale impact and have brought tangible benefits to both the farmers and consumers alike. So far, more than 40 success stories from the region on diverse topics have been published by APAARI, details of which are available on our website: www.apaari.org. It is felt that dissemination of such success stories will help in wider adoption of new technologies, thus benefiting largely the resource poor farmers.