Use of Veterinary Telemedicine,The Internet of Things (IoT) & Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Smart Livestock Farming in India

Use of Veterinary Telemedicine,The Internet of Things (IoT) & Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Smart Livestock Farming in India

Dr. Rajesh Kr. Singh.Livestock consultant

Today a new paradigm of agricultural development is fast emerging: in both developing and developed countries the overall development of rural areas is expanding in new directions; old ways of delivering important services to citizens are being challenged; and traditional societies are being transformed into knowledge societies all over the world. Digital animal monitoring Digital devices like wearables are gaining ground in cattle monitoring, enabling real-time information on individual cows, e.g. to improve health, lactation, or reproduction. A newly developed feed additive improves milk quality through milk solids. A data solution could track these increases while measuring other real-time information for individual cows to improve health, lactation, and/or reproduction. With farmers getting used to smartphones, WhatsApp, video streaming, and more, they are no more stranger to the technologies that are being made available to them at their doorstep in terms of using them and getting benefit out of it. Technology is now easily being adapted by the farmers across the country, whether it is related to crop production or Livestock production.

Information Technology can offer solutions in order to improve the livestock production in India. Latest IT tools for information dissemination offer enormous potential in transfer technology. Systematic and coordinated approach is required to identify, organize make available information on time to the livestock rearers when it is required by them and in a user friendly manner. Use of IT techniques using regional languages in dissemination of livestock rearing technologies will certainly enhance the decision-making capabilities of livestock rearers. This will further improve economic status of the livestock rearers involved in live stock production in India. For sustainable live stock production, it is must to understand the information need of livestock rearers and develop such information systems that supports the operational aspects of livestock rearers. All organizations including concerned departments need to realize the potential of ICT for speedy dissemination of information to livestock rearers. Government at State and central level has to reorient veterinary and a animal husbandry policies so that a strategy is farmed to harness ICT’s potential for over all live stock development.

 

Areas of IT convergence

 

Applications of IT in support of agricultural and rural development fall into five main areas, as outlined by Don Richardson (FAO, 1996). These are:

• economic development of agricultural producers;

• community development;

• research and education;

• small and medium enterprises development; and

• media networks. Some agricultural development services that can be provided in the developing world, using ICT, are:

• online services for information, education and training, monitoring and consultation, diagnosis and monitoring, and transaction and processing;

• e-commerce for direct linkages between local producers, traders, retailers and suppliers;

• the facilitation of interaction among researchers, extension (knowledge) workers, and farmers;

• question-and-answer services where experts respond to queries on specialised subjects ICT services to block- and district-level developmental officials for greater efficiency in delivering services for overall agricultural development; • up-to-date information, supplied to farmers as early as possible, about subjects such as packages of practices, market information, weather forecasting, input supplies, credit availability, etc.;

• creation of databases with details of the resources of local villages and villagers, site-specific information systems, expert systems, etc.;

• provision of early warning systems about disease/ pest problems, information regarding rural development programmes and crop insurances, postharvest technology, etc.;

• facilitation of land records and online registration services;

• improved marketing of milk and milk products;

• services providing information to farmers regarding farm business and management;

• increased efficiency and productivity of cooperative societies through the computer communication network and the latest database technology;

• tele-education for farmers;

• websites established by agricultural research institutes, making the latest information available to extension (knowledge) workers and obtaining their feedback

 

 

ICT initiatives for Livestock development in India

Some of the successful ICT initiatives taken up under different projects in India are

*e-NAM or National Agriculture Market,INAPH,epashuhaat

*Agmarknet.iKisan.Agrisnet,Digital green,) eSagu ,Warana,) IKSL,Digital Mandi,) eArik,Kisan Call Centers (KCCs),Village Knowledge Centers (VKCs),AgroNxt,Fisher Friend Mobile Advisory KCC,Reuters Market Light (RML) ,SMS Portal/mKisan Portal,Mahindara Kisan Mitra

• The Warna Wired Village Project providing Internet access to cooperative societies spread in 70 villages of Maharashtra. The aim is to provide information to the villagers by establishing networked booths in the villages.
• The Information Villages Project of M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation has established a hub of the information network, in Villianur village ( Pondicherry) to cater to the information needs of the rural people. It is aimed at bringing the benefits of modern ICTs to rural families in Pondichery.
• The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India has already established a Local Area Network (LAN) with 230 nodes at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi with Internet access through NICNET gateway. An ICT Learning (e-Learning) Centre has also been established to provide on line internet access.
• The Dairy Information and Services Kiosk(DISK) is one of the successful initiatives taken up by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd ( GCMFL) with the help of Indian Institute of Ahmedabad. ‘DISK’ model includes a complete history of milk cattle owned by the member farmers. The details such as the breed and a history of diseases,inoculation, and artificial insemination are maintained in the system. It is being used at milk collection centers and in cooperatives to measure butter fat content of milk, test the quality of the milk and promptly make the payment to the farmers. It has resulted in the removal of incentives to those who adulterate milk, reduced the time for payments from 10 days to less than 5minutes and instilled the confidence in farmers on cooperative set up.
• The National Dairy Development Board has established “ AKASHGANGA” which provides total integrated solution for automatic milk collection.
• The Central Institute for Research on Goats ( CIRG) has developed E-mail Conference System for Goat Outreach on its goat-nic.in server using free software called ‘majordoma’ which is available onwww.greatcircle.com on a free Linux operating system. Three e-mail conferencing systems, viz., goat-net@cirg.nic.in.,livestock-net@cirg.nic.in and fishnet@cirg.nic.in, have been launched by the institute to help information inflow among technologists, farmers,development officers and planners.
• Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University has developed multi media self learning modules on various aspects of livestock, poultry and fish production and installed the same in the information kiosks available in all the extension centres and constituent colleges spread through out the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu.
• Under Animal Health Project funded by Department for International Development(DFID), Rajiv Gandhi college of Veterinary and Animal Sciences,(RAGACOVAS) Pondicherry in collaboration with University of Reading, UK,has designed an interactive touch screen information Kiosk. It has information on important cattle diseases in addition to management of cattle and methods of acquiring information. Illiterate livestock keepers can access the needed information on cattle management with the touch of the screen which had text and pictures with sound back-up. RAGACOVAS also developed an Information kiosk on management of goats for the benefit of the goat keepers under Rural Innovation Fund project in collaboration with MSSRF.

• ICT EFFORTS OF ICAR AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

  • IP-Telephony and Video Conferencing at ICAR Institutes/ HQs
  • VSAT Connectivity to 200KVKs including eight Zonal Coordinating units to ERNET-KVK, ICAR Network
  • Upgrading ICAR-ERNET network involving all ICAR Institutes and SAUs under on-going NAIP Project Component
  • Toll free number 1800-180-1551created by Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, can be used by farmers anywhere in the country to access the information on agriculture and allied subjects.

 

Livestock wealth is very precious for a developing country like India. In India, animal husbandry is no longer a subsidiary to agriculture or a backyard vocation. Animal husbandry has metamorphosed into an industry and the latest reports suggest that the contribution of animal husbandry sector to the GDP of the nation is substantially higher despite the meager input. Animal husbandry offers a better scope for marginal farmers whose income from agriculture is dwindling fast due to vagaries of monsoon, fragmentation of landholdings, pest problems, poor pricing etc. Though the growth of livestock industry is very promising, in order to make India a global leader in animal husbandry, it is imperative to integrate it with developments in other fields. The developments in Information Technology over the past few decades are tremendous and offer great potential in improving animal health through various measures like effective disease forecasting, rapid and accurate disease diagnosis, modern therapeutic measures etc.

Veterinary Informatics is the discipline concerned with the application of information science, engineering, and computer technology to support veterinary health care. Veterinary informatics and the larger field of medical informatics is often called health care informatics or biomedical informatics and forms part of the wider domain of e-health. Applications of Information Technology in different aspects of animal health are discussed below.

Geo-Informatics Technologies in Animal Disease Surveillance

Early identification of an infectious disease outbreak is an important first step towards implementing effective disease interventions and reducing resulting mortality and morbidity. Both geographical and seasonal distributions of many infectious diseases are linked to climate, therefore the possibility of using seasonal climate forecasts as predictive indicators in disease early warning systems (EWS) has long been a focus of interest. Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) are the three commonly used veterinary geo-informatics technologies employed in this information era for rapid worldwide communication of data for management of animal diseases.

Geographic Information System is a computerized database management system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing and displaying data related to location. Global Positioning System is a data collection technology whereas GIS is a data analysis technology. What separates GIS from other types of information/databases is that everything is based on location (geo reference). This geo-referenced information is nothing more than “where things are,” such as latitude and longitude coordinates. Today, GIS is being utilized for disease monitoring in the United States of America. The USDA’s Veterinary Services utilizes the benefits of comprehensive and integrated monitoring and surveillance to demonstrate where a particular disease does or does not occur. For example, one GIS map can show the population density of any agricultural species using National Agricultural Statistics Service census data. A second map can show all disease monitoring testing done in a specific timeframe. A comparison can then be made to make sure that disease monitoring and testing corresponds to the population density of that species in the area. Finally, a third map can be generated to depict changes or areas to concentrate on for future monitoring. This will help by assuring that funds for monitoring are spent in the proper areas.

Along with GIS, Remote Sensing has revolutionized the way scientists handle and analyze geographic data. Remote sensing refers to the acquisition of geographic data without making physical contact with the area of study. Today, remote sensing generally pertains to satellite images and aerial photography/imaging, both of which are sensitive to portions of the electromagnetic spectrum not visible to the human eye or most cameras (e.g. infrared, micro wave). The ability to measure invisible energy and to record vast amounts of high resolution data from great distances is a very powerful tool.

Information Technology in Disease Diagnosis

Medical diagnostic technology has made rapid strides with the advent of the computer. Many of the advances in human diagnostic technologies are translated into veterinary medicine in developed countries. Newer branches like Imaging, Radiodiagnosis, Telemedicine, Telesonography and Teleradiology have emerged. Broadly, the instrumentation/devices which have been created with modern technology in the present digital age are listed below.

1) Image Intensifier TV system (IITV): Generally used in orthopaedic surgery. This facilitates fracture repair using a small incision thus achieving minimal invasive surgical manoeuvre. IITV helps in X-ray imaging of the intrao-perative site for orthopaedic manipulations, and the same can be stored for future reference.

2) Ultrasound: In small animal and equine practice, ultrasound is routinely used as a diagnostic aid. Applications of ultrasound in ruminants have not been fully exploited, except in pregnancy. There could be numerous organs which can be scanned using an ultrasound scanner. Ultrasonography seems to have a promising future in veterinary medicine, particularly for the assessment of intra/peri-abdominal disease. Ultrasonography is viewed as the single most versatile addition to the non-invasive and non-surgical armamentarium of the veterinary clinician since the advent of the fiber optic endoscope.

3) Computerized Tomography (CT): CT has been an extremely significant development which has a unique cross-sectional imaging ability useful for the diagnosis of tumors, malformations, inflammation, degenerative and vascular diseases and trauma. CT is a diagnostic modality that is fundamentally different from a simple X-ray; an organ is scanned in successive layers by a narrow beam of X-rays in such a way that the transmission of X-ray across a particular layer can be measured by a computer, and used to construct a picture of the internal structure.

4) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): MRI is a highly sensitive and non-invasive technique providing accurate and detailed anatomic images with good contrast and spatial resolution. However, in veterinary medicine, MRI is still in its infancy and its use is infrequent. To date, MRI has been used in developed countries in clinical cases as well as a research tool especially for CNS diseases in small animals. MRI has a wide spectrum of applications. It can be used for imaging all body regions in small animals, but only the extremities and the head can be imaged in large animals. The newer applications of MRI are MR angiography and MR spectroscopy. It is especially used to differentiate an inflammatory process from a neoplastic mass, tumors from peri-tumoral edema. It is more specific and sensitive in detecting, localizing and differentiating osteomyelitis, cellulites and abscess.

5) Nuclear Scintigraphy: Nuclear scintigraphy is a highly sensitive advanced procedure in which radioisotopes are used to detect the functional abnormalities of the body system. The interpretation is based on the appearance of the increased (hot spots) or decreased (cold spots) radioactivity regions. For eg. an active process is indicated by a hot spot while a dull process like lack of perfusion is indicated by cold spot. Nuclear scintigraphy has been used to detect functional disorders of the kidney, liver, lungs, GI tract, thyroid gland and many other organs. It is very useful in the diagnosis of occult lameness, lung perfusion and ventilation and patency of the ureter in both large and small animals. Also used for vertebral column imaging and monitoring the progress of fracture healing and in tumor detection.

6) Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA): DSA is a radiographic modality which allows dynamic imaging of the vascular system following intravascular injection of iodinated X-ray contrast media, through the use of image intensification, enhancement of the iodine signal and digital processing of the image data. Temporal subtraction of the images obtained during the first arterial phase of injection of the contrast medium from the images obtained before and after contrast medium administration yield images which are devoid of bone and soft tissue. This imaging modality plays an important role in highlighting the vascular pathologies like stenosis etc.

7) Laparoscopy: Laparoscopy has been a valuable diagnostic and therapeutic tool in human clinical medicine. Only in the last 15 years, its use has been extensively in various animal species for research and clinical diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The most advantageous characteristic of laparoscopy is that it allows direct examination of abdominal cavity with only minimal and superficial surgical intervention. Thoracoscopy has been employed in humans for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the pleura, lung, mediastinum, great vessels, pericardium and oesophagus. Visceral inspection of the thoracic cavity by thoracoscopy has been used to provide a more accurate diagnosis and prognosis in horses affected with pleuropneumonia and other thoracic and oesophageal disorders. Thoracoscopy allows visualization and biopsy of a large surface of the lung and provides adequate specimen for histo-pathological diagnosis.

8) Endoscopy: It is a minimal invasive diagnostic modality which aids in documenting mucosal inflammation, hyperemia, active bleeding, irregular mucosal surface etc. and facilitates biopsy in tubular organs like GI tract, respiratory and the urogenital systems.

9) Pulse Oximetry: It has the unique advantage of continuously monitoring the saturation of haemoglobin with oxygen easily and noninvasively, thus providing a measure of cardio-respiratory function. The fundamental physical property that allows the pulse oximeter to measure the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin is that blood changes color as hemoglobin absorbs varying amounts of light dependent on its saturation with oxygen. Hence, pulse oximetry remains the standard of care during anesthesia as well as in the recovery room and intensive care unit.

Artificial Intelligence in Health Management

Artificial intelligence may be defined by comparing computer and human functions. If the computer performs a task that seems intelligent when it is done by humans it can be said to be exhibiting artificial intelligence. In medicine, most artificial intelligence research has been devoted to creating computer systems that contain detailed information about a specific medical subject. By focusing relevant knowledge on the problems facing the physician, these programs are designed to act like consultants and thereby have the potential of expanding the practitioner’s expertise.

Expert systems are computer programs that typically contain large amounts of knowledge for making decisions about specific problem domains such as an area of medicine. In medicine, several important experimental expert systems have been developed. For example: INTERNIST -Diagnosis in internal medicine, PIP – Renal disease, VM – Ventilator Management, PUFF – Pulmonary function and ATTENDING – Anesthetic Management.

Information Technology in Instrumentation

Another important area of contribution of Information Technology is in the instrumentation side. The modern molecular methods of diagnosis require sophisticated electronic equipments. It is impossible for a researcher to have sufficient knowledge in electronics to handle these equipments To simplify this, all the modern equipments like ELISA reader, HPLC, RIA, UV Spectrophotometer, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Flowcytometer, freeze drier, ultra low freezer, PCR machine etc., are now controlled by microcomputers and user-friendly software are provided to operate them. With this software, even a beginner can start handling these equipments with minimal training.

Information Technology in Data Analysis

Analysis of data is another important area in animal health. The data collected from outbreaks over a period of time has to be analyzed statistically to develop models and forecast future incidences of the disease. As we know, manual analysis is error-prone, besides being time consuming. Many user-friendly and simple statistical packages are available that can do the same task efficiently.

Information Technology in Molecular Biology

One of the most important areas of animal health is the analysis of genomes. Genomic analysis gains importance since it is the irrefutable form of diagnosis. To develop gene probes, the entire genome has to be mapped. After mapping, the unique areas have to be indentified comparing it with the genome of other infectious agents. Though the genome is very small in size, the number of bases in each genome is beyond manual comparison. Many software are available that can compare the genome with existing genomes in a gene bank to identify unique areas. Such software also provides scope for developing a phylogenetic tree, molecular clock and for developing primers for PCR reaction. The phylogenetic tree and molecular clock are essential for molecular biologists to arrive at possible origins of the virus. This finding gains more significance if the virus strains are immunologically distinct.

Information Technology in Simulation Studies

Another area where IT can contribute significantly is the simulation of in vivo conditions. Certain advanced graphics based software offer best solutions for this. Trafficking of etiological agents, proteins etc. in between the cells can be studied using this software. Study on these trafficking patterns is essential to develop vaccines for cell associated viruses and intra cellular bacteria. The role of graphics based software in studying the three dimensional structures of antigen and antibody is also important to analyze the interactions between them in vivo. Interaction of antigen and antibody is essential to study the pathogenesis of any infectious diseases. Graphics based software also offer great scope as educational aids.

Apart from what has been mentioned above, Information Technology contributes significantly in a number of other areas and is bound to play an important role in improving animal health, thereby benefitting a majority of our population which are dependent on agriculture and allied activities.

 

How IoT is helping in Tracking and Monitoring Livestock?

Today’s technologically advanced-era where smartphones, tablets, and fitbits with added features are tracking our every move is making is become accustomed to the idea of data points monitoring behavior. Application of the Internet of Things in agriculture promises previously unavailable efficiency, reduction of resources and cost, automation, and data-driven processes enabling farmers to get high-quality crop yield. IoT technology has spurred positive changes in the way farmers keep tabs on grazing animals, such as sheep and cows. Nowadays, more and more lightweight, compact, and comfortable IoT devices are being developed to help farmers get data of the location, health, and well-being of cattle.

The smart IoT-based sensors are being placed into a cow’s throat and stomach, worn around the animals’ neck as fabric-covered collars or as an ear tag that has tracking capabilities and communicates via Bluetooth. The IoT devices enable farmers to monitor animal’s health, location, eating habits, and reproductive cycle to the herd’s grazing and movement patterns in a pasture.

Advantages of IoT-Based Livestock Monitoring

Various livestock sensors can help farmers get notified on when animals have roamed away from the herd, their location, data related to the health of the livestock, and much more. It helps in identifying sick animals, lowering down labor costs, and face specific challenges while instrumenting the livestock with the sensors.

Tracking Location

Many times, farmers have to struggle hard to find the lost livestock that gets separated from the herd due to reasons like ill health or if they are in heat. The IoT wearable devices ensure to provide relief to the farmers as with this livestock can be easily traced that too without sparing much time. IoT devices help in tracking the movement pattern of animals, optimizing their grazing patterns, and others. Also, if there is any change IoT devices notice in the behavior of livestock, the farmers get notified for the same. Moreover, the movement tracking can help maximize a farmer’s pastureland. With the data that a farmer gets by tracking each animal’s movement and herd’s migration, the grazing patterns can be optimized.

Monitoring Health

Continuously monitoring the health levels of livestock is vital to ensure the diagnosis of the diseases, if any, at the early stage. Wearable IoT devices with built-in sensors when mounted on the animals help capture data and notify about the health of the livestock. These devices enable farmers to monitor heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature, digestion, and other health-related data. Also, monitoring the health of the livestock ensures the reduction in livestock feeding issues too. Without IoT monitoring, various health problems and feed issues in a herd may go undetected until one or more animals require veterinary care. By continuously measuring each animal’s condition and behavior, farmers can take action at the right time.

Fertility

The IoT-based devices make it easier to monitor and measure reproductive cycles of the cow and know when a cow goes into heat. Additionally, an IoT sensor can send an alert to the farmer when the cow goes into labor making the calving process safer and the farmer does not have to continually check the cow to see if she has started calving.

Lactation

The IoT devices rolled out to manage the livestock also help farmers in maximizing the livelihood of the livestock. With these devices, it is easy to correlate cattle movement with specific behaviors like pasturing, lying down to chew the cud, and more. The IoT devices can also help in tracking the right time for milking, measuring the milking amount and speed, etc. The data gathered from the cow’s activity allows a farmer to help cows improve their diet and increase lactation. This eliminates guesswork and increases the length and quality of milking sessions.

IoT-based sensors like heartbeat sensor, body temperature sensor, RFID, biosensors help in predicting illness in livestock, reduce the occurrence of illness by building a food quality monitoring system. To build a food quality management system, chemical and biological IoT based sensors can be used which can monitor different parameters of food. IoT-based Gyro, GPS, and proximity sensors can help detect movement, location, and object around livestock. Data like health information, location, movement, weather information, etc. is thus collected and analyzed for the right decision making.

In livestock management, data communication should be real-time without any delay, also reduce redundancy of data. Therefore, it is important to build analytics to filter the data and save only the required data to the cloud for further analysis. Despite the number of advantages of IoT-based sensors, selecting the communication medium between sensors and cloud is always a challenging part. The communication protocol has some limitations like if we choose 3G/4G/LTE, we should have a strong network in that area, otherwise, data may be lost. Moreover, choosing LoRaWAN/NB-IoT/Sigfox (trending technology in IoT for communication) be an expensive affair.

The alert mechanism in case of emergency is a must without any delay. There is no single sensor that can read all the required parameters. Integrating all sensors to a single module and making it wearable and compact is challenging too. The need of the hour is to integrate all required sensors to a single module and then use trending technologies in IoT which is LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, Sigfox to achieve long-range communication which is almost 5KM in an open area. Receiving real-time data and creating some analytics to visualize data is the key.

ICT initiatives for agricultural development in India

 

There have been some initiatives in India, using ICT for agricultural development. In most of these projects, agriculture is only a small component. Indian experiences with IT projects are:

• Gyandoot project (Madhya Pradesh);

• Warana Wired Village project (Maharashtra);

• Information Village project of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) (Pondicherry);

• iKisan project of the Nagarjuna group of companies (Andhra Pradesh);

• Automated Milk Collection Centres of Amul dairy cooperatives (Gujarat);

• Land Record Computerisation (Bhoomi) (Karnataka);

• Computer-Aided Online Registration Department (Andhra Pradesh);

• Online Marketing and CAD in Northern Karnataka (Karnataka);

• Knowledge Network for Grass Root Innovations – Society for Research and Initiatives (SRISTI) (Gujarat);

• Application of Satellite Communication for Training Field Extension Workers in Rural Areas (Indian Space Research Organisation); In adddition to the above, a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have initiated ICT projects such as:

• Tarahaat.com by Development Alternatives (Uttar Pradesh and Punjab);

• Mahitiz-samuha (Karnataka);

• VOICES – Madhyam Communications (Karnataka);

• Centre for Alternative Agriculture Media (CAAM); Some exclusive agricultural portals are also available, such as:

• Haritgyan.com

• Krishiworld.net

• TOEHOLDINDIA.com

• Agriwatch.com

• ITC’s Soyachoupal.com

• Acquachoupal.com

• Plantersnet.com, etc.

 

Despite the huge potential to harness ICT for agricultural development, only a few isolated projects have been initiated in India and a few in other parts of the world. Interestingly, many of these projects were started by NGOs, private organisations, cooperative bodies and governmental organisations other than agricultural departments. This shows the apathy of agricultural development departments towards incorporating ICT into their day-to-day activities. To formulate a strategy for overall agricultural development, the isolated ICT projects need to be studied and the experiences generated must be documented in order to draw lessons for the future.

VETERINARY TELEMEDICINE

Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another for health, diagnosis, consultation, treatment and transfer of medical data of the patient (Meher et al., 2008). The term “telemedicine” was first coined in the 1970s by an American, Thomas Bird , means “healing at a distance” (from Greek “tele” and Latin “medicus”) (Strehle and Shabde 2006). Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as complex as using satellite technology and video conferencing equipment to conduct a real time consultation between medical specialists in two different locations (Sharma and Rajput 2009). It is now believed that telemedicine is going to be an essential component of modern healthcare system. It helps in decreasing the load over the existing healthcare system which is already suffering from problems like lack of required number of physicians, lack of expertise in specific medical branches and high cost as well as limited reach in the rural areas to approach a medical specialist for treatment. In such conditions telemedicine helps in facilitating healthcare over long distances and thus bridging the gap (Bashshur and Lovett 1977; Mort et al., 2003; Doolittle et al., 2005). Electronic sharing of information constitutes veterinary telemedicine, which is defined as the use of electronic information and communication technologies to assist veterinary practitioners in providing clinical care when separated by a distance (Robertson, 1999). Veterinary telemedicine trace its origins back to the early days of the telephone or telegraph. The first dedicated service was the use of a transtelephonic electrocardiogram (ECG) transmitter to connect veterinarians across America to cardiologists at the Animal Medical Centre in New York in the 1980s (Robertson, 1999). Despite the use of veterinary telemedicine, it had been noted that there were no studies evaluating its efficiency and utility in veterinary practice (Leung, 1999). Veterinary practice has lagged behind its human counterpart in producing research on the validity and efficacy of telemedicine (Mars and Auer, 2006) and thus is an important field requiring further detailed research.

 

Need of initiative of telemedicine in veterinary practice:

The veterinary and animal husbandry are highly specialized area involving management and health care of varied species of animals, disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the diseases, quality assessment of meat and food including milk and milk products, quarantine procedures, animal welfare, feed formulation and testing, dissemination of technologies, besides teaching, training, innovation, generation and transfer of knowledge or technologies for end users as well as for administrators. The role of veterinarians has, thus, become versatile as a clinician, educator, researcher, extension educator, research administrator, consultant, policy maker and advisor demanding much more workforce in scarcity of time as well as resources. In India there are approximately 9527 veterinary hospitals/polyclinics, 20,897 veterinary dispensaries, 24482 veterinary aid centers and 67,048 artificial insemination centers offering quality veterinary services. But there is a huge gap, the requirement of 67,000 veterinarians is fulfilled only by the available 34,500 veterinarians. Against the requirement of 7500 veterinary and animal science specialists for teaching and research, only 3050 are available to manage universities and colleges (Planning commission working body report, 2014). Shortage of work force and inadequacy of veterinary infrastructure arouses the need of telemedicine as future of animal health care services in India.

 

Technology of telemedicine:

Telemedicine is a confluence of communication technology, information technology, biomedical engineering and medical science. Technology ranges from the basic telephone service to broadband internet that allows physicians, nurses and other allied health professionals to provide healthcare at a remote locations (Breen and Matusitz, 2007). Three things are necessary to achieve communication: a sender, receiver and a medium which will transmits information from a sender to a receiver. The telemedicine system consists of customized hardware and software at both the patient and specialist doctor ends, with some of the diagnostic equipments like ECG, X-ray, microscope/camera etc., provided at the patient end. Communication is made through a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system and controlled by the network hub station of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) (Wootton, 2001). Through a telemedicine system, medical images and other information relative to the patients could be sent to the specialist doctors, either after imaging or on a real time basis through the satellite link in the form of digital data packets. These packets are received at the specialist centre, the images and other information is reconstructed so that the specialist doctor can study the data, perform diagnosis, interact with the patient, and suggest the appropriate treatment during a video conference with the patient end. Telemedicine facility thus enables the specialist doctor and the patient separated by thousands of kilometers to see each other, talk with each other, assessing the physical and psychological state of the patient and to suggest appropriate treatment. In this way, the systematic application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the practice of health care rapidly expands the outreach of the health care system.

Specific veterinary telemedicine applications have been in use since the early 1980s, but little study about its efficacy and validity has been undertaken in this field. The demanding quality health services in animal health care sector, coupled with an expected shortage of expertise, over the coming decades accentuates the need for veterinary telemedicine. Awareness among livestock owners and stack holders is essential to accept this emerging technology as a facilitator for quality healthcare delivery especially in rural areas. Ethical and legal issues around the practice of veterinary telemedicine, image standards, the equipment that is required for the practice of telemedicine, advice on ways in which digital images can be obtained, standardization of various systems, including the system for payment and educational aspects are the regulatory issues which need to be resolved (Sarhan, 2009; Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, 2003). Policy making bodies need to plan the implementation of policies for the use of veterinary telemedicine besides developing revenue models and creating infrastructure for meeting the need of training manpower and carrying out research and development. In India with current bloomed IT sector, veterinary telemedicine is a technology whose golden era has arrived and government/agricultural universities must adopt it with open arms in order to ensure that two way flow of information is facilitated between field veterinarians and subject experts, thus resulting in an enriching experience for both, also providing more quality services to animal health care sector.

 Types of telemedicine:

 

 

: Asynchronous telemedicine (Store and Forward) involves acquiring medical data (like medical images, biosignals etc.) and then transmitting this data to a doctor or medical specialist at a convenient time for assessment offline not requiring the presence of both parties at the same time. Cases requiring specialist opinion viz. dermatology, radiology and pathology are accessible to asynchronous telemedicine (Bedi, 2003). In the Indian context, asynchronous telemedicine involving sending of case details and images/lab reports via e-mail to experts for a second opinion (like human medicine) is gaining a ground.

 

Remote Monitoring–

(Tele home care) allows the remote observation and care of a patient using various technological devices. Patient status can be reviewed and alarms can be set from the hospital nurse’s station, depending on the specific home health device. Real Time Telemedicine (Interactive or Synchronous telemedicine) could be as simple as a telephone call or as complex as robotic surgery requiring the presence of both parties at the same time and a communications link between them that allows a real time interaction to take place demanding video conferencing equipment as one of the most common and important technology. There are also peripheral devices, which can be attached to computers or the video conferencing equipment aiding in an interactive examination. For example, a tele-otoscope allows a remote physician to ‘see’ inside a patient’s ear; a tele-stethoscope allows the consulting remote physician to hear the patient’s heartbeat. Almost all specialties of medicine have been found to be conducive to real time consultation including psychiatry, internal medicine, cardiology and gynaecology and obstetrics (Dasgupta and Deb 2008).

 

Potential scope under telemedicine–

1. Teledermatology: Images of skin lesions/skin parasites transferred electronically for proper diagnosis of skin infections/diseases. 2. Teleophthalmology: It includes remote screening of cases of cataract, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. 3. Telecardiology: Important to remotely diagnose, treat and manage cardiac diseases through echocardiograms, angiograms and, blood pressure monitoring. 4. Telepathology: It refers to process of diagnostic pathology performed on digital images viewed on a display screen rather than by conventional light microscopy with glass slides. A Telepathology image sent through electronic mail provides acceptable efficacy and a quicker turnaround time than post and can be applied to veterinary diagnostic cytology (Maiolino et al., 2006). 5. Teleradiology: Teleradiology is considered as a paradigm for other applications owing to long history of use. Patient’s radiographic/pathologic images and consultative texts are electronically transmitted from one medical location to another. 6. Telesurgery: A particular advantage of this type of work is that the surgeon can perform many more operations of a similar type and with lesser fatigue.

 

 

Economics of telemedicine:

 

Economic considerations are a crucial element in the planning and execution of a telemedicine programme. Economic evaluation is a set of formal analytical techniques that provide systematic information about costs: benefit ratio of alternative options, and can thereby assist in priority setting (Drummond and Sculpher, 2005; Sculpher and Price 2003; Sassi et al., 1997; Drummond et al., 2005). Economic analyses can take more than one economic perspective, but the Panel on Cost Effectiveness in Health and Medicine recommends that collective perspective should be considered always (Gold et al., 1996). Diversity in telemedicine applications, lack of standardized methodology, randomized control trials (RCTs) and, long term evaluation studies and absence of quality data are few commonly encountered limitations seen in telemedicine economic analyses disabling to fully evaluate and authenticate economic impact of telemedicine (Bashshur et al., 2005; Whitten et al., 2002; Reardon, 2005; Jennett et al., 2003; Ruckdaschel et al., 2006). Most of studies investigating cost effectiveness of telemedicine found that benefits are evaluated in terms of cost savings with no assessment done in terms of changes in the benefits for the patients (Whitten et al., 2002; Hailey et al., 2002). There is wide variation in reports on economic analysis of telemedicine. No reports are available for economic analysis of veterinary telemedicine. Many studies suggested that telemedicine seemed to be cost effective for examples: 91% of the studies showed telehomecare to be cost effective by reducing visit to hospitals, improving patient compliance, satisfaction and quality of living (Rojas and Gagnon 2008), telemedicine was found to be cost effective in management of chronic diseases (Gaikwad and Warren 2009), telemonitoring proved to be rewarding in heart failure patients by reducing travel time, hospital admissions and constant monitoring of such critical condition (Seto, 2008), home telehealth for chronic conditions was found to be cost saving (Tran et al., 2008). While other reports did not showed good evidence about cost effectiveness viz., the cost effectiveness of telehomecare for older people and people suffering from chronic conditions is uncertain (Barlow et al., 2007), lack of consistent results regarding costs of synchronous telehealth in primary care is a limiting factor (Deshpande et al., 2008), little evidence is there for the economic viability respiratory monitoring at home (Jaana et al., 2009) and also cost effectiveness in diabetes care through the use of information technology is undetermined (Jackson et al., 2006).

 

Applications and validity of veterinary telemedicine:

Telemedicine is a technology that allows a veterinarian to digitalize radiographic, ultrasound and microscopic images and send them via fax or the internet to a veterinary specialist for interpretation providing service without leaving their veterinary dispensary/hospital. Veterinary cardiologists, radiologists, dentists, ophthalmologists, dermatologists, surgeons, and internal medicine specialists are now accessible by telemedicine. While tele-electrocardiography has been around since the 1980s, teleultrasonography, teleradiology and telecytology appears to be the most commonly practiced and viable forms of veterinary telemedicine (Papageorges and Hebert 2001; Papageorges and Tilley 2001; Papageorges et al., 2001; Hebert et al., 2001). Veterinary teleradiology was first commercially introduced in the early 1990s with limited success because of slow internet speeds and large file sizes but currently the practice of teleradiology in veterinary medicine is widespread due to the easy availability of high speed broadband internet connections, image compression softwares, economically priced Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Digital Imaging and Communications in medicine (DICOM) software (Poteet, 2008). Cysts, obstructions, congenital heart disease, heart murmurs and abscesses are list of conditions that can be diagnosed with ultrasound via telemedicine (Gater, 2008). Validity of remote consultation for treatment of canine separation anxiety using two types of behavioral services offered by Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (TCSVM) was compared: (a) “PetFax,” a distant conference service in which dog owners and a certified applied animal behaviorist correspond with each other via fax or email and (b) in person clinic talk, requiring owners to bring their dogs to the animal behavior clinic at TCSVM. Study stated that remote consultation was a valid way for behavioral professionals to instruct behavior modification advice to owners regarding canine separation anxiety (Cottam et al., 2008). In another study on prototype telemonitoring system that utilizes wearable technology, it has been reported that it provides continuous animal health data (Smith et al., 2006). A research “proactive herd health management for disease prevention” conducted by Kansas State University to develop the technological and sociological infrastructure to support intelligence, mobile medical monitoring devices which continuously assess the health of cattle in concentrated and distributed herds was proved to be effective. A light reflectance sensor connected to a pulse oximeter circuit to acquire red and infrared photo plethysmographic data from the ear of the cow is utilized (Patil, 2009). Obtaining heart rate by way of a single lead electrocardiographic hardware encased in a waterproofed polyvinylchloride pipe based bolus was used with a wearable cattle health monitoring system (Warren et al., 2008).

 

Advantages of telemedicine technology:

Telemedicine is advantageous to the patients, health care professionals, and society in many different ways. Telemedicine facilitate timely access to locally unavailable services enabling delivery of health care benefits to patients suffering from serious conditions or diseases (Matusitz and Breen, 2007; Matusitz and Breen, 2007). It speeds up the medical research and innovations by allowing health care professionals to share their findings from any location (Cermack, 2006; Pazmino et al., 2004). It spares burden and cost of unnecessary travel of the patients (Robinson et al., 2003) thus limiting patient exposure to infections by eliminating or limiting the need of visit to a hospital for health care services. To the society telemedicine benefits through critical care monitoring when it is not possible to transfer the animals and by providing veterinarian expertise to livestock at remote locations. Most importantly medical records are digitalized enabling universal and, permanent availability at any time of age allowing continuity in treatment and reducing the incidence of adverse events or medication errors (Leape and Berwick, 2005). Telemedicine allows local communication between scientists, researchers, field veterinarians and, private practioners allowing update with recent advancements in veterinary science at any time and learning vice-versa. Telemedicine could also be able to be used to overcome shortages of veterinarians in some areas, deliver education and facilitate research (Robinson et al., 2003). Mobile internet applications are also helpful in telemedicine and gaining popularity making it possible that minor health problems can be solved at a distance also. Many professional groups are created on social networking sites like facebook where veterinarians are sharing and discussing their technical knowledge adding some dimensions to primitive type of telemedicine.

 

Barriers to promotion of telemedicine in developing countries:

Large scale telemedicine systems, whether designed for human or animal monitoring environments, share implementation barriers such as cost effectiveness, interstate licensing, biocompatibility, ethical issues, market momentum, diagnostic feasibility, confidentiality, and usability (Boydell, 2000). In developing countries like India to facilitate access to many bandwidth intensive telemedicine applications, increased broadband connectivity is needed, particularly to rural and remote communities. Any technology in its primary stage needs care and support. Only the government has the resources and the power to help it survive and grow. While the internet is a marvelous medium for transmitting information between remote computers, it is notoriously susceptible to security problems hence the problems of keeping information transferred between computers away from unauthorized access must be solved. To assure the advancement of Information Technology (IT) in health care, it is necessary to have a knowledgeable staff that can support and manage purchasing and can assure that technical specifications are met. The responsibility of error occurs at any point during a health /application using telemedicine, should be made clear as multiple parties play a role in the transmission and execution of telemedicine. State level licensure laws meant for regulating interstate telemedicine practice are not uniform from state to state hence should be taken care off. In addition, there is a lack of confidence in patients or livestock owner about the outcome of e-medicine as no technological advancement can change anything, when a person does not wants to change. One psychological barrier is self consciousness of being on camera or on video may be of concern for some veterinarians, paraveterinarians and livestock owners demanding education about the nature and scope of telemedicine which would help change attitudes of persons.

 

Information and Communication Technologies for Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry–

ICT IN VETERINARY SCIENCES AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY-

 

Organized data into meaningful form within a specific time interval is termed as information and information is the basic need of every society. Communication is the exchange of thoughts, knowledge or information in the form of audio, video, signals, gestures, behaviour etc. Technology is the development, modification, usage and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, traits, systems, modules in order to solve problems related to any discipline. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Veterinary Scienceand Animal Husbandry refers to the application of information and communication technologies within the field of Veterinary Sciences. Mostly the number of changes that we see occurring in every sphere of life is the result of application of ICTand Animal Husbandry is not an exception. ICT in VeterinaryResearch, Development and Extension are becoming an indispensible part of our societyin Jammu and Kashmiras well. The ICT advances in last few years have created new opportunities and challenges for Veterinary professionals like Veterinary students, Veterinary technicians, Livestock farm managers, Livestock assistants and above all Livestock rearers. Veterinary Sciences and Animal husbandry occupies an important place in the economy of our state. The share of Veterinary and allied sectors in the Gross state domestic product for the year 2013-2014 (preliminary) stands at 38%on the other hand nearly 70% of the population in the state derives its livelihood directly or indirectly from the agriculture and animal husbandry sectors.

 

Livestock census actually covers the census of livestock, poultry, implements and machinery used for livestock rearing. It is the only source for providing various kind of detailed information for these groups. India has largest livestock numbers in the world. Sound and timely available database are the basic requirement for any planning and policymaking purposes. The conduct of livestock census is thus essential for making plans and policies for growth of livestock sector and also for overall growth of the economy. Livestock Census in our country started in the year1919 and since then the process has been continuing on five year basis. Large body of data generated as a result of census

needs to be tabulated analysed and interpreted. Use of ICT not only eases the mammoth exercise but helps in its better tabulation, analysis, interpretation and presentation. Teaching and Learning of Veterinary Sciences is greatly enhanced by use of ICT technology. With growing animal welfare concerns more of videos, animations and simulations are being used in teaching and learning process in place of animal experimentation. The ICT provides new pedagogical models for Veterinary professionals.Similarly Veterinary and Animal Science Research that is gaining importance day by day is greatly benefited through use of bioinformatics tools and statistical programs. Veterinary and Animal Husbandry extension system is playing an important role in disseminating technology to stakeholders of the State. ICT will strengthen our extension system manifold by use of various information technology(IT) tools in technology dissemination and empowering Veterinarians with the desired information. Their use with right perspective will provide information services to the Veterinarians timely, logistically and effectively. Shaiket al.(2004), Griffin et al.(2008) and Rajaet al. (2013) have worked on applications of ICT in Agriculture. The present paper discusses various techniques of information simulation and dissemination needed for livestock rearers of the Jammu and Kashmir for the upliftment of Veterinary and Animal husbandry sector.

 

Information Needed

The focus of ICT in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry is to meet the modern advances in research and extension technologies. A Veterinary practice at a Veterinary centre or a Veterinary clinic or an Animal hospital is in most cases a small business offering a range of services to clients and livestock owners. Many people are involved in delivering the service and ensuring that you as the client get the best care for your animal, in the most efficient manner. The delivering of services and efficiency is taken care by use of ICT. Information on cost, quality of treatment, availability of medicines and inputs like history of animals, species, breed, are required by veterinary professionals at various levels of practice. imilarly for more remunerative production of farms (dairy, sheep, goat, poultry etc.)accurate, reliable, timely and precise information should reach to the investors at proper time as and when required. The information needed by the investors in veterinary field can be broadly categorized into following.

• Input Procurement
• Package of practices · Disease forecasting and forewarning · Pre and Post harvestinformation · Past trends · Marketing Information · Farm Business and Management Information · Policy Decisions

 

Input Procurement

Information relating to availability of various inputs and their cost is the first priority.Livestock rearers frequently require the information regarding various inputs such as germplasm, feed, medicineetc in terms of cost, quality, availability and possible sources.

 

Business Project Planning

Proper planning of an enterprise goes a long way in running a successful enterprise. Entrepreneurs desirous of taking up livestock rearing require expert advice in drafting viable project proposals. Livestock business proposals tailored to specific conditions, specific areas and specific regions are required.

 

Package of Practices–

The area specific package of practices for various livestockspecies is pre-requisite.Preparation of package of practices its continuous updating with changing times and its timely dissemination among livestock rearers is essential. The package of practices includes breeding, feeding, housing and management practices.

 

 Disease forecasting and fore-warning–

Diseases take a heavy toll of livestock enterprise on account of morbidity and mortality. Availability of timely disease forecast can help farmer to take prophylactic measures well in advance and prevent losses.

Preservation and Value addition–

Livestock products being of perishable nature their preservation is very essential. Methods that enhance shelf life of various livestock products are required by the livestock owners. At the same time methods of value addition and product development are also required.

 

Past trends

 

Information on past trends regarding production, consumption ,utilization, environmental factors and climatic conditions are of immense use in decision making regarding rearing of livestock.

 

Marketing Information and Intelligence–

After the harvest, the most important query is about its marketing, so that the farmer may not fall prey to middle man and hoarders. At this very time, information related to processing and grading, any government interventions like support price, identified central markets and legal agencies involved is must which may help livestock rearers in making right decisions in selling their produce.

 

Policy Decisions

News about various Animal Husbandry events and decisions related to livestock and its products, labour laws, rural development programmes, government schemes etc are alsoimportant in decision making, All such information,must be available to the farmer to take right decision and get maximum returns. Many communication tools, Such as radio, television, mobile phones, video chatting etc. are used in information dissemination and making livestock rearers aware about government policies .

Programmes and support system.

The support of information technology requiredfor Veterinary Research of the State is as under:- · Database management system · Information Retrieval system · Decision Support System · Expert Support System · Trend Analysis and Forecasting · Electronic Network and Messaging System · Helpline. · Geographical Information System.

 

IT tools

 

A variety of IT tools are available for development and implementation of information technology and decision support systems. Recent development in Electronics and communication technology has made it possible to gather data, process, transmit and disseminate information in meaningful order with click of a button. This helps to analyse and interpret the data using sophisticated computational tools and techniques such as artificial intelligence,machine learning, image processing,pattern recognition, Probabilisticmodelling,large scale simulation, data mining,text mining and graph algorithms and decision support system.

 

Database System (DBS)

 

 

Database Management System or DBMS in short refers to the technology of storing and retrieving data with utmost efficiency along with security measures. Aim of building database is to convert traditional knowledge into electronic knowledge base, so that the data can be filtered along x and y axis which means rows and columns respectively.Huge and metadata is generated in Veterinary research related to animal breeding, genetic disorders and disease, their characters, and control.Database technologies play an important role in storing data in electronic form. Database

operations like Insert, Append, Updateand Delete are used to quickly manage data for addition, alteration and modification. Information from Database can be harnessed by Information Retrieval System, Expert System and Forecasting System, to produce information in desirable way. Database system is a group of hardware and software for addition, modification, compilation, processing and reporting of data.

 

Information Retrieval System

 

Store and retrieval of information in user friendly manner is ultimate objective of an information system.Such systems uses search engines, user friendly interfaceandother controls to mine the data from database and present the same in the form of reports, graphs, images, tables, etc. On the same line information retrieval system is developed to retrieve information as and when required.

 

Decision Support System

 

A veterinary meteorological decision-support system, VetMet developed by Danish Meteorological and Veterinary Research Institutes and authorities firstly implemented it at the Danish Meteorological Institute andit was used by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, which has the responsibility for prevention and control of animal diseases. By estimating the risk of atmospheric spread of airborne animal diseases, including first of all foot-and-mouth disease, VetMet improved the preparedness and the disease eradication. The Internetbased system is being used for decision support regarding establishment of surveillance and eradication zones. VetMet can describe both local spread of infectious airborne diseases between neighbouring farms and long-range dispersion, including disease spread to or from other countries.

 

Expert Support System–

An Expert system is a computer programmewith artificial intelligence, knowledge base andinference engine to solve problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solution. A knowledge base is the repository of facts and rules about the specific problem. An inference engine is the software for solving theparticular problem using the knowledge base. It is an efficient IT tool and is referred as a tool for Transfer of Technology (TOT) from scientist to farmer. This disables dilution of contents by reducing the number of agencies involved in technology transfer process. Such IT system can provide instant solution to problems faced by livestock rearers. Expert system can be developed to help and guidethe veterinarian under various situations such as feed and fodder, health check-ups, disease control and vaccine scheduling. It can also suggest control measures on the basis of symptoms.

 

Trend Analysis and Forecasting

 

Forecasting and trend analysis are purely statistical techniques. Study of statistical trends regarding live stock, weather data, utilization, consumption patterns, disease attacks, fertilization, etc. may be executed with IT tools. Trend analysis assists livestock rearers in decision making during entire process of livestock production and marketing. Graphical or pictorial trends may be generated using the database of specific parameters. Analysis of trends enables the forecasting and prediction inlive stock production system. For example, forecasting weather is a useful endeavour in deciding the various Livestock operations. IT has many tools to develop such forecasting system.

 

 Electronic Network and Messaging System

 

Internet has made the world ina global community and enables information transfer and exchange quickly. Ready available online modules are available to livestock rearersfor quick disposal of their problems. Websites can be developed to provide information to livestock rearers in their own regional languages. E-mails,Chatting and conferencing will help livestock rearers in getting discussions with experts and other livestock rearers to exchange views and information and find solutions to problems. Mobile phones are widely being used and have facilitated in addressing the day to day issues of the livestock rearers. Internet and its application are highly involved in planning, weather forecast, post-harvest management, marketing, disaster management, extension management and thus a very powerful source to disseminate knowledge to the livestock rearers. It provides a gamut of information through online sources of information regarding different crops and thus in turn will shape the future of veterinary and animal husbandry development in the State.

 

Kisan Call Centre

The Purpose of KisanCall Centre is to respond to issues raised by livestock rearesinstantly in the farm of local language. Queries related to Veterinary and allied sectors are being addressed through these centres. A Kisan Call Centre is a combination of ICT and agricultural technology. It uses a backend data support system, which is inbuilt in Management Information System (MIS). It consists of a complex telecommunication infrastructure, computer support and human resources organized to manage effectively and efficiently the queries raised by livestock rearers instantly in the local language. Mainly, Scientists, Experts and Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) using telephone and computer, interact with livestock rearers to understand the problem effectively and provide the solution directly. Kisan Call Centres are functional in areas like Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC),KrishiVigyan Kendra (KVK), Agricultural Consultation Cell(ACC),or any outsourced Wing, where separate facilities exist solely to answer inbound calls or make outbound telephone calls or to resolve the queries of pending calls of information needy livestock rearers. Usually it refers to a sophisticated voice operations centre that provides a full range of inbound or outbound call handling services including customer support, direct assistance, multi-lingual customer support and other services. This is important and vital existing extension mechanisms, which find it otherwise difficult to reach the livestock rearers quickly. This enables close and quick linkages and communication mechanism among the veterinary scientists, subject matter specialists, extension activists, communication centres, consultancy agencies, Livestock reares and other development departments involved in the process.

 

Geographical Information System

One of the key characteristics of Livestock is that it is a user of land and other natural resources, particularly water, fodder and pastures. Monitoring and policy evaluation in the key areas of land use and the environmental effects of livestock require information that is location specific. Advances in technology, particularly remote sensing using satellites, have made it technically feasible and increasingly cost effective to obtain and process geo-referenced data for policy analysis. A major application is the preparation of spatial inventories of land use. Through the use of geographical information systems (GIS) technology changes in land use patterns can be examined. Georeferenced data can also be an important management tool for livestock rearers in dealing with environmental issues.

 Reference-On Request