Open Source Simple Computer for Agriculture in Rural Areas
(OSCAR)

Workshop - December 4, 2005

The fourth workshop was held at the Wheat Research Centre, Dinajpur, Bangladesh on the 4th December, 2005. The workshop would review the progress of work of all the partners, suggest improvements based on the feedback generated through the field trip and also would decide on the future tasks for the partners according to their responsibilities. A review of the progress of work of all partners was done. Dr. Rico LIE and Dr. Claude EDELIN made a presentation about their experiences of Pakistan field trip. They highlighted various issues regarding the software and its appropriateness to different target groups. They also emphasised that with for a proper and wholesome ICT approach for agriculture, OSCAR needs to be part of a suite of applications and cannot be deployed alone.

Various issues related to the software were discussed based on the feedback collected during the field trips held in the preceding days. The possibility of developing different versions for different target groups was discussed. As farmers would require a version of species description and control measures in local languages and not the other target groups it was decided that only the species description pages will be translated to local languages.

The issues relating to simputer was also discussed in detail.

1. On one hand, there is no standard development platform available for both the versions of simputer available in the market.
2. One uses free software for application development (GTK) while the other uses proprietary libraries for application development.
3. The limited availability of space in simputer is also a major handicap.
4. The pricing of simputer is also very high in a rural context. A simputer with a color screen will cost around Rs.24000/- (USD 500) whereas now one can buy a full fledged desktop computer for the same price. And compared to the tasks that a simputer and a PC can accomplish, simputer does not any more sound convincing except for its portability.
5. Obtaining support for a simputer will prove to be very difficult given our own experience with the vendors. Nor that it can be repaired with local expertise where as a desktop can be easily repaired locally. It reaffirms our belief that technical innovations cannot be thrusted from top without considering costs and local expertise.

Given all these restrictions, it was decided that the possibility of porting OSCAR as a web-based application shall be immediately explored. This would make OSCAR more visible and enable to reach to a much wider population and area.

OSCAR needs to find its space in a broad ICT perspective amidst the initiatives in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and this can only be through the implementing or facilitating agencies like NGO’s or state intervention. In this regard, it might be useful to negotiate with NGO’s who are already active in the IGP who can take forward and deploy OSCAR in the field areas extensively. Meetings with an NGO called Dipshika and Sustainable Development Network Bangladesh (SDNBD) was held. They were eager to cooperate with the OSCAR team and work towards mutually complimentary goals. For example, SDNBD is involved in the access to ICT aspects in Bangladesh and they are willing to deploy OSCAR as part of the applications that are currently being provided by them to the rural areas. Similar willingness among the NGO’s in IGP needs to be explored and followed up so as to make OSCAR sustain in a longer term.

Various deadlines for the immediate tasks were agreed by the partners namely, botanical aspects to be completed by CIRAD, weed control recommendations and translations to be completed by RWC and the porting of OSCAR by IFP by the end of March. This will give us enough time to revise the software according to the agreed specifications and release the final versions in time.