Web-based 'discussion-support' agricultural climate information for regional India

Abstract

An innovative approach to aiding farmer decisions that involve seasonal climate risk has been trialed with farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India. A key concept has been to copy concepts of 'discussion-support' approaches, rather than only relying on computerized decision-support approaches. Use of 2d Life/eLearning distance education methods have been trialed with these farmers and advisers with some success. However, it is suggested that vital aspects not necessarily related to core climate and crop science issues, such as farmers' dress and informal interactions within a discussion environment must be appropriately captured in any synthetic video discussion-support if this approach is to gain widespread uptake.