We had the pleasure of participating in the 3rd Joint National Conference on Information Technology in Agriculture at the University of Ruhuna, Mapalana Campus, on the 29th of December 2011. Papers were presented by scholars in ICT (primarily from U of Moratuwa) addressing agriculture problems and by scholars in agriculture (primarily from U of Ruhuna) that had ICT either as the instrument (e.g., sensing technologies) or as object of study (e.g.
LIRNEasia lead economist Harsha de Silva presented a paper on “ICT Policy for Agriculture in Sri Lanka: An Economic Perspective” at the first ever information technology in agriculture conference jointly organized by the IT Department of the University of Moratuwa and the Agriculture Department of the University of Ruhuna. Harsha argued for mobile-centric, demand-driven, value-chain based, accurate and timely two-way information exchange systems that could lower transaction costs leading to increased efficiencies in agricultural markets to move farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture. His slides are here. LIRNEasia lead economist Harsha de Silva presented a paper on “ICT Policy for Agriculture in Sri Lanka: An Economic Perspective” at the first ever information technology in agriculture conference jointly organized by the IT Department of the University of Moratuwa and the Agriculture Department of the University of Ruhuna. Harsha argued for mobile-centric, demand-driven, value-chain based, accurate and timely two-way information exchange systems that could lower transaction costs leading to increased efficiencies in agricultural markets to move farmers from subsistence to commercial agriculture.