Effectiveness of Web Portals in Agriculture: A supply side approach

Abstract

Development of web based information dissemination services is one of the most common applications of Information Technology in the area of Agriculture. Pure information web portals and vortal with elementary transaction capabilities have mushroomed due to the easiness in their construction, hosting and management. However most of these websites, intending to minimise the information handicap that plague farmers and extension workers (especially in Less Developed Countries), are far from achieving this objective. User end factors like lack of internet penetration, poor communication infrastructure, low literacy levels etc. are cited as reasons for the lack lustre performance of these IT applications. It is ironical that not much attempts have been in taking care of these factors during the design of websites. In this paper we analyse the supply side effectiveness of popular websites in the area of Agriculture. Our detailed analysis of the technical features of these portals on their co...