• Establish a three way connectivity between Manchal Watershed, MANAGE and DPAP office.

• Enable efficient communication of report viz. Watershed committee reports and PIA reports, required by DPAP from MANAGE and Manchal Watershed, using dial-up network connectivity.

• Empowers farmers working in watershed management(Watershed Committee members) in collecting farmers' data, preparing action plan and generating monthly/quarterly reports.

• Implement and electronic mail system from Manchal to MANAGE/DPAP for solving problems at the field level or for any advice required by the farmers.

• Implement on-line textual conferencing between farmers of Manchal with MANAGE NRM staff to discuss issues and problems.

• Add value-added services to the village computer service through Internet.

Activities

Software has been developed in visual basic using Access database for automating the reporting system. The software captures the work / head wise expenditure details, which are basic input information, required to generate the monthly and quarterly reports. It helps capture structure-wise estimations, user group contributions and master database of private land, horticulture details of farmers. It also captures the PIA expenditure details. The software produces monthly / quarterly progress reports, structure-wise expenditure, cash book, ledger and proposals of private land and horticulture etc.

The Sarpanch and the Gram Panchayat committee has agreed to give one room in the Gram Panchayat Bhavan at Arutla Village for installing the systems.

A Pentium III computer, and a printer have been installed in the village booth along with a TV with converters which converts the computer screen on to the TV for displaying in formation available on CDs.

Dial-up modem technology has been used to implement this project. Using dial-up network connectivity all three places are interconnected using file transfer terminal software. This software enables in sending or receiving the files by establishing point-to-point connectivity with remote computers.

The software also provides an on-line textual chatting facility to communicate or discuss any issues on-line. E-mail connectivity is provided to send or receive mails from the village booth. Internet facility is also provided at the village.

Four women have been selected from the village and have been trained to operate the computers and watershed management software and to send and receive the reports to and from DPAP office. One person from each watershed has been giving orientation training on computers. They have also undergone training for send e-mails and browsing the internet.

The trained women are operating computers in the village booth during the morning shift from 9 am. To 2 pm. They are interacting with farmers and helping then get information from the internet, and displaying information on CDs through television. They will soon be imparting training to schoolchildren during the summer vacations.

The trained watershed secretaries(farmers) are performing the job of preparing reports, action plans and budget estimates on computers for different water harvesting structures. These reports will be sent through dial-up modem facility to DPAP office and MANAGE every month. The DPAP and MANAGE are also interacting with Manchal watershed through computer network to send any information.

Cyber power in watershed management has brought transparency to watershed activities. The direct involvement of farmers in preparing budget estimates and reports has given then strength which has resulted in smooth implementation of watersheds in the village. The village booth is also enabling the farmers to obtain information from the net. Computer literacy among farmers is increasing and farmers are demanding useful crop based information. Farmer based sites on the Net are increasing day by day and these will provide the need-based information to farmers soon, right at their doorstep.