UN Agriculture Loan Programme Helps Connect Indian Villages To Modern Technology
New York, May 12 2005 11:00AM
The President of the United Nations agricultural loan fund, Lennart Båge, inaugurates the hub of a knowledge centre
today in Chennai that connects 10 southern Indian villages to telephones, computer, radio and community newspapers.
Mr. Båge, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), was also scheduled to launch a community
radio station in Pillayarkuppam in Pondicherry.
Mr. Båge was then to visit tsunami-affected areas in the area, where a local foundation and foreign donors have been
upgrading communications since 1998, it said.
The new media would carry information on agriculture, health care, employment opportunities, marketing techniques and
new government schemes in local languages, but the centre would also offer English language courses and computer science
training for children and youngsters, IFAD said.
As the project got underway, the villages got loudspeakers which broadcast weather forecasts. During the tsunami of last
December, such broadcasts warned fishing communities about the hazardous ocean and saved lives, IFAD said.
ENDS