Empowering Tree Growers: IFGTB’s Digital Leap in Farmer Advisory and Outreach with Kultivate Inai

The Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) has initiated a significant digital transformation effort by deploying the IFGTB Treegenie platform, a solution delivered by Kultivate. Positioned as a Beneficiary Driven Digital Platform, IFGTB Treegenie aims to streamline advisory services, improve information flow, and connect the wide-ranging stakeholders within the tree growers ecosystem.

A Unified Platform for the Tree Growers Ecosystem

The Kultivate solution is built to integrate all stakeholders involved in farm forestry, including Tree Growers, Industry, Research Institutions, QPM/Nursery, and State Forest Department. The overall goal is to establish a Simple and Single Multilingual Platform for all stakeholders.

The platform’s objectives are manifold, focusing on the seamless exchange of critical knowledge:

• Facilitate seamless flow of information by gathering and organizing relevant data.

• Communicate Agro Forestry government schemes and market information.

• Enable the industry to provide a Package of Practices for growers.

• Provide links to other relevant websites and online resources.

  
  

Kultivate’s Treegenie Solution: Collaboration, Accessibility, and Scalability

The Kultivate solution is a cloud application designed to enhance collaboration, accessibility & scalability. It comprises three interconnected digital components:

1. IFGTB Treegenie Website: This functions primarily as a landing page to share information with stakeholders.

2. Treegenie Mobile App: This is the core interface used by tree growers, nurseries, industries, state forest departments, and research institutions. Tree growers are empowered to self-register onto the app.

3. Treegenie Portal: This is an internal tool for IFGTB officials, enabling them to update content, manage users, answer queries, and view a map showing farmer distribution.

Driving Farmer Advisory through Digital Features

The Treegenie Mobile App provides several crucial features that form the backbone of IFGTB’s outreach and advisory strategy:

1. Detailed Farmer Registration

Upon self-registration, the app captures extensive farmer details necessary for tailored advisory:

• Basic contact information and location, including the ability to confirm land location using a Geo Fence feature which calculates the area.

• Land details, including owned or leased status.

• Information on the crop/clone type and its crop age.

• Water source details, including whether the source (Open Well, Bore Well, Canal, Others) provides Good or Salt water.

  
  

2. Expert Interaction and Knowledge Base

The platform facilitates interaction and knowledge dissemination through structured tools:

• Ask Expert: This is a vital query system to interact with experts. Growers can input their question, specify the crop/area/age related to the query, and add images for visual clarification. Users can also view the answers to their previously submitted questions.

• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): This section addresses common issues across categories such as Land Suitability, Quality Planting Material, Package of Practices, Inter Cropping, Crop Protection, and Training / Awareness Programs. Queries address specific concerns, such as "What are the trees suitable for rainfed land?".

  
  

3. Package of Practices and Specific Advisory

The mobile application offers comprehensive advisory content. For instance, detailed information is available for crops like Teak, covering its distribution, habitat, uses, and botanical description.

Crucially, the app details the institute's advanced research: for Teak, it explains how IFGTB has developed micropropagation protocols for plantlet production from apical buds and nodal segments of seedling explants to produce true-to-type, identified clonal material.

4. Practical Tools: The Yield Calculator

A key utility for growers is the IFGTB Yield Calculator, which supports both plantation and individual tree calculations. Users can select a crop (e.g., Casuarina or Teak) and input metrics (like crop age and area, or tree girth) to receive an Estimated Yield value (e.g., 4 tonnes per 100 trees for Casuarina, or 18 Cu. Feet for Teak), always presented with a potential yield range (e.g., +/- 10%).

5. Targeted Outreach and Notifications

For effective communication, the Treegenie portal allows officials to send targeted notifications. Messages can be filtered by specific stakeholders (e.g., Farmer) and crops (e.g., Casuarina Hybrids - CH 2) to alert users about relevant programs, such as a Pest Control training.

Conclusion

By integrating advisory services, research dissemination, yield calculation, and direct expert access into a single cloud application, the IFGTB Treegenie Mobile App represents a powerful digital instrument in the hands of tree growers and associated stakeholders. This collaboration, implemented by Kultivate, ensures that essential knowledge and government schemes are easily accessible, fostering a robust and connected environment for farm forestry.