Remote Diagnosis

April 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is setting up an internet kiosk network in agrarian areas to help farmers identify crop diseases and find quicker remedies government officials said. "Farmers can go to a cyber unit with a disease affected leaf and show it to an officer there who will in turn take a digital image of the leaf and e-mail it to officers of the Department of Agriculture," said Director Projects of the Ministry of Agriculture, L.K. Hathurusinghe said.

"They will use the image to identify the disease and find possible remedies." id.

Officials hope these units set up at rural agricultural information centres will help farmers find instant solutions to field level problems such as pests and diseases.

According to the agriculture ministry, 46 such units have already been established and more will be set up in all agrarian development centres island wide.

The units are equipped with computers, internet access, digital cameras, and scanners and would enable web conferencing among farmers and an agriculture research station.

"The cyber unit project is still in an experimental stage and we hope that it will provide an efficient service for far