Knowledge Networking in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) for Women in Agriculture and Rural Development

Abstract

The importance of information and of technologies to transmit and disseminate information for development is well recognized. However, there has been little research done on women's information needs and access to appropriate information in developing countries. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are a diverse set of technological tools and resources to create, disseminate, store, bring value-addition and manage information. ICT does not include only the Internet but a gamut of other tools which could be used individually or in convergence with each other to catalyse the process of change in a manner which reduces the skew in knowledge distribution between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, rural and urban, and men and women. The convergence technologies include community radios, Internet radio, local area networks, tele-centres, information kiosks, mobile phones, WAP applications etc. They often enhance the reach and penetration of the ICT