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Infocentros, a key factor for the deployment of e-agriculture in Ecuador

Abstract:

Agriculture is one of the oldest productive activities of humanity and it is also essential for the sustenance and development of life as we know. Agricultural activity has undergone several changes throughout history, starting as a primitive process at an early stage, going through traditional agriculture and reaching what is called modern agriculture. As for the last one, and specifically when it makes use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), some characteristics have been identified by means of a literature review in the projects deployed worldwide that allow us to propose a way to classify them into four categories: Projects for education and dissemination of information, for environmental care, for online trading, and for the increasement of production and adding value. It should be noted that almost any project involving agriculture and ICT has a comprehensive approach, but they usually focus on one of the categories previously mentioned. Since one of the goals of this paper is to show the advantages that Infocentros can bring to the agricultural activity in Ecuador in order to become a tool for the deployment of e-agriculture (a concept that involves ICT with the agricultural activity), it is interesting to note that after analyzing official statistics, we have found that the usage and access of Ecuadorian rural population to ICT has increased in recent years, as well as the infrastructure supporting such technology. It has been also identified that Infocentros are the most common place for Internet access in those areas. These facts support the idea that nowadays Infocentros could become a key factor in the deployment of e-agriculture in Ecuador.