DHAKA, June 11: The government has taken a plan to set up 87,362 Agricultural Information and Communication Centres (AICCs) in villages of the country by 2021 as part of building a 'Digital Bangladesh'.

A source in the agriculture ministry said 150 AICCs would be established by the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal year.

To this end, a 18.50 crore project titled 'Promotion of Digital Krishi Information and Livelihood Improvement through
Establishment of Agricultural Information and Communication Centres'has already been approved.

The Agriculture Information Services (AIS) under the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) will implement the
project with financial support from Danish international Development Agency (DANIDA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Talking to BSS, AIS director Nazrul Islam said the main objective of the project is to help farmers get information on
disaster in advance so that they can take necessary measures regarding production of crop.

Highlighting salient features of the project, he said dissemination of farm related information using media and
condition of warehouse and e-agriculture for farmers' access to IT facilities are among them.

The AIS is now imparting training to farmers on operating computer, internet browsing, use of e-mail, downloading
information and operating multimedia, digital camera, DVD or VCD, according to the DAE official.

Various equipment like computer, UPS, speaker and other computer related equipment like web cam, printer, internet
connection, TV-card, radio, audio-cassette player, mobile phone, computer table, chair and various publications including 'krishi- khata', krishi dairy, shamprasaran-barta, poster, leaflet and folder would be supplied to the centres, said the sources.