Farmers going on-line

The State Government has launched the $100,000 Smart Country program to encourage farmers to increase their Internet awareness.

Smart Country will expose more than 1000 primary producers to this growing source of information, communication and business.

The Minister for Information Technology and Multimedia, Alan Stockdale said the level of Internet usage among farmers was relatively low compared with many other business sectors, but that farmers had much to gain from the medium given the global nature of farming and trading.

Smart Country will be provided through 10 branch offices of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment over the next 12 months — Ballarat, Casterton, Hamilton, Colac, Geelong, Camperdown, Bendigo, Ararat, Warrnambool and Creswick.

The Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary, Robert Clark MLA, officially launched Smart Country at the Ballarat Demonstration Farm at Bullarook.

The Internet can help farmers make better use of their time by taking care of necessities such as banking, purchasing and accessing information outside of normal hours.

Smart Country will include facilities for farmers to network online and will provide a calendar of events for farm operators and workers.

It will even offer some opportunities for farmers to be visited on their property for lessons with laptop computers.

Skills.net has already helped more than 14,000 people learn about the information age through more than 350 Skills.net centres across the State.

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Information Technology and Multimedia, March 19, 1999)