Monday, September 13, 2010

3 lakh farmers got solutions from Kisan Call Centre

Maximum calls from Shivpuri and Shajapur, Tribal-dominated districts also took interest, Senior technical specialists help daily for 12 hours

Bhopal, September 11, 2010 (Ataullah Faizan): The state-level Kisan Call Centre set up in Madhya Pradesh is first of its kind in the country and has completed two years of its existence successfully. During the last two years 3 lakh 18 thousand 106 farmers got solutions for their problems through this call centre. Their main questions pertained to agriculture and horticulture. Maximum questions were received from Shivpuri and Shajapur districts. Farmers from tribal-dominated districts – Betul, Anuppur, Singrauli and Shahdol also took great interest in the call centre to get their doubts cleared.

While dividing the questions into categories, it was found that maximum number of calls – 1 lakh 73 thousand 274 was about problems of agriculture crops. Likewise, 93,299 questions were about horticulture and 12802 were about veterinary related. The call centre received 37 thousand 731 questions about other subjects also. Farmers of Shivpuri and Shajapur showed more awareness comparing to other districts. Farmers of Shivpuri asked 25 thousand 168 questions about agriculture, 11 thousand 869 questions about horticulture, 2607 and 5860 questions pertained to other subjects. The farmers of Shajapur asked 17 thousand 162 questions about agriculture, 12 thousand 900 questions about horticulture, 1448 questions about veterinary-related problems, and 3008 questions about other subjects. Even though phone facility is less in tribal-dominated districts, several farmers from far-flung villages are interested in the Call Centre to get their problems solved. From the questions of the farmers it has come to surface that the farmers are interested in other subjects also along with agriculture and horticulture.

The Kisan Call Centre is set up by the Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Department of the State Government. This Call Centre was set up at the initiative of the Chief Minister Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Due to the efforts of the Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Minister Dr. Ramkrishna Kusmaria the Centre received wide publicity. This was started two years ago. During these two years the farmers from all 50 districts of the state asked questions about their problems related to agriculture, horticulture etc through toll-free number to the specialists available in the call centre. The specialists cleared their doubts without delay. 15 subject specialists each were available in the call centre in two shifts to provide solutions to the questions of the farmers.

The Kisan Call Centre is being jointly run under National Agriculture Development Project in private-public partnership. Indian Society of Agriculture Professionals (ISAP) is sponsoring this call centre. Young agriculture scientist Dr. Suresh Motwani is the coordinator of the Centre. It is said that the Centre is proving a strong step towards agriculture development through solving problems of the farmers.

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