Kisan Sampark Abhiyan: 1.10 lakh farmers attend orientation programmes in 1097 Panchayats

SRINAGAR, May 18: The ambitious “KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN” has received an overwhelming participation of a total of 1.10 lakh farmers in its massive orientation programmes held during first four rounds of the programme which began on 24th April, this year.

The fourth round which was held from 15th May to 17th May saw massive participation of farmers with coverage of a total of 1097 panchayats during all four rounds conducted till 17th May.

Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, himself participated in the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan and visited Dooru Panchayat in Anantnag district and Hardpanzoo panchayat in Budgam on 15th and 16th May respectively. An overwhelming participation of farmers in both the panchayats bears a testimony to the fact that farmers are enthusiastic about the newly launched Holistic Agriculture Development Programme.

Lieutenant Governor asked the educated youth to take advantage of the schemes under Holistic Aagriculture Development Plan (HADP) as it was a unique and first of its kind initiative in the country, whereby interventions in all the domains of agriculture and allied sectors are available. He expressed confidence that, with implementation of HADP within next five years, J&K shall have the distinction of being first to double farm incomes besides having a double-digit growth in the agriculture sector.

The Agriculture Production Department is currently engaged in a first of its kind, ground breaking, extensive farmer orientation exercise. Under the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan, ambitious goals have been set for reaching out to every farmer in each Panchayat of the UT within the next four months. The exercise started on April 24 and will last until August 31, 2023 and has been planned under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP), a turnaround programme which has been approved in Agriculture sector by the UT government recently.

All districts in the UT are observing a series of orientation programmes under Kisan Sampark Abhiyan simaltaneously during the first three days of the week. The government has released a thorough calendar that is specific to each district. Officers and Officials from the Agriculture, Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture, and Fisheries departments who were trained in advance during the 641 training sessions, held throughout all districts from January to April, are acting as the resource persons for the farmer’s orientations.

Notably, a creative method is being implemented to use short films/videos to describe various initiatives and projects. The farmers will be shown a total of 49 short films/videos about HADP and other centrally supported programmes at various locations in J&K. In addition, a question and answer session was also being held following each video screening session to allay farmers’ concerns.

Additionally, pamphlets and brochures detailing all of the programmes are being given to the farmers in Hindi, Urdu, and English. These brochures also included contact information for every department under the UT’s agriculture production department.

A Baseline survey/skill gap study of the farmers is also being carried out simultaneously during the Kisan Sampark abhiyan. The data of farmers is being captured using IT tools for having a holistic assessment of the state of agriculture and farmers in the UT.

The farmers were also made aware of the DAKSH KISAN, a Learning Management System (LMS) designed to help them increase their skills.

Pertinently, the Agriculture Production Department has created DAKSH KISAN, a first of its kind learning management system exclusively for  farmers in the country, where farmers can enrol for free in 121 skill-building courses, organised according to the agro-climatic zones of the J&K UT. A farmer can register for free and enrol in any skilling course of their choice at the DAKSH KISAN Portal by simply scanning the QR code on the back of the brochure. A total of 1600 farmers have already been registered on DAKSH KISAN PORTAL with enrolment of about 400 in various skilling courses.

The textual material under DAKSH KISAN portal is being provided in Hindi, Urdu and English, and the video lectures offered by the LMS are available in Kashmiri, Urdu, Dogri, and Hindi. In addition, specialised modules on business management and financial /credit linkages have been included to make sure that the farmers receive more than just simple training, the courses have been designed to turn farmers into skilled entrepreneurs. The farmers who successfully complete the skilling course under DAKSH KISAN will receive certificates from SKUAST-J/K.

Through the use of KISAN SATHI, an IT Dashboard created for the schemes, the farmers were also being informed about the method of application under these programmes. The farmer can quickly register on the KISAN SATHI Portal and apply for any of the schemes without visiting the office by just scanning the QR codes on the pamphlets. More than 1100 application have also been received on the KISAN SATHI PORTAL from farmers across the UT under various schemes, which are under various stages of processing.