Unabated response from farmers, 1.78 lakh farmers attend orientations till date

Baseline survey analytics being developed for prospective planning in J&Ks’ agriculture sector

SRINAGAR, JUNE 01: The participation of farmers is continuing unabated in the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan with a total of 1.78 lakh farmers participating in first six rounds of the orientations being held under the ambitious programme which began on 24th April.

The sixth round was held from 29thMay to 31st May which saw overwhelming participation of farmers. The programme has covered a total of 1626 panchayats in these six rounds conducted, so far.

Pertinently, 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 under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP), will last until August 31, 2023.

Simultaneously, a baseline survey/skill gap study of farmers in the UT is also being carried out during the abhiyan. Specially trained Resource persons are capturing the data of farmers and till date the data of around 1.67 lakh farmers has been captured using the IT tools. Besides, analytics of baseline survey data are being developed for prospective planning in agriculture sector of the UT. Such an exercise is expected to have long term gains as it is for the first time that real time data is being used to assess problems in agriculture sector, major areas of concern and inherently strong areas which then subsequently shall help the policy makers to devise commensurate interventions.

All districts in the UT are holding the Kisan Sampark abhiyan 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 Agriculture, Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture and Fisheries Departments who were trained in advance during the 641 training sessions that were held throughout all districts from January to April are acting as the resource persons for the farmer’s orientations.

A creative method has been 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 held following each video screening session to allay farmers’ concerns.

Additionally, pamphlets and brochures detailing all of the programmes are 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.

During the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan, the farmers are also being made aware of DAKSH KISAN, a Learning Management System (LMS) designed to help them increase their skills. The Agriculture Production Department has created DAKSH KISAN, a first of its kind learning management system exclusively for farmers, where they 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. More than 21200 farmers have already been registered on DAKSH KISAN PORTAL and 6000 farmers have already enrolled in various skilling courses of their choice.

The textual material under DAKSH KISAN portal is 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. Farmers who successfully complete the skilling course under DAKSH KISAN will receive certificates from SKUAST-J/K.

Through use of KISAN SATHI- the IT Dashboard created for the schemes, farmers were also 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 offices by just scanning the QR codes on the pamphlets. More than 3165 farmers have registered on the portal and 1020 applications have also been received on the KISAN SATHI PORTAL from farmers across the UT under various schemes, which are under various stages of processing.