Daksh Kisan, Kisan Sathi becomes major attraction for farmers

SRINAGAR: With just seven rounds completed, Kisan Sampark Abhiyan has reached out to more than 2 lakh farmers of Jammu and Kashmir. The programme, which still has 12 more rounds to go till 31st August 2023, has sprung surprising number of famers who are converging at the venues to listen and watch to what is going to be most pragmatic programme ever envisaged in agriculture and allied sectors not only the UT but in whole of the country.
A turning point in the history of agriculture sector is being witnessed in the UT of J&K through two major initiatives, DAKSH KISAN and KISAN SATHI. DAKSH KISAN is a first of its kind online hybrid skilling programme designed exclusively for farming community. Over 27000 farmers have been registered under DAKSH KISAN PORTAL till now and around 8000 farmers have been enrolled in skilling course of their choice. To add to this, around 2000 farmers have already progressed to advance level of completion of the online skilling course.
DAKSH KISAN is a Learning Management System (LMS) for skill development of the farmers. A first of its kind in the country, DAKSH KISAN, has been developed by Agriculture Production Department, where 121 skilling courses as per the agro-climatic zones of the J&K UT are available for free to the farmers. A simple scan of the QR code at the back of pamphlet provided to farmers during Kisan Sampark abhiyan takes the farmer to DAKSH KISAN Portal where he can register for free and undertake any skilling course of his/her liking.
The video lectures under the LMS are available in Kashmiri, Urdu, Dogri and Hindi and textual material is available in Hindi Urdu and English. Besides, specialised modules on business development and financial management have also been included to ensure that the farmers are not merely trained but become a skilful entrepreneur. After completion of online courses, the farmers shall be sent for 5-7 days to Krishi Vigyan Kendras in their respective districts for practical hands-on training in their chosen skilling course. On successful completion of the skilling course, the farmers shall be provided Certificates by SKUAST J/K.
Farmers have particularly shown great enthusiasm in KISAN SATHI- the IT Dashboard of the schemes under HADP, developed by APD. A simple scan of the QR codes on the pamphlets provided to farmers during the kisan Sampark abhiyan takes the farmer to the KISAN SATHI Portal where he can register easily and there is no need for visiting any office for applying under any of the schemes. A total of 5735farmers have registered themselves under the KISAN SATHI PORTAL and more than 3000 online applications have been received till date from farmers under various schemes, of which, 11 applications already stand approved and rest are at various stages of processing.
A baseline survey/skill gap study of farmers is also being carried out simultaneously during the Kisan Sampark abhiyan. The data of around 1.92 lakh farmers has been captured till date using IT tools. Baseline analytical tools are being deployed using AI to ascertain the state of agriculture in the UT, which shall be of immense help to planners to devise suitable interventions for having a holistic development of Agriculture and farmers in the UT.
All this has been made possible due to massive outreach of the Kisan Sampark abhiyan which was launched on 24th April 2023. A total of 1873 panchayats across all districts of the Union Territory have been covered till date under the abhiyan.
The Orientation programme is being organised simultaneously across all the districts of the UT. The programme has been designed to be conducted on first three days of every week. An exhaustive District specific Calendar has been issued by the Government. The Resource persons for the orientations are Officers and Officials drawn from the Agriculture, Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture and Fisheries Departments, who were trained beforehand during the 641 training sessions which were held across all districts during the months of January to April. An innovative tool of describing the different schemes/programmes using short films has been put in place. A total of 49 videos of schemes under HADP and other Centrally Sponsored Schemes will be shown to the farmers across the venues in J&K.
Using audio visual aids in describing the schemes had a lasting and much more engaging, engrossing effect on the farmers. Besides, question answer session after each screening session of videos are being held to clear the doubt of farmers. The farmers are also being provided with pamphlets of all the schemes in the three languages (Hindi, Urdu and English) in the shape of a booklet, which also contains the information about the contact details of all the departments under the agriculture production department of the UT.

KR Desk