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Agriculture no doubt plays a dominant role in the country’s economy. It generates about 26 per cent of the GDP and 15 per cent of exports in the country. Still the challenges before it are immense. The agriculture scenario is on the threshold of a second revolution. It is now clear that the information and technology with the other traditional inputs and interventions. Creation of Kissan Call Centers(KCC) would help achieve the target through out the country has special significance in this context. The real challenge before the policy makers is to overcome the information asymmetry between farmer and farmer, village and village, region and region and the country as a whole versus other countries. At KCC, the agriculture graduates are responding to the queries made by the farmers in their regional dialects. This unique system has now spread its wings to every nook and corner of the country to answer the farmers in distress at any point of time.
Acoording to the Mission Statement "these centers have been created to harness the state-of-art knowledge in the field of agriculture and related areas for dissemination, to solve everyday problems at the grassroot level and that too in farmer’s own language". They are primarily I.T. enabled dynamic encyclopedias for use by farmers, agriculture extension workers, agri-input dealers and other stakeholders in agriculture. A sound database, which compiles and collates the actual needs of farmers in an intelligent format, should be created for use by policy makers, researchers, trade and industry. This system would give an opportunity to the scholars and agriculture scientists to play a dynamic role in the transformation of Indian agriculture. With a wide network of relationship among the scientists, policy makers, extension workers, farming community and other stake holders, it would enrich the body of knowledge in agriculture related fields.
Altogether 12 Kisan Call Centres have been set up in the country and all these centres cater to one or more than one State. The centres are located at Mumbai (covering Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Daman and Diu), Kanpur (covering Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal), Kochi (coverning Kerala and Lakshadweep), Bangalore (for Karnataka), Chennai (for Tamil Nadu, and Andaman/Nicobar), Hyderabad (for Andhra Pradesh), Chandigarh (covering Chandigarh, J & K, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab), Jaipur (for Rajashtan), Indore (for Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh), Kolkata (covering West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and N.E. States) and Delhi (for Delhi and Haryana).
The revolutionary development in the telecom sector has inspired the policy makers to think of such interactive system where the farmers will have their solution on demand. The idea was converted into reality with the setting up of call centers through out the country. The entire operation started from January 21 this year. The entire country is now covered by the KCC network and that too in all principal languages. These KCCs enable the farmers to get expert advice through a toll free number 1551. The farmer reaches an agriculture graduate by dialing the number to get solution of his problem. If the respondent fails to satisfy the farmer the call is immediately transferred to an expert sitting in a specific institution and a master in a specific subject for giving advice. In case the farmer is not fully satisfied his problems are recorded for further advice through post or by visit of extension workers. For West Bengal five such institutions for expert advice have been identified. These are West Bengal Directorate of Agriculture, University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibre, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya and Uttarbanga Krishi Viswabidyalaya. The service is available for 24 hours a day. During the office hours there would be immediate response, beyond office hours call would be recorded and the queries would be answered through post.
It is expected that the farmers would avail themselves of this unique benefit to solve their day-to-day problems in agriculture. It is hoped to go a long way in transforming the agriculture economy of the country.
*Information Assistant, PIB, Kolkata
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