Government schemes for Agricultural Extension and Technology

The key government schemes and initiatives for agricultural extension and promotion of science and technology in agriculture are as follows:

National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology

National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NIMAET) was launched by UPA government in 2014 with an objective to spread farm extension services and mechanization. The NDA Government has included lots of other activities for Agricultural Extension and Technology under this programme. This scheme has four sub-missions as under:

• Sub Mission on Agricultural Extension (SMAE)
• Sub-Mission on Seed and Planting Material (SMSP)
• Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM)
• Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPP)

The common thread that runs across all four sub-missions is extension and technology; the four sub-missions are proposed for administrative convenience. This scheme aims to bring maximum possible farmers within the ambit of cost effective and remunerative mechanized farming for improved productivity and sustainable farm growth in the country. It also covers seed production and plant protection along with strengthening regulatory framework for management of pesticides and plant quarantine.

Support to State Extension Programmes

There is a Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms scheme in which central government provides additional support to states for setting up the Farmer Advisory Committees (FACs) at block / district / state level and other activities such as educating and creating awareness amongst farmers including visits, trainings, demonstrations etc.

Mass Media Support

Government carries out mass media support including broadcast of focussed content on All India Radio, Doordarshan as well as Private Radio and TV Channels.

Agri-Clinic and Agri-Business Centres

Agri-Clinic and Agri-Business Centres scheme provides extension services to farmers through setting up of economically viable self-employment ventures. Selected trainees are provided agri-entrepreneurship training for a period of two months by MANAGE through identified nodal training institutions in various states, which also provide handholding support for one year. NABARD monitors the credit support to agri-clinics through commercial banks, provision of credit-linked back-ended subsidy at the rate of 36% (44% for SC, ST, Women and persons from North East).

National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture

This scheme aims to achieve rapid development of agriculture in India through the use of ICT for ensuring timely access to agriculture related information for the farmers of the country. Such information is intended to be provided to farmers through multiple delivery channels such as internet, government offices, touch screen kiosks, krishi vigyan kendra, kisan call centres, agri clinics, common service unstructured supplementary service data and voice recognition. Twelve services include information on pesticides, fertilizers and seeds, soil health; information on crops, farm machinery, training and good agricultural practices; weather advisories; information on prices, arrivals, procurement points and providing interaction platform; electronic certification for exports and import; information on marketing infrastructure; monitoring implementation/evaluation of schemes and programmes; information on fishery inputs; information on irrigation infrastructure; drought relief and management, livestock management.

Kisan Call Centres (KCC)

The scheme of Kisan Call Centres was started in 2004 with basic objective to provide information to farming community through toll free telephone number (1800 180 1551) on all seven days a week from 06.00 AM to 10.00 PM. Under the current government, the scheme has been revamped and restructured to set up state of the art KCCs at select location. The revamped KCCs are more professional and equipped with voice/media gateways, dedicated leased line broadband, call barging etc.

Farmers’ Portal

Government of India has launched Farmers Portal as one stop solution for all the farmers for accessing information on agricultural activities. It provides information about package of practices; crop and seed varieties; common pests; dealer network for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides; machinery and tools; agro-met advisories etc.

MKisan Application

This app and portal has been designed and developed by inhouse IT team of DAC with the help of C-DAC Pune under project mKisan. It brings together SMS (both Push and Pull), interactive voice response system, unstructured supplementary services of DATA or USSD (which is essentially Interactive SMS and can facilitate data entry and query on Web Portals without internet), mobile apps and services. It enables farmers and all other stakeholders to obtain advisories and information being sent by experts and government officials at different levels through mkisan portal without registering on the portal.

Bhuvan Hailstorm App

This app collects data about hailstorms in real time along with photographs and geographical coordinates.

DD Kisan Channel

‘DD Kisan’, India’s first television channel dedicated to farmers was launched in May 2015. This 24×7 channel disseminates real-time inputs to farmers on new farming techniques, water conservation and organic farming. It also shares best farm practices in different parts of the country, quiz shows for farmers, a bottoms-up approach involving agriculturists. Prior to launching this channel, Prasar Bharati was running ‘Krishi Darshan’ programme on DD1 for farmers. It was one of the longest running programmes on DD and was launched on January 26, 1967.

Crop Insurance App and Agri-Market App

These two apps were launched by the Government in December 2015 to provide all relevant information to farmers and other stake holders in real time to create conducive environment for raising farm productivity and income to global levels.

Crop Insurance mobile app

It will help farmers find out complete details about insurance cover available in their area. It will also help farmers to calculate the insurance premium for notified crops, coverage amount and loan amount. Farmers can use this app to get details and information about normal sum insured, premium details, extended sum insured and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area.

AgriMarket Mobile app

It can be used by farmers to get the market prices of crops in the mandi within 50 km radius of the device. It can automatically tracks the location of person using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in those markets.

e-Krishi Samvad

e-Krishi Samvad is a website that provides direct and effective solutions to the problems faced by farmers and stakeholders in the agriculture sector.