Digital Knowledge Centers Launched for Farmers in India

The Digital India dream will only be realized if the government carries out proper requirement analysis, cost-benefit analysis, return-on-investment (RoI) analysis, and impact analysis for each technology-based project. The findings of these analyses should be made public.

Plus, the government procedures should immediately be changed to eliminate the need of physical interaction between citizens and government officials for various citizen services because physical meetings lead to corruption. Let everything happen online, and it is possible.

~ Rakesh Raman

India’s Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh launched Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) portal Friday in New Delhi.

The Minister said that there are 645 Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s (KVKs) in the country. These centres are established in the Rural Districts. Each KVK has direct interface with at least 1000 farmers.

[ मेरा देश बदल रहा है…आगे बढ़ रहा है। लेकिन कैसे? ]

As the information related to KVK was not available at one place at the National Level, the farmers and other stakeholders had difficulty in accessing the information.

Moreover, there was no online monitoring system at the National level to review and monitor the functioning of KVKs against the mandates and objectives.

This portal will provide a platform to provide the information and advisory to the farmers and facilitate online monitoring of the KVK activities.

All such knowledge-based initiatives will fail to deliver results if the education framework is not reformed in India.

[ Education Policy of India: Why Do You Send Your Child to School? ]

Features of the Portal:

• The portal provides provisions for online monitoring of KVKs which will include reporting of major events on regular basis and submission of monthly reports online.
• The portal will also provide information on different services being provided by different KVKs.
• Weather and Market related informations can also be accessed by the farmers and others.
• The forthcoming programmes will also be available on the website which will benefit farmers and youth in joining different training programmes being organized by KVKs.
• Question and answer facility will also be available for the farmers.
• Agriculture related information of the districts will also be available on the portal.
• The farmers and the Agricultural Officers may register themselves and seek different information related to KVKs.

The Minister said that the KVKs are the main center of knowledge and resource in the field of agriculture at the district level and this portal will help in monitoring at the National level and in providing timely information and advisory to the farmers.

Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau