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COMPENDIUM, IEEC-2023   ( ISBN : 978-81-967860-4-5 )
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Theme 1: Emerging experiences on CBOs’ intervention and Sustainable Agri-food Systems

An Analytical Study of Kisan Sarathi: An ICT-led Intervention for Technological Information Dissemination

Sweety Mukherjee, R.R. Burman, Rabindra Nath Padaria, Vinayak Nikam, Girijesh Singh Mahra, Kaustav Aditya, Bidisha Chakrabarti

ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi
sweetybwn334@gmail.com

Abstract

The Indian sub-continent, with its diverse nature, varied agro-climatic regions and a broad range of socio-economic conditions of the rural populace, demands agro-advisory services that are context and situation-specific. Based on the importance of personalized agro-advisory services, a new multimodal interactive information delivery system, ‘Kisan Sarathi’, has been launched by ICAR on its 93rd foundation day in 2021. A study was conducted to analyse its effectiveness and farmers’ perception, based on primary data collected from a randomly selected sample of 233 farmers across the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 83.3 per cent of the respondents reported using Kisan Sarathi, with monthly usage being the most common (39.1%), followed by weekly (34.8%), daily (14.2%), and fortnightly (12%). Half of the respondents (50.2%) claimed to understand the technologies shared through Kisan Sarathi. The study also evaluated the effectiveness of Kisan Sarathi in disseminating technological information across various domains of agriculture, horticulture, plant protection, livestock, poultry, fisheries, and others, which indicated that farmers considered accessibility, understandability and retention of horticultural information, as well as availability and applicability of plant protection related information to be highly effective. Concerns raised by farmers included mobile network range issues, weak network connectivity, operational difficulties, inadequate information availability, language barriers, and electricity supply problems. Farmers' suggestions for improvement included enhancing network connectivity, voice quality, and text message size, as well as increasing popularity and registration among farmers and Farmers' Producer Organizations. The study highlighted that this agro-advisory system has got high potential to deliver technological information to the stakeholders, providing an opportunity for them to connect to the experts through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

IEEC-2023 at RARI (SKNAU, Jobner), Jaipur, Rajasthan organised by Society of Extension Education, Agra, India