SRINAGAR- Enthusiastic farmers turned up in hordes across all the districts of Jammu & Kashmir with more than 80,000 attending three rounds of the orientation programme being held under KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN.
Nearly, 800 panchayats from across all the districts of the Union Territory have been covered, till date, under the abhiyan.
A first of its kind massive farmer’s orientation exercise is being undertaken by Agriculture Production Department in the UT. The ambitious target of reaching out to farmers in each and every Panchayat of the UT has been envisaged under the KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN in next 4 months. The exercise which commenced from 24th April will conclude on 31st August, 2023. The farmers outreach exercise has been planned under the recently launched Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP).
The Orientation programme is being organised simultaneously across all 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 in this regard. The resource persons for these orientation programmes are officers and officials drawn from 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 and 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 doubts 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.
The farmers are also being apprised ofthe mode of application under these schemes using the KISAN SATHI- the IT Dashboard of the schemes developed by APD. A simple scan of the QR codes on the pamphlets takes the farmer to the KISAN SATHI Portal where he can register easily without visiting any office for applying under any of the schemes.
Besides, PRI representatives were particularly enthusiastic about the hassle-free online application procedure devised by the Agriculture Production Department for undertaking any of the interventions under the 29 projects of HADP. A Baseline survey/Skill gap study of farmers has also been carried out simultaneously during the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan. The data of farmers is being captured using IT Tools for having a holistic assessment of the status of Agriculture and farmers in the UT.
The farmers were also apprised about the DAKSH KISAN, a Learning Management System (LMS) for skill development of farmers. A first of its kind in the country, DAKSH KISAN, has been developed by Agriculture Production Department, where 118 skilling courses as per the agro-climatic zones of the J&K UT are available for free to the farmers. Again, a simple scan of the QR code at the back of pamphlet 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.
The successful farmers who clear the course shall be provided Certificates from SKUAST-J/K.