4.3. Kisaan SMS Portal

Government of India, in 2013, developed an SMS Portal for Farmers for dissemination of relevant information, giving topical and seasonal advisories and providing services through SMSs in language of the state. It is an integrated Farmers’ Portal developed completely in-house by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation.

The main features of the Kisaan SMS Portal include:

♤ The farmers can register to this portal by calling Kisaan Call Centre or through the web portal. The registration is free of cost. They can register their queries, about the weather report, soil type, prospects and problems of market and so on by using this SMS portal.

♤ The relevant information will be provided to farmers in their own or regional languages.

♤ The SMSs will get transmitted only to the farmers within the territorial jurisdiction of an officer, scientist or experts for the crop or agricultural practice that such a farmer might have opted for.

♤ The farmers will get the information, services and even some advisories through this portal. The content may include information about the schemes, advisories from the experts, markets.

♤ The officers can send SMS to the farmers belonging to the entire area of their jurisdiction or a part of it.

♤ This Portal will also integrate existing farmer database of the farmers.