3.6.3. Kissan Kerala

♤ Kissan Kerala is an Agriculture Information Services system to provide information and advisory to the farmers of Kerala. This is accessible by all concerned anytime in the day and from any parts of the state.

♤ The objective of this programme is to empower the farmers by providing them useful information and required knowledge; this would lead the farmers to take better decision.

♤ To disseminate the message and to answer farmer’s queries, various channels are used like Television, Internet, Telephone, and Mobile. The farmers are free to choose any medium of their choice.

♤ The quintessential feature of this ICT enabled service delivery model is to ensure that the farmers get the expert's assistance on time and agricultural organisations provide necessary help to the farmers.

♤ This has helped the cultivators to better the crop production, enhanced crop protection, value addition to the existing practices, opening up new avenues and improves the overall life of the farming community.

♤ Children, Youth, women, men and seniors are the target group of this programme, who are somewhat related to the agricultural activities.

♤ Kissan Kerala focuses on five broad areas.

◦ Online Agri advisory service: Portal based online Advisory services for the farmers (www.kissankerala.net)

◦ Kissan Krishideepam: Agriculture based weekly Television program in vernacular language

◦ Online Agri video Channel: In collaboration with the You Tube, online agricultural video channel was brought in the country

◦ Tele Advisory Services: Farmers are just a call away from getting solutions to their problems. AQ dedicated phone number is there to address their need

◦ The mobile based Agri Advisory services: Through text, voice or video message, farmers can get their answers on mobile phones