Officials on a mission to initiate farmers to ‘expert’ app

Besides forecasting weather, the app provides information on plant protection techniques from agriculture offices of the respective state government for about 10 food and cash crops including paddy, wheat, soyabean, mustard, onion, tomato, sugarcane and cotton. Since the Samba cultivation is to begin on a full-swing, the app will be a real guide to farmers, said officials.

The Kisan Suvidha android application was launched on March, 2016, as a part of the Centre’s initiative to provide all basic information required for farmers across the nation, right from procuring crop seeds till marketing their harvest. Upon downloading the app in smart phones, the farmers will be updated of daily weather condition and prediction for next five days with reliable data. 

The farmers are required to register their name, mobile number, native block and district of respective state in the app, after which data including addresses and contact numbers of various licensed dealers to supply quality seeds, pesticides, fertilisers and farm machinery across the district would pop up in a matter of seconds for the user. Similarly, the other facilities such as market prices of commodities, plant protection advice from the experts are also available in the application. “This is an overall guide to the farmer for any information anywhere in India”, said a senior agricultural officer. 

To popularise the application among the farming community, each district in the state has deputed a team of officials who will make a field visit and meet farmers. “We need to equip at least 25,000 farmers with Kisan Suvidha application in each district,” he added.