Why in News?
The Kisan Sarathi Platform is in the news because the Government of India has officially released comprehensive updates highlighting its massive expansion as India’s largest integrated digital agro-advisory platform.
Overview & Administration
- What it is: India’s premier integrated digital agro-advisory framework designed to deliver correct agricultural information at the right time.
- Launch Date: Jointly launched on July 16, 2021, coinciding with the 93rd Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
- Joint Nodal Ministries: Co-developed by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).
- Implementing Agencies: Executed on the ground by the Digital India Corporation (DIC) alongside the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI).
Key Features & Technology
- The IIDS Backbone: Driven by the Interactive Information Dissemination System (IIDS), a specialized pull-and-push multi-media interactive model.
- Two-Way Communication: Allows direct voice, video, text, and photo consultations between farmers and scientists.
- Linguistic Inclusion: Delivers live, personalized interactions in 13 major regional languages.
- "Know Your Farmer" (KYF): Accesses a centralized database of the farmer’s profile and history so backend experts can offer hyper-localized advice.
- Unified Digital Ecosystem: Combines functionalities from the Kisan Call Centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD), and My Scheme.
Key Services & Benefits to Farmers
- Direct Expert Access: Seamlessly connects rural farmers to over 4,700 ICAR scientists and local Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).
- Government Scheme Discovery: Allows farmers to view conditions and payment statuses for 610 government schemes (including PM-KISAN), consisting of 102 central and 508 state-level projects.
- Diverse Domain Support: Provides real-time advisories across traditional crops, horticulture, plantation crops, livestock, poultry, and fisheries.
- Market Intelligence: Grants immediate access to district-wise mandi price charts, local crop market rates, and macro trend forecasts.
- Linguistic & Tech Channels: Accessible across diverse literacy levels via Toll-Free calls, Common Service Centres (CSCs), WhatsApp, a dedicated Mobile App, or a Web Portal.
Implementation Milestones & Numbers
- Total Footprint: Services are fully deployed across 37 States/UTs, encompassing 768 districts and roughly 6.63 lakh villages.
- Massive Userbase: Out of the 2.95 crore registered farmers, 56.16 lakh are women beneficiaries.
- Institutional Network: Connects farmers directly to a unified scientific network comprising 730+ KVKs, 113 ICAR institutes, and 65+ agricultural universities.
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