Kisan Sampark Abhiyan reaches out to over 2 lakh farmers in J&K

Srinagar: With just seven rounds completed, KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN has reached out to more than 2 lakh farmers of Jammu and Kashmir.

The programme, which still has 12 more rounds to go till 31st August 2023, has sprung a surprising number of farmers who are converging at the venues to listen and watch to what is going to be the most pragmatic programme ever envisaged in agriculture and allied sectors not only the UT but in whole of the country.

A turning point in the history of the agriculture sector is being witnessed in the UT of J&K through two major initiatives, DAKSH KISAN and KISAN SATHI. DAKSH KISAN is a first-of-its-kind online hybrid skilling programme designed exclusively for farming community.

Over 27000 farmers have been registered under DAKSH KISAN PORTAL till now and around 8000 farmers have been enrolled in skilling course of their choice. To add to this, around 2000 farmers have already progressed to advance level of completion of the online skilling course.

DAKSH KISAN is a Learning Management System (LMS) for skill development of the farmers. A first of its kind in the country, DAKSH KISAN, has been developed by Agriculture Production Department, where 121 skilling courses as per the agro-climatic zones of the J&K UT are available for free to the farmers.

A simple scan of the QR code at the back of pamphlet provided to farmers during Kisan Sampark Abhiyan 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.

After completion of online courses, the farmers shall be sent for 5-7 days to Krishi Vigyan Kendras in their respective districts for practical hands-on training in their chosen skilling course. On successful completion of the skilling course, the farmers shall be provided Certificates by SKUAST J/K.

Farmers have particularly shown great enthusiasm in KISAN SATHI- the IT Dashboard of the schemes under HADP, developed by APD.

A simple scan of the QR codes on the pamphlets provided to farmers during the Kisan Sampark Abhiyan takes the farmer to the KISAN SATHI Portal where he can register easily and there is no need for visiting any office for applying under any of the schemes.

A total of 5735 farmers have registered themselves under the KISAN SATHI PORTAL and more than 3000 online applications have been received till date from farmers under various schemes, of which, 11 applications already stand approved and the rest are at various stages of processing.