JAMMU: Receiving an overwhelming response from the farming community across all districts of Jammu and Kashmir, more than 24000 farmers attended the orientation programme under KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN during the first 3-day session held across 264 venues of the Union Territory.
A first-of-its-kind massive farmer’s orientation exercise is being undertaken by Agriculture Production Department in the UT with an ambitious target of reaching out to farmers in each and every Panchayat of the UT under the Abhiyan in the next 4 months.
The exercise which commenced on 24th April will conclude on 31st August, 2023. This ambitious farmers’ outreach program has been planned under the recently launched HOLISTIC AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (HADP).
The orientation programme, which is being organised simultaneously across all districts of the UT, has been designed to be conducted on the first three days of every week. An exhaustive district-specific calendar has been issued by the government in this regard.
The Resource Persons for the orientations would be the officers and officials drawn from Agriculture, Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture, and Fisheries Departments, who have been trained beforehand during the 641 training sessions which were held across all districts during the months of January to April.
An innovative tool for describing the different schemes/programmes using short films has been put in place. A total of 49 videos of schemes under HADP and other Centrally Sponsored Schemes will be shown to the farmers across the venues in J&K.
Using audio-visual aids in describing the schemes had a lasting and much more engaging, engrossing effect on the farmers. Besides, a question-answer session after each screening session of videos was held to clear the doubts of farmers.
The farmers were also provided with pamphlets on all the schemes in three languages (Hindi, Urdu, and English) which also contained the information about the contact details of all the departments under the agriculture production department of the UT.
Also, the farmers were also informed about the mode of application under these schemes using the KISAN SATHI- the IT Dashboard of the schemes developed by APD. A simple scan of the QR codes on the pamphlets 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.
The farmers were also apprised of DAKSH KISAN- 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 the Agriculture Production Department, where 118 skilling courses as per the agro-climatic zones of the J&K UT are available for free to the farmers. Again, a simple scan of the QR code at the back of the pamphlet takes the farmer to the 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 also available in Hindi, Urdu, and English. Besides, specialized modules on business development and financial management have also been included to ensure that the farmers are not merely trained but become skillful entrepreneurs.
The successful farmers who clear the course shall be provided Certificates from SKUAST-J/K.
