Speaking at a meeting organised to commemorate Kisan Call Centre at National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) completing 15 years of service, Agriculture Minister P. Srinivas Reddy praised it for helping farmers by providing extension services in 22 languages.
The Kisan Call Centre (KCC) celebrated the 15th year of its inception on Sunday by felicitating 20 farmers.
Director general of MANAGE V. Usha Rani explained that on calling the toll free number 18001801551, the farmers' doubts would reach the level-one centres located at different places in the country. If the problem is not resolved there, it would be passed on to level two centres and if still unresolved, the level-three centre in Hyderabad would get the query.
Ms. Rani said that the call centre in Hyderabad would either call the farmer with the information within 72 hours or it would be sent in writing. Most doubts are resolved at level-two centres, as experts from agricultural universities and agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and marketing departments of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research are involved. The level-three centre gets information from national level institutions.
She explained that the KCC at Hyderabad had so far received over 20 lakh calls from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, of which about 15 lakh were resolved.
Most of the queries would be on plant protection, weather, market, seed and government schemes, she said. Besides, training the level-one and level-two officers was also undertaken here, the director general said.
Joint Secretary (Extension) in the Ministry of Agriculture P.K. Borthakur, Telangana Agriculture Commissioner M. Jaganmohan and others attended the event.
