Farmers in the district are reaping rich benefits from the features of the popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp.
The officials of the Agricultural Department in coordination with the scientists at the Krishi Vignan Kendra at Jammikunta and support of District Collector Sarfaraz Ahmad have created a group — eSaayam — that shares credible and actionable information on pest control and other farm related subjects. They spent around ₹2.78 lakh on developing the solution. On the other hand IT professionals from Hyderabad wanted ₹20 lakh per village to develop a similar solution.
The e-Saayam group includes all the agricultural extension officers (AEO), agricultural officers, horticulture officials, scientists of KVK and two agricultural scientists from Hyderabad. All the 54 AEOs in the district would visit their clusters comprising 5,000 acres daily and collect photographs of the crops along with soil, water and weather data and send it to the e-Saayam group.
Daily monitoring
The scientists after analyzing the crop situation prepare a farm specific advice via the same media to the AEOs, who in turn, disseminate it among the farmers to check the spread of pest. They would also take out print outs and display at the grama panchayat offices for the benefit of the community.
District Agriculture Officer V. Sreedhar told The Hindu that they had launched the e-saayam group to help the farmers check the spread of diseases and increase productivity. “This has also put pressure on the AEOs to discharge their duties by visiting the fields on a daily basis and strengthen the extension system,” he said.
Toll-free helpline
Since its launch in December there has been good response with more than 300 queries posted by the AEOs and necessary advice was sent within one hour, he said and added that they had also launched interactive sessions with the farmers to collect their feedback about the app. The department has also launched a live helpline for the farmers and it has a toll free number 1800-4253-377 at the KVK Jammikunta and available during working hours.
The department was advising the farmers to go for til and maize crops this season due to non-availability of water and also to meet the fodder requirement for the coming summer season.
The farmers are getting the information within hours of noticing any problem, he maintained.
