3000 farmers enrolled in online hybrid skill courses, 1.5 lakh farmers attend orientation in five rounds
JK News Today
Jammu, May 25: Putting aside all the apprehensions, a history of sorts is being created in the UT of J&K about an online skill development programme for farmers, enthusiastic farmers have turned up in great numbers across all the districts in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir to register under the DAKSH KISAN- A first of its kind Hybrid skilling programme exclusively designed for farming community.
Over 12000 farmers have registered under DAKSH KISAN PORTAL till now and around 3000 farmers have enrolled in skilling course of their choice. Besides a substantial number of 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
All this has been made possible due to massive outreach of the Kisan Sampark abhiyan which was launched on 24th April 2023, which has completed five rounds till this week. Nearly 1.5 lakh farmers have attended the orientation programme under KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN during the five rounds of orientation programme. A total of 1367 panchayats across all the Districts of the Union Territory have been covered till date under the abhiyan.
This massive farmer’s orientation exercise is being undertaken by Agriculture Production department in the UT of J&K whereby ambitious targets of reaching out to each and every farmer in each and every Panchayat of the UT has been envisaged under the KISAN SAMPARK ABHIYAN in next 4 month. The farmers outreach exercise has been planned under the recently launched HOLISTIC AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (HADP).
The Orientation programme is being organised simultaneously across all the districts of the UT. The programme has been designed to be conducted on first three days of every week. An exhaustive District specific Calendar has been issued by the Government. The Resource persons for the orientations are Officers and Officials drawn from the Agriculture, Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture and Fisheries Departments, who were trained beforehand during the 641 training sessions which were held across all districts during the months of January to April. An innovative tool of 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 this question answer session after each screening session of videos are held to clear the doubt of farmers. The farmers are also provided with pamphlets of all the schemes in the three languages (Hindi, Urdu and English) in the shape of a booklet, which also contains the information about the contact details of all the departments under the agriculture production department of the UT.
Farmers are also apprised 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.
A Baseline survey /Skill gap study of the farmers is also been carried out simultaneously during the Kisan Sampark abhiyan. The data of around 1.4 lakh farmers has been captured till date using IT Tools for having a holistic assessment of the state of Agriculture and farmers in the UT.
