Monday, November 26, 2012

PERFORMANCE OF KISAN CALL CENTRES

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy and food security is the major concern. India needs a second green revolution and it is possible only through the transfer of technologies from lab to land. Knowledge transfer to the agriculture sector with necessary inputs is most important. The country has a widespread telecom network which could be put to effective use for delivering knowledge and information to the farming community . The Indian agricultural extension system is the largest extension system in the world facing acute shortage of manpower and one extension worker is taking care of one thousand farmers which is impossible task to reach the each and every farmer. The Department of Agriculture and cooperation (DAC) launched Kisan call centers as centrally sponsored scheme under the Union Ministry of Agriculture in January 21, 2004 across the country to deliver extension service to the farming community. The purpose of these call centers is to respond to issues raised by farmers, instantly, in the local language. There are call centers for every state which are expected to handle the queries from any part of the country. Queries related to agriculture and allied sectors are being addressed through these call centers.

Operations Mechanism Of Call Centres

A Kisan call centre consists of a complex of telecommunication infrastructure, computer support and human resources organized to manage effectively and efficiently the queries raised by farmers instantly in the local language. Mainly, subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) using telephone and computer, interact with farmers to understand the problem and answer the queries at a call centre.
This is functional area within an organization like Research Stations, ATICs, KVKs, Agricultural Colleges or an out sourced where separate facilities exist solely to answer inbound calls or make outbound telephone calla, to resolve the queries of pending calls. Usually it refers to a sophisticated voice operations center that provides a full range of inbound or outbound call handling services including customers support, direct assistance, multi-lingual customer support and other services.

This is a new dimension Agriculture Extension Management, which takes account of, and makes full use of on-going information and communication revolution, by optimally utilizing the communication bandwidth to serve the farming community in remotest areas of the country by connecting them to best of the agricultural scientific community. This is an important value multiplier for the existing extension mechanisms, which find it otherwise difficult ( in terms of infrastructure and finances) to reach their desired clientele . This will enable establishment of close linkages and seamless communication mechanism among the key stake holders in the extension system namely- Agricultural Scientists, Extension Functionaries, Farmers and Marketing Agencies.

Monitoring And Review Of Kisan Call Centers

For successful functioning of kisan call centers, there is a need to monitor and review the various activities of the KCC by the Nodal institution on regular basis. The Nodal Institution on regular basis. The Nodal Institution responsible for documenting the daily activities of the kisan call center at various levels on farmer’s queries and their resolution, availability of subject Matter Specialists, call dropouts and their transfer to level – III and response to the farmers within 72 hours. The Nodal Institution will also organize fortnightly meeting with the Head of Departments of Response centers for first 6 months to ensure the proper identification and placement and changes if necessary of Level-II functionaries and resolution of the quarries shared with Subject Matter Specialists and their documentation. Subsequently , these meeting will be held every month in Response Centers on rotation.

Documentation and Reporting

The Nodal Institution is responsible for documentation and reporting . All the proceedings of the kisan call center will be documented by each of the Nodal Institution and shared with other kisan call centers for preparing a database on crop/ enterprise-wise and also to prepare frequently Asked Question (FAQs).
The Indian Agricultural extension system is the largest extension system in the world facing acute shortage of manpower and one extension worker is taking care of one thousand farmers which is impossible task to reach the each and every farmer.

Source: KURUKSHETRA

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