The digital outreach programme connecting farmers with scientists and researchers and which provided the stakeholders a learning platform, has evoked positive response from the farmers and helped create a database of information and agricultural knowledge.
The programme conducted every Monday since the last 3 months, is set to conclude in the first week of March and has created a database of information which the farmers can tap at leisure.
Though the live programmes are viewed by about 250 to 300 farmers, the online link provided by the organisers has helped increase the traffic and there are issues germane to agriculture which has clocked over 5,000 unique visitors.
This was stated by G.H. Yogesh, Deputy Director, District Agricultural Training Centre (DATC) at Naganahalli which took the initiative in conducting the series of programmes.
Going forward the DATC intends to collect feedback from the farmers and redesign the programme so as to be of more help to the agricultural community.
The DATC’s digital learning programme has also helped emerge as a forum for continuous sharing of knowledge and information pertaining to agriculture with focus on organic farming.
Theprogramme was a joint initiative of DATC and Department of Agriculture, Krishi Samvahana Vedike, Mysuru, Naganahalli Agriculture Research Centre, Horticulture College and Krishi Vijnana Kendra, Suttur.
The programme was streamed live on social media platforms and its cumulative outreach continues to rise as there are farmers who may want to revisit a programme to clarify a doubt, said Mr.Yogesh.
This was the first such initiative in any district in the State and though other regions were supposed to emulate and devise similar programmes to reach out to the farmers, they are yet to take off.
The bulk of the weekly programme was on organic farming and related issues. The concept of digital outreach took roots during the lockdown last year and over 3,500 farmers made use of the initiative.
Though there were network issues to reach out to the farmers in the remote tail-end regions, those closer to the taluk headquarters and where the mobile signals were strong have benefited from it, according to the authorities.
