The Hindu Business Line : ICT-based farm initiative bags award

The Karshaka Information Systems Services and Networking (KISSAN) has emerged eINDIA award winner under the category of ‘ICT (information, communication and technology)-enabled agricultural initiative of the year.

Dr Rathan Kelkar, Director, Kerala IT Mission, received the award along with Mr R. Ajith Kumar, Project Coordinator, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K), at a function held in Hyderabad.

Project KISSAN was conceived, developed and managed by the IIITM-K for the Department of Agriculture, Kerala. Also present at the function was Prof K. R. Srivathsan, Pro Chancellor, IGNOU and ex-director of IIITM-K.

eINDIA Awards aim to honour distinguished professionals and institutions working in the domains of e-agriculture, e-governance, digital learning, eHealth, tele-centre and Municipal information technology (IT).

They recognise exemplary and innovative projects which demonstrate the use and application of ICT that have transformed social development opportunities into a sustainable social enterprise.

One of the leading citizen-centric e-governance projects of the Department of Agriculture, KISSAN is an integrated, multi-modal delivery of agricultural information system providing several dynamic and useful information and advisory services for the farming community.

Dr Kelkar says that the basic objective is to provide ‘right information to the right person(s) at the right time in the right place(s) and in the right context’.

KISSAN uses a dynamic combination of advanced technologies such as the Web, television-based mass media programmes, telephone-based advisories, mobile SMS-based advisories and broadcast service. It also makes use of a dedicated online agri video channel to provide video-on-demand. All this involves effective collaboration of experts from key organisations for information delivery and knowledge empowerment on demand seamlessly to all farmers across the State.

The Kissan Kerala project is managed by a team of professionals from agriculture, IT and agri-journalism. ‘Krishideepam’ is a television programme directly produced and telecast by the Agricultural Department as part of strengthening its agricultural extension.

The integrated model ensures speedy aggregation of relevant information from various sources and dissemination through cross media platforms.

It is supported with an agri-data centre backed up by a professional management to cater to various information requirements of the farming community.

The core deliverables and achievements of the project is an integrated delivery of agriculture information services accessible anywhere, anytime. Among the major services are:

Online dynamic agri advisory service: The dynamic portal-based online advisory services ( www.kissankerala.net) provide an online platform for farmers to interact with the expert scientists and agricultural extension officers.

Several dynamic advisory services like market information, weather and crop advisory, expert system on fertilizer recommendation are also provided.

A weekly farm-based television program in Malayalam, it provides selective information dissemination of best practices, success stories, departmental news, news on various schemes, market analysis, cultivation methods, analysis of current issues, among others.

Production and telecast of 294 weekly episodes has been completed during a little over the last five years.

More Stories on : Awards & Honours | Information Technology | Kerala

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Madurai ITES unit bags IISc contract

ICT-based farm initiative bags award

SAT dismisses appeal of Bharti Airtel shareholder on open offer

AT&T to get nod for global gateways soon

IBM betting big on unique ID project

BP deal to generate revenue from Q3, says TCS

NIIT Tech setting up shared services facility in Gurgaon

Telecom cos oppose ban on Chinese vendors

RCom unit in pact with S Tel

Lenovo bullish on enterprise market

Tata Photon+ launched in Kochi