About
KISSAN
Karshaka
Information Systems Services And Networking
(KISSAN) is an integrated, multi-modal delivery of agricultural information
system, which provides several dynamic and useful information and advisory
services for the farming community across Kerala. It is one of the leading
citizen centric e-governance projects of the Department of Agriculture, Govt.
of Kerala. The project was conceived,
developed and managed by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and
Management- Kerala for the Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala.
The
basic objective of this project is to provide "Right Information to
the Right Person(s) at the Right Time in the Right Place(s) and in the Right Context" dynamically using a combination of
advanced technology like Web Technology, Television based mass media programs,
Telephone based advisory, Mobile SMS based advisory and broadcast service,
dedicated online Agri video channel provides video on demand service etc, which,
involves effective collaboration of experts from key organizations for effective
information delivery and knowledge empowerment on demand seamlessly to all
farmers across Kerala.
The key feature of KISSAN is the integrated service delivery model that
makes available to the experts from any agriculture related organization any mix
or all of the above modes of communications to reach timely and effective
assistance to farmers anywhere in the state.
The project solves the problem of content gaps by providing the authentic
agricultural information though various delivery methods like Television,
Internet, Telephone, and Mobile etc. The farmers can choose any medium to seek
the relevant information.
Origin
of the project
The Government of Kerala had appointed a "High Level Committe on IT and BT in
Agriculture" under the chairmanship of Prof. V.L Chopra (President National
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Former Director General, ICAR) to explore
the possibilities of Information Technology and Biotechnology for the
enhancement of Agriculture in Kerala. Based on the detailed study and importance
the committee recommended two major projects each in IT and BT. The project was conceived by Indian Institute of Information Technology
and Management- Kerala for the Department of Agriculture. The Project was
officially launched on 1st November 2003 (Kerala day).
Uniqueness of the Project
The project is unique in many ways.
- This is the
only project has integrated and multi-modal delivery of information services
for the farming community and an effective citizen centric e-governance
project in the state.
- The entire
KISSAN Kerala project is managed by the team of professionals from
Agriculture, IT and Agri Journalism.
- Krishideepam is
the first television program directly produced and telecast by a State
Agricultural Department as part of its strengthening agricultural extension, and well received by the farming community
across the state.
- The integrated
model of the project ensures the speedy aggregation of relevant information
from various sources, and disseminate through cross media platforms.
- The project is
supported with an agri-data center with fully professional management to
cater various information requirements of the farming community in Kerala
Major Services and Deliverables of the project
The core deliverables and achievements of the project
is an integrated multi-component, multi-modal delivery of Agriculture
Information Services system that is accessible anywhere anytime by all
concerned. The major services of the project are
-
Online
dynamic agri advisory service: The dynamic portal based online Advisory services (www.kissankerala.net)
is a major hit of the project. The portal provides an online platform for
the farmers to interact with the expert’s scientists and agricultural
extension officers in an interactive way. The portal also provides several
dynamic advisory services like market information, weather and crop
advisory, expert system on fertilizer recommendation and so on. Through the
online query management system, the experts in the project have answered
more than 15 000 queries of the farmers. Through the online fertilizer recommendation system, the farmers have
generated more than 12000 fertilizer recommendations (in local language) for
their preferred crops.
- Kissan Krishideepam: A weekly Agriculture Television program - in Malayalam,that
provides selective information dissemination of best practices, success
stories, departmental news, news on various schemes, market analysis,
cultivation methods, analysis of current issues, etc. Care has been taken to
ensure that KISSAN Krishideepam is authentic and totally produced
in-house by agricultural and media experts. The project produce and
telecast a weekly television program (30 minutes duration) and telecast
three times over the leading satellite channel (Asianet)
in Kerala. The program now reaches to more than 25 lakhs regular viewers
across the state and beyond. The
project has completed the production and telecast of 294 unbroken weekly
episodes during the last 5.5 years.
- Online
Agri video Channel: The project has launched the country’s first online video channel in
Agriculture. More than 100 selected videos (telecast quality) were made
available through the channel. This becomes a single window access to all
the agriculture and allied topics for continuous learning for the farmers at
free of cost. (www.youtube.com/kissankerala).
- Tele-Advisory Services: The
project also provides telephone based Agri advisory services through a
dedicated telephone number (0471-2700965) for the farmers. The farmers can
ask any questions to the agricultural scientists and seek expert advice for
their crops. As part of this service, the project has developed an extensive
crop database across the state to provide location specific advisory
services.
- The SMS based agri – advisory services,enable the farmers to get the information on very fast
and it helps to provide location specific information and alert services
Project partners
Various
Organisations and Department collaboring the projects
are
- Department
of Agriculture
- Indian
Institute of Information Technology and Management
- Kerala(IIITM-K)
- Kerala
Agriculture University
- Department of Animal Husbandry
- Department of Fisheries
- Other Research Institutions
The
Team
KISSAN is developed and
maintained by a team of experts from Information Technology, Agriculture,
Research Scientists, and Visual Media etc. The technology support is provided by
the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala (IIITM-K). Click
here to see more about the team.
Major Awards and Recognitions
- PC QUEST BEST IT
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE YEAR 2007 for KISSAN Kerala under "Mighty
Challengers" Award category in Govt Sector
- Krishideepam highlighted
under the major program category of Asianet
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