ICAR initiative
SHILLONG: The Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) on Friday kicked off its Knowledge innovation repository for agriculture in the North east (KIRAN), a system which intends to create a network of information sharing among various stakeholders in agriculture in the NE.
Earlier the concept was proposed during the XXth Regional Committee last year.
The objective of the system is to create an agricultural knowledge innovation repository in “agriculture for the north east” that would serve as a gateway, for dynamic interaction among stakeholders (farmers, researchers, students, industries) for development of agriculture in North East.
The officials of ICAR informed media persons that the system would lead to effective dissemination of information and technologies to the farmers besides delivering agro-meteorological data and advisory on a regular basis for natural agricultural practices as well as climate risk.
The system would also monitor individual farmers to provide continuous guidelines for production of quality foods
The portal has been designed and uploaded on the world wide web in collaboration with the NIC, Meghalaya since last year and can be accessed at www.kiran.nic.in.
According to ICAR officials, the information is regularly updated and uploaded after compilation once every week.
As an effort to initiate the dynamic aspects of the web portal, an agricultural messaging service for farmers, called KIRANews, has also been launched from Friday.
ICAR officials informed that the messaging service has been initiated on a pilot scale with target coverage of 440 farmers from various districts of the state.
The messaging service is envisaged to include a total of 2475 farmers from all over the north east by the end of July.
The messaging service would be contextual to the agro-husbandry practices relevant for a particular season besides advisories regarding practices, problems and interventions would be given on every alternate day to the farmers through an SMS portal designed under the Kiran platform.
The ICAR officials also informed that they are mulling to launch a system similar to ‘Mother Child Tracking System’ where a willing farmer would be served with personalized advice based on their crop.
The ICAR is planning to start this service for Meghalaya by the end of this year.