MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE ( SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIA )
(a): Major extension programmes are implemented under the “Sub – Mission on Agricultural Extension” (SMAE) of the National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET). Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) do technical backstopping. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) also supplement these efforts. Further details have been given in Annexure-I.
(b) & (c): In order to augment manpower for agricultural extension, the Government is implementing Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms (ATMA) Scheme as a part of National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NMAET) under which a provision of 26100 posts has been made in 29 States & 3 UTs out of which 15506 posts have been filled so far.
Kisan Call Centres (KCCs) have been established at 14 locations in the country to provide extension support on telephone to farmers in all States and Union Territories using a nation-wide toll free number. The average number of successful calls per day handled by each Farm Tele Advisor (FTA) across the country is 29. State-wise details are at Annexure-II.
(d) & (e): Call flow in KCCs is regularly monitored to assess the requirement of increase in number of Farm Tele Advisors (FTAs). Farmers of the entire nation are already covered under the Kisan Call Centre Scheme. Moreover, with the improvement in the quality of KCC services due to state of the art infrastructure and new technological features such as voice Media Gateway, Dedicated Internet Bandwidth, 100% Call Recording, Call Barging Facility, Provision of Voice Mail during call waiting period and SMS to farmers (conveying gist of advisories given), number of calls flowing in to the KCCs has substantially increased during the last three years. Therefore, number of seats has been increased from 144 in January, 2012 to 452 in December, 2014.
