Use of Farmers’ Portal for dissemination of oil palm agro-management technology in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19071/jpc.2015.v43.i3.2862Abstract
In India, mobile  phones are widely used for effective communication of various agro-management  information to farmers. Oil palm is cultivated in India since two decades  under irrigated conditions. The crop being new, farming technology has to be  disseminated to field extension staff, growers and developers to take quick  and apt decisions. Farmers’ Portal launched by Government of India (GOI) for  farming community is also being used to disseminate the oil palm farming  technology to its stakeholders through short message services (SMS). Contents  prepared on various aspects on oil palm cultivation were published as text  SMS (568) to the unique mobile numbers (19,301) of stakeholders of oil palm  in India. Messages were published in four languages viz., Hindi,  English, Telugu and Kannada to reach the stakeholders in vernacular  languages. Stakeholders contact the Institute, seeking more information on  various farming practices of oil palm viz., planting, protection,  general information, fertilizer application, irrigation, harvesting etc.  Consultation was provided to 304 farmers who sought information on fertilizer  management (34.2%) followed by crop protection aspects (28.3%) and general  information (24.0%) on oil palm cultivation. Feedback received from farmers  showed that the SMS contents were useful in the following order: irrigation  (15%), fertilizer application (14%), disease management (8%), weed control  (4%) and all messages were useful (59%). Majority of the farmers (68%)  perceived the messages were relevant to their crop growth/stages and 33 per  cent farmers were adopting the practices sent through SMS.