Pandemic gives a digital push to agricultural advisory service and marketing of farm produce in India

Agricultural advisory services in India have gone digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farmers find it difficult to visit their farm extension service centers called “Agriclinics,” which supports e-marketing. Through a pluralistic approach, it has come up with different digital platforms to provide advisories to farmers through video conferencing by connecting them with advisors. Department of Agriculture has collaborated with the ICT department to provide assistance to farmers through a common platform called Common Service Centers (CSC), a platform that offers video conferencing and other facilities to farmers. With this, farmers could visit their nearby CSC and get diseases, pests, and insect-related advice from an advisor through a video call. Under this initiative, farmers are getting e-marketing facilities called “Kisan e-Mart,” which allow both buyer and seller to negotiate their desire price for a particular product. As a result, digital agricultural services are even benefitting the agricultural sector during this COVID-19 pandemic.

(Source: Times of India)