Sreeram Viswanath
Expert
Published on: Aug 11, 2025
Kisan Call Centre
Kisan Call Centers (KCCS) was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture to harness the potential of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Agriculture. The Project seeks to help farmers in addressing their queries through a telephone call, in their preferred dialect. As of now, these call centers are operational in 14 different locations across all the States and Union Territories. The farmers may contact them through mobile phones and landlines of all telecom networks, the response to which is provided in 22 local languages.Scope and Objective
Kisan Call Centres (KCC) has proved to be handy in establishing a network of relationship among scientists, policy makers, extension workers, farmers and other stakeholders to exchange their views and make for a unique and revolutionary development of agriculture in the country. The initiative has been launched with the object of leveraging the extensive telecom infrastructure in the country, and providing extension services to the farming community for speedy transition of technology and providing the latest technical updates to farmers. The Call Centre is required to respond to issues raised by farmers in the local language, on a continuous basis.Level of Operation
The Kisan Call Center comprises of three levels. A brief account of them is provided below:Level I
This is the basic Call Center interface, which is equipped to address the queries of the farmers during all seven days of the week, from 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. Here, the call coming from the call center is picked up by an operator (level-I expert), who after a short welcome message collects the basic details of the farmer and his/her queries. Operators posted in these centers would in most cases be an agricultural graduate with a rural background, who is proficient in the respective language.Level II
This level comprises of Subject Matter Specialists, whose proficiency could be related to important crops and enterprises. The centers here function in all working days during work hours on a roster basis. A Level II personnel is brought into the picture if a Level I person is unable to answer the question, as the call is then forwarded to the Subject Matter Specialist. In case of any inability to answer, there is a system to revert to the caller by post, fax, e-mail or telephone.Level III
This group is installed to ensure ultimate answering and resolution to the queries of farmers which were not resolved at Level II, connected on offline mode. It comprises of a dedicated cell located at the Nodal office, Directorate of Jute Development, Kolkata, who would receive questions that have not been answered at the first and second levels.Topics Covered
Following are the major topics handled by KCC experts:- Disease and pest control for different crops grown in the region.
- Good agricultural practices, livestock management, fishery, etc.
- Plant pathology.
- Soil sciences.
- Animal husbandry.
- Best farming practices to be practised across the country.
- Crop-related information in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry aromatic plants, spices, plantation crops, cash crops, etc.
- Vermicompost, organic farming, etc.
- HYV seeds and nutrient management for various crops.
- Market-related information for various crops across the state.
- Farmer support programmes.
- Other information pertaining to agriculture that impacts farmers, farming practices, etc.