Online lessons by District Agricultural Training Centre in Mysuru are reaching farmers not only in remote and inaccessible areas on the periphery of forests and national parks in Mysuru district, but also benefiting farmers located across Karnataka
More than 10,000 farmers have availed of the online training on various agricultural practices during the last one year from the District Agricultural Training Centre (DATC) in Mysuru.
Launched during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago to keep farmers abreast of the latest developments and to provide solutions, the DATC at Naganahalli has continued with the concept following a tremendous response.
Initially, the training was meant for farmers in Mysuru. But, thanks to the omnipresence of mobile phones even in rural areas and WhatsApp being a popular messenger service, the links have been shared widely by the agricultural community, said G.H. Yogesh, Deputy Director, DATC.
As a result, the online lessons are reaching farmers not only in remote and inaccessible areas on the periphery of forests and national parks in Mysuru district, but they are also benefiting farmers located across Karnataka.
The DATC was established to extend field and technical support to agricultural officials, and has been conducting regular training for them. But with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the DATC decided to experiment with online training. The concept has caught on with the public.
“So far, 56 online training classes have been conducted during the present financial year, and 10,806 farmers have received training. We have two more months to go by when additional classes will be rolled out,” said Mr. Yogesh.The concept has caught the imagination of the government and such classes are now being conducted in other districts as well.
In 2020-21, 84 online training classes were conducted, which saw the participation of 28,778 farmers.
The lessons and training module are developed in collaboration with agricultural experts and scientists drawn from the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru, and Department of Agriculture.