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. “There was a time when connectivity was an issue, but even that is more or less resolved. Farmers tend to work in the fields and at the same time listen to the expert-speak on various topics that are of relevance to them,” according to Mr. Yogesh. For the DATC, the conventional offline training conducted at the institute has a limited reach as it entails registration, and the duration of training is three days. Not many can afford to stay away from their work for three days. But under the online training concept, they can continue to work while simultaneously taking inputs from experts. Over the last two years, the training programmes have ranged from rainwater harvesting and organic farming to addressing issues related to outbreak of crop diseases, and proper selection of seeds.Buoyed by the success, the DATC also launched a series of programmes under digital outreach to cover more farmers.