Kisan Suvidha App

The Kisan Suvidha app was developed by the Department of Agriculture to facilitate dissemination of information to farmers on critical parameters such as weather, market prices, plant protection, agro-advisory, extreme weather alerts, dealers, pesticides, fertilizers, farm machinery, Soil Health Card (SHC), cold storages and warehouses, veterinary centres, and diagnostic labs. The app is available in various Indian vernaculars. This article covers the various facets of the app.

Utilities

The KISAN Suvidha app provides farmers with information on the following:

Weather

By clicking the “Weather” tab, the user will gain access to weather reports for a given day and the weather forecast for the next five days of the respective district. This will help the farmers in making the essential preparations for farming and organizing better storage facilities. Apart from providing the weather report and forecast, the app warns against extreme “Weather” alerts. Climate Resilience Building Among Farmers

Dealers

By clicking on the option Dealers, the farmer could view the name, mobile number, address of the dealers of seeds, pesticides, fertilizer and farm machinery, taking away the need for searching seeds for farming. All he/she needs to do is to obtain the requisite information by merely giving a call to the dealer concerned.

Market Price

The Market Price option provides the user with all the information concerning the rates of various crops.

Plant Protection

The option Plant Protection enables a user to get information on maintenance of rice, wheat, soya bean, mustard and other main crops. Farmers may also get crop-specific information concerning the prevention of crop diseases and tackling of weeds. The most striking feature here is that the farmers can upload a picture/photo of the crop and send it to experts for advice.

Agro Advisories

The fifth option, Agro Advisories, provides a farmer with information from agricultural experts. The advisories are concerned with the activities to be undertaken and precaution to be taken, from staring and sowing to harvesting.

Contact KCC

The option helps the farmers in connecting with the Kisan Call Centre (KCC). The toll-free number of Kisan Call Centre is 1800-180-1551.

Soil Health Card

The option provides information on Soil Health Card, thereby enabling farmers to use fertilizers and pesticides judiciously, having regard to minerals available in a particular land/farm.

Cold Storage and Godowns

This final option allows users to gain information on warehouse and cold storage units available in the district, along with the contact details of its manager.

Installation and Registration

The app must first be downloaded into the phone through the Play Store or App Store. Upon downloading, the app will prompt for registration, which can be done using ‘English’, ‘Hindi’ or the local language.

Location and Secrecy

Kisan Suvidha app prompts for information concerning the users’ GPS location and access to a mobile camera, so that that he/she could get the information based on the respective location of residence. Details provided by the user, such as the mobile number, name and address are kept confidential, and the app requests no One Time Password (OTP). The user is provided with the information through SMS.