Kisan call centres-a one stop destination for farmers to acquire solutions to their all agricultural problems

The present study was conducted by using ex-post facto research design during 2011–12, focused on Kisan Call Centres (KCC) of Andhra Pradesh. The required infrastructure for initiating the Kisan Call Centre and actual implementation of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme: "Kisan Call Centres" is also discussed in this paper. It is also focuese on district wise calls received by the KCCs in Andhra Pradesh. The study also covers the calls received by KCCs in 10 major states. The impact of KCC Level II Centre attached to ATIC (1551), Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University among the farmers was also studied by obtaining their opinion.

The study revealed that during the span of 6 years (2004–2009) 54109 in Andhra Pradesh utilized the KCCs services by calling on 1551 toll free helpline number provided for the urpose. In the year 2005 there are 15730 farmers accounted for utilizing the services from 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh followed by 11604 farmers accounted for the year 2006. The study also revealed that the number of farmers was increased or stable in the subsequent years. Regarding the 10 major states of India 21.2 lakh faremrs were utilized the services provided by the KCCs through the toll free number. It was also observed in top 10 major states, majority (4.05 lakh) of the farmers were called from Uttar Pradesh followed by 2.70 lakh farmers were reported from Rajasthan during the span of five years (2004–2008). The impact among the farmers about the KCC-Level-II centre attached to ATIC (Agricultural Technology Information Centre), ANGRAU, revealed that majority (80%) of the farmers were raised their querries on crop protection with reference to the crops suchs as cotton, chillies and nmango followed by 36.67% of the farmers seeking the solutions on SRI cultivation of rice which is more popular among the farming community in Andhra Pradesh. Regarding the adequacy of the information provided by the KCC it was opined by the 65% of the farmers that the information provided by KCC is "fully adequate and 63.33% of the farmeres opined that they are fully satisfied with the advice provided by the KCC.