KISAN CALL CENTER

P. PRASHANTH. PhD SCHOLAR , ACHARYA N.G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, ANGRAU, HYDERABAD, TELANGANA.

INTRODUCTION


The Department of agriculture and cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India launched Kisan Call Centers on January 21, 2004 across the country to deliver extension services to the farming community. The purpose of these call centers is to respond to issues raised by farmers, instantly, in the local language There are call centers for every state which are expected to handle traffic from any part of the country.

The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India has launched Kisan Call Centers with a view to leverage the extensive telecom infrastructure in the country to deliver extension services to the farming community. . The purpose of these Call Centers is mainly to respond to issues raised by farmers instantly in the local language, on continuous basis.

Concept of Kisan Call Center

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The challenges before Indian Agriculture are immense. This sector needs to grow at a faster rate than in the past to allow for higher per capita income and consumption. It is an accepted fact that the sound agricultural development is essential for the overall economic progress. About two thirds of workforce directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. This sector generates about 28 percent of its GDP and over 15 percent of exports.

A Kisan Call Center consists of a complex of telecommunication infrastructure, computer support and human resources organized to manage effectively and efficiently the queries raised by farmers instantly in the local language. language. Mainly, Subject Matter Specialists (SMSs) using telephone and computer, interact with farmers to understand the problem and answer the queries at a Call Centre. Centre. This is a functional area within an organization like Research Stations, ATICs, KVKs Agricultural Colleges, or an outsourced, where separate facilities exist solely to answer inbound calls or make outbound telephone calls, to resolve the queries of pending calls. calls.

Usually it refers to a sophisticated voice operations center that provides a full range of inbound or outbound call handling services including customer support, direct assistance, multi-lingual customer support and other multiservices. This is a new dimension in Agriculture Extension Management, which takes account of, and makes full use of on-going information and communication revolution, onby optimally utilizing the communication bandwidth to serve the farming community in remotest areas of the country by connecting them to best of the agricultural scientific community. community.

This is an important value multiplier for the existing extension mechanisms, which find it otherwise difficult (in terms of infrastructure and finances) to reach their desired clientele. clientele. This will enable establishment of close linkages and seamless communication mechanism among the key stakeholders in the extension system namely Agricultural Scientists, Extension Functionaries, Farmers and Marketing Agencies. Agencies.

Aims and Objectives: :

Objective of the scheme has been to make agriculture knowledge available at free of cost to the farmers as and when desired.
Major aims and objectives are:
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To harness the knowledge the in the field of agriculture and related areas ad to disseminate them amongst the farming community as well as to solve the everyday problems in farmers own language and context at the grass root level.

To provide an enabled dynamic encyclopedia for use by farmers, agriculture, extension workers, agri-input dealers and various other agristake holders in agriculture. To create a database, which compiles and collates the actual location specific need of the farmers and to classify them in an intelligent format for use by decision makers, researchers, traders and industrialists. To provide an opportunity to the scholars and agricultural scientists to play a dynamic role in the transformation of Indian agriculture to a sustainable one.

To establish a network of relationship among the scientists/experts, policy makers, extension workers and other stake holders. To trap the traditional knowledge systems available with farming community to enrich the knowledge bank in agricultural sector and their application in the farmers fields.

OPERATIONAL MECHANISM:
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The Kisan Call Center is a synthesis of two hitherto separate technologies namely, the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) and the Agricultural Technology. Technology. To optimally utilize the strengths of both these systems, it was proposed to take full advantage of professionally managed Call Centre mechanism and dovetail it with the specialized Subject Matter Specialists knowledge of Agricultural Scientists and Extension Officers, so as to facilitate its reach to the farming community. community.

The Kisan Call Center, consists of three levels namely :

1.

2.

3.

LevelLevel-I (the basic Call Center interface, with high quality bandwidth and local language proficient Agriculture Graduate), LevelLevel-II (Subject Matter Specialists on concerned important crops and enterprises, connected through good bandwidth telecom and computer connectivity) LevelLevel-III (the Management Group to ensure ultimate answering and resolution of all the farmers queries which are not resolved at Level-II, connected on off line mode). Level-

Level I:
The call coming to the call center is picked up by an operator (level I functionary) who after a short welcome message takes down the basic information and the query of the caller. These details are fed into a computer located next to the operator by the operator himself. And the first level receiver of the call would also feeds into the computer the question being asked by the farmer.

The first level operators preferably would be an agricultural graduate with rural background knowing local language. They should also posses good communication skills. They would be in a position to answer a majority of the questions likely to be asked by the farmers.

LevelLevel-II:
The level II consists of Subject Matter Specialists (SMS) who are located at their respective place (Research Stations, ATICs, KVKs, Agricultural colleges), of work.

In case the first level operator is not able to answer the question, the operator forwards (in call sharing mode) the call to the concerned Subject Matter Specialist.
The data relating to the caller including the question asked is also be transferred to the Level-II functionary on his computer along with the call. Hence, when the specialist takes the forwarded call, his computer also shows the data and question asked so that there is no repetition.

In normal cases, the entire spill over questions from the first level get answered at this level. In case, it is not possible to answer, there is a system to revert back to the caller by post / fax / e-mail or by telephone in 72 hours. While selecting the specialists, it would be important to first identify the major crops in that state and the issues on which the questions are likely to be asked. . These specialists should be such that they will answer most of the questions that are likely to be asked.

There could be two options available on the selections of the specialists.

One option could be to select commodity wise specialist, that is, every question related to a particular crop or commodity would be directed to that specialist, who would in turn answer that question. Other option could be to select general specialists who would deal with various subjects likely to arise.

The specialists should ideally be located within a city. They should have good communication skills and should know the local language. These specialists should have at least a minimum of 10-15 years of field experience in their respective 10specialization.

Level III:
Consists of a dedicated cell located at the Nodal Office.  This would receive the questions that have not been answered at the first and the second levels.


Appropriate replies to these questions would be then framed in consultation with the concerned specialists available within or outside the State, by the nodal cell. cell. The replies would be sent to the farmers promptly by post/epost/e-mail/fax/ telephone etc. within 72 hours of receipt of the question.

Schematic Representation
Farmer Dials Help line No: 1551

Skills required at different levels in Kisan Call Centres

(a) Facilitation Skills (a (b) Communication Skills: (c) Computer Skills:

(a) Facilitation Skills: (a

When a call received at the Level-I and Level-II, the LevelLevelreceivers welcome the caller by Greetings and facilitate him in presenting the problem in a focused way by giving a lead to his query in the following way:
Speak in Farmers language Use Easy words Use short sentences Give patient listening to understand the local conditions and Farmers situation for the query he raises. Diagnose the problem by probing the details. Answering the query at the level of farmers knowledge.

(b) Communication Skills:

         

Empathize with the farmer Listen actively for content and feeling Exhibit commitment and interest to convince the farmer Avoid defensiveness in conversation. Use personal words in conversation Relate with local experiences, if possible. Avoid use of unnecessary and complex words and sentences Smooth transition in voice Speak politely Close call with greetings.

(c) Computer Skills:

Basic knowledge of key board and mouse Basic knowledge of Internet Sending and Receiving E-mails. E-

Monitoring and Review of Kisan Call Center

For successful functioning of Kisan Call Centers, there is a need to monitor and review the various activities of the KCC by the Nodal Institution on regular basis
The Nodal Institution is responsible for documenting the daily activities of the Kisan Call Center at various levels on farmers queries and their resolution, availability of Subject Matter Specialists, call dropouts and their transfer to Level-III and response to the Levelfarmers within 72 hours.

The Nodal Institution will also organize fortnightly meetings with the Heads of Departments of Response Centers for first 6 months to ensure the proper identification and placement and changes if necessary of Level-II functionaries and resolution of the queries shared with Subject Matter Specialists and their documentation. . The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Govt. of India will review the functioning of all the Kisan Call Centers with the Heads of Nodal Institutions every month to start with for first six months and subsequently for every quarter in each of the Nodal Institution on rotation basis.

Documentation and Reporting:



The Nodal Institution is responsible for documentation and reporting. The Officer In-charge of the Nodal Institution will gather Inthe reports from the Kisan Call Center / Response Centers and prepare a consolidated statement on farmers queries and answers, crop / enterprise-wise, along with enterprisethe resolutions given at Level-III and report to the LevelDepartment of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Govt. of India through eemail on fortnightly basis.

All the proceedings of the Kisan Call Center will be documented by each of the Nodal Institution and shared with other Kisan Call Centers for preparing a database on crop / enterprise-wise and also to prepare enterpriseFrequently Asked Questions (FAQs).