RAIPUR: Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV), the agricultural university in Chhattisgarh and National Informatics Centre (NIC), has developed a crop doctor app for information, knowledge and problem solution for almost all major crops.
The App provides all information about all major crops, including paddy, vegetables, and pulses, besides details about diseases, insects, and nutrient deficiency of crops for the benefit of farmers.
Besides benefiting the farmers in the rural areas, an IGKV spokesman said it will also benefit livestock breeders, herders, dairy workers, officers of the Department of Agriculture, Traders and others working in the agriculture and allied sectors. The information about the disease, insects, and nutrient deficiency of crop information will be available by sharing an image of the plant or crop, he said.
At present, there are a total of 256473 users of the crop doctor app, including 644 agricultural scientists associated with the project,1520 input dealers, 27680 farmers registered in this farmers’ club, and 20261 agriculture students related to this app, he added.
The bilingual app available Nationally-Internationally has major features for all major crops of Paddy, vegetables, pulses and Oil seed. Some of its features include Online market price updates, Government schemes, direct links to the knowledge centres, and helps farmers book online appointments with scientists or specialists. It also imparts knowledge regarding crop variety, production and protection.
This also facilitates renting farming equipment and helps farmers to get machinery and sell their products in a timely manner. Registering into the website users can know of average demand, – off-season, rate items, and price accordingly, it also eliminates the role of the middlemen.
The spokesman said the initiative also serves as a two-way communication wherein the farmers can post their issues and the extension officers would offer the solutions.
E- Enabled farmer-centric service provides online advice for the establishment of high-income generation, availability of resources like irrigation, soil type, land type, and other such information. This application can be downloaded from the play store and it's already being used in many places, including in the remote Naxal-affected areas of the state, and in many states.
Bhisam Verma from Batang village of Patan area of Durg district Chhattisgarh, a farmer by profession told TOI, that he uses this application majorly for renting agriculture implements such as tractor, harvesting machine, pesticides as it is cost effective. Besides, I also use this app to learn about weather updates, paddy, wheat and others, he stated.
