International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Chinmyee Sarangi, Prasannajit Mishra and Pravat Kumar Roul

abstract
The Kisan Call Center was launched by the Indian Ministry of Agriculture on January 21, 2004 and is now operational in all states of the country in 22 languages. The objective of this program is to help farmers ask questions related to their farming activities such as cultivation of various crops, use of seeds, application of fertilizers, and pest control in various agricultural and horticultural crops. In addition, farmers can also request help with problems related to veterinary medicine, fisheries, weather conditions, various government programs, etc. The evaluation of the Kisan Call Center in the last 4 years, i.e. from 2020 to 2023, was based on the average number of calls per month, the number of calls per discipline, the number of calls per district and the number of calls per hour. On average, 13324 ± 3048 and 13130 ± 3216 calls were made in January and March respectively, 7029 ± 3095 in June and 8831 ± 676 in May, which is very low compared to the average number of calls. Similarly, most of the calls in percentage (%) were from the agriculture sector (53.00), followed by the horticulture sector (25.63) and least from the fisheries sector (0.73), followed by animal husbandry (0.84). Most of the calls were received from Bargarh district (12164) followed by Balangir district (10846). The evaluation shows that during the harvesting of the Kharif and Rabi crops, i.e. in the months of September to March, farmers face the greatest problems when it comes to proper preparation of the field, easy harvesting and control of pests, etc. It also shows that farmers are more concerned about pest infestation during cultivation than other problems and then mainly about the availability of good quality seeds and varieties and the right dosage of fertilizer etc. Farmers had the least problems in the months of May to July as fewer crops were grown during this period and therefore the fewest calls were received. The analysis of calls by district shows that farmers of Bargarh district are more likely to utilize the facilities provided by the Kisan Call Centre, followed by Balangir. In the study of hourly calls to the Kisan Call Centre, most of the calls are received between 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. After 9:00 pm, the frequency of calls is generally very low or negligible. So the population needs to be sensitised to receive more calls from the different districts of Odisha, provide the right solutions and gain their trust in the Kisan Call Centre.