Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched control breeding mobile advisory message programme ofFisheries and Animal Resources Development (FARD) Department on Monday.
The service has been launched to bridge the gap between the farming community and the extension system.
Information regarding preventive vaccination, de-worming, nutritional management, breeding, care and management, modern animal husbandry practices, disaster warning etc for managing their livestock will be sent through voice SMS daily to enable them augment their production and income. One call centre at State level is established and relevant information will be disseminated through mobile advisory services to 1 lakh farmers owning livestock per year.
This will help reach out to illiterate/ semiliterate farmers owning livestock for ensuring that remote rural communities are better informed. Advisories up to five free daily voice messages in the form of brief one minute capsules, which are focused on local contextual importance, will be sent in Odia language to farmers owning livestock. Weather alerts, Tsunami alerts and cyclone alerts will help the farmers save life of animals and economic loss.
All the farmers enrolled will have access to a helpline facility, which can be used to clarify on the voice messages and get expert advice/ help. Experts may connect the specialists on a conference call, if required. The other farmers holding mobile phone will also be allowed to have access to the helpline.
Special phone-in programmes may be conducted with subject matter specialists. These programswill be announced in advance and any farmers requiring specialized service can call to discuss the problem directly.
One partnering agency has been outsourced to provide necessary infrastructure like IT platforms for managing content for advisory systems, delivery systems, including helpline, running ‘Phone in Expert’ programmes for management of the project.