Agriculture based Services

Matir Katha - An ICT Driven Tablet Based Agri Tool

Government of West Bengal has taken ICT as a support tool to hear from the field. This project was implemented by West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited and launched at the 'Mati Utsav' on Friday, 14.02.2014 by Hon'ble Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee at Panagarh and the name of this project has been given as 'Matir Katha'. West Bengal is the first state in India to adopt such an application of ICT in agricultural field.
Thousands of grass-root employees are deployed at Block & Panchayat level in every state under Department of Agriculture. Matir Katha proposed a system to disseminate agriculture knowledge to farmers through grass-root level extension workers as well as capture grass root information to enable better policy decision:

It empowers farmers of West Bengal with easy-to-access knowledge about scientific farming practices (Last mile information dissemination) including pest and disease control, seed production, market & price information, suitable varieties, water harvesting, case studies etc. and inform them about rural livelihood possibilities. The aim is to grow state agriculture productivity and facilitate better price realization at farm gate. The farmers can call the Matir Katha Tollfree number any time.

Toll Free Helpline

For Agriculture department, it generates block level weekly MIS of various schemes and projects (Scheme MIS) to bring more control, governance and transparency in the system. It would also enable policy makers to take better decision.
Krishi Prajukti Sahayak (KPS) of every Gram Panchayat are given a tab. Problems of the farmers can be sent directly to the officers, professors & researchers instantly from the field and the concerned farmers will receive an immediate solution.

While reporting farmers' query from the field, if KPS is not being able to provide any suitable solution, then through tab KPS can contact the higher agricultural officials or researchers. The exact location of the field where the problem exists can easily be understood through the help of GPS which is preinstalled in the tablets. If needed, image can be clicked and sent to the experts. Farmer can talk to professors, researchers directly. The KPS of one gram panchayat will be aware of the problems & solutions of the other KPSs of other gram panchayats. Using the GPS technology, the department can also know whether the KPS is communicating the farmers in field or not.