The agriculture ministry is planning to integrate all regional units of the kissan call centre (KCC)?a helpline for farmers?into one single unit. Under the purview of agricultural technology information centre (ATIC), the nodal centre will be set up in Delhi . At present KCC is outsourced to private call centre companies.
The current system of outsourcing KCC operations to private call centres has failed to meet the ministry?s expectations and there have been reports that KCC projects are mismanaged on the quality front. Besides, the companies have compromised on recruitment.
?The present system of KCC has not delivered the results hoped by the government. We are looking at the possibility of having only one centre under ATIC, catering to all the regions. Besides, there have been reports that the project is often short shrifted in favour of other more lucrative ones by the call centres and the ministry has not been able to get effective feedback on the information passed on to the farmers,? said an official in the ministry.
At present, there are centres in Delhi, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Indore, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad for different regions of the country to cater to language and regional needs of the farmers who call. These outsourced centres cost the government Rs 4 lakh per month per centre on an average.
?Integrating KCC with ATIC will not have many problems as ATIC already provides advisory and diagnostic services, though at research level. There would be proper region wise recruitment of eligible candidates and regional desks have been planned to be set up,? the official added.
The KCC scheme has been functioning since January 1, 2004. The call centres can be accessed by farmers all over the country and offers information on information as per the requirements of the calling farmer. The system keeps a record of what information is being delivered to the farmers in terms of knowledge and information.