When the entire world is suffering from covid-19 pandemic, the Agriculture Department today (March 31, 2020) has launched a helpline facility at its headquarters in Bengaluru for farmers.
It will be attending the problems & complaints of farmers and other stakeholders in the sector. The move has been taken by the Agriculture Department to restore normalcy with respect to agricultural operations in the State amid the coronovirus lockdown.
Agriculture Director B.Y. Srinivas told The Hindu that the intention was to resolve any problems related to operation of farm service providers by proper coordination. He pointed out that farmers needed fertilizers, pesticides, implements, seeds & other inputs to carry out their activities. For it, the Department had instructed all its district-level officers to take steps to ensure that service providers opened their sales units.
Explaining how it will work, he said, “As soon as we receive any complaints regarding lacunae with respect to any particular service, the control room would coordinate with the officers concerned to ensure that a remedy is provided.”
The dual problems faced by the farmers are of not being able to take their produce to markets and lack of availability of services from farm input providers to take care of their standing crops.
Mr. Srinivas said, “The Agriculture Department is mainly looking at ensuring that farm inputs are available to farmers. Passes are being issued to farm service providers to open their shops. We are trying to create awareness in this regard.”
He further added, “The Department is trying to ensure that inter-State & inter-district movement of consignments like fertilizers and seeds is not affected. In this matter, we will coordinate with other departments such as the railways.”
How Agriculture Department Helpline Number will Work?
There will be 4 officers to operate the helplines. They will be working in two shifts from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. & 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The helpline numbers are - 08022211764 and 08022212818.
