In News:

The Kisan Sarathi Platform has expanded its digital agricultural services by providing farmers with access to 610 Central and State Government schemes, along with real-time agro-advisories, weather information, market intelligence and expert consultations, strengthening India's digital agricultural extension system.

About Kisan Sarathi

• Launched in July 2021, Kisan Sarathi is India's largest integrated digital agro-advisory platform.
• It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, implemented by the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) and the Digital India Corporation (DIC).
• The platform is powered by the Interactive Information Dissemination System (IIDS), enabling two-way communication between farmers and experts and facilitating the transfer of scientific knowledge from lab to land.

Key Features

Kisan Sarathi acts as a one-stop platform by integrating:

• 730 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)
• 100 ICAR Institutes
• 65 Agricultural Universities

It offers:

• Personalized crop advisories.
• Expert consultation in 13 regional languages.
• Weather forecasts and mandi prices.
• Information on 610 government schemes (including 102 Central schemes).
• Advisories covering crops, livestock, fisheries and allied sectors.
• Video consultations, farmer training and push alerts.

The platform is integrated with Kisan Call Centre, Common Service Centres (CSCs), IMD, MyScheme Portal and BHASHINI, making agricultural services available through mobile app, web portal, WhatsApp and call centres.

Interactive Information Dissemination System (IIDS)

The IIDS is the technological backbone of Kisan Sarathi. It enables seamless communication between farmers and agricultural experts through voice calls, video calls, text messages, images and video sharing.

Key Functions

• Two-way interaction between farmers and experts.
• Personalized advisories based on farmer requirements.
• Subion-based advisory services.
• Storage of farmer interaction history.
• Expert access to farmer profiles and previous consultations.

Unique Features

The system follows the Know Your Farmer (KYF) approach, wherein farmers' queries are routed to the most relevant domain experts. It also maintains a knowledge database and stores query history, enabling more accurate, personalized and context-specific advisories.

Coverage (As of 25 June 2026)

• Available in 37 States/UTs
• Covers 768 districts and 6.63 lakh villages
• 2.95 crore registered farmers, including 56.16 lakh women
• Network of 4,767 ICAR scientists and 113 ICAR institutes
• 19.21 lakh farmer queries addressed
• 21,900 advisories issued covering 351 commodities