Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Agriculture Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has started e-agriculture and tele-farming helpline and android mobile app for facilitation of farmers to give them free consultation, guideline and advices on crops’ growth and diseases.

According to an official, the farmers and common man from across the province can access the helpline or mobile app to take free advice from experts about agriculture, gardening, cattle farming and fisheries. The initiative of tele-farming call centre has capacity to entertain over 58000 calls on monthly basis on official cell number and experts would guide the farmers and people regarding their queries.

They can also get details of seasonal crops, weather forecast, pest attacks and control and market situation by sending SMS to the mobile number, he said adding that the user of smartphone can download an android app of the agriculture extension. He said the project was continuation of the reform agenda of the government besides making the province self-sufficient in agricultural production.

Qayyum Khan, a beneficiary of tele-farming, said that it was a very impressive initiative of the provincial government as he can get free advice from experts of agriculture in case of any required information, including attacks of pests on crops, diseases, use of fertilizers and other relevant information. He said that this season his wheat production improved from 800kg last year to 1600kg as he used proper seed, fertilizers on proper time as per the advice of experts on tele-farming helpline.