‘Kisan Sathi’ Portal

• 08 Feb 2024

Why in News?

With the use of Information Technology (IT) in the agriculture sector, the ‘Kisan Sathi’ portal has started acting as a single window platform for the farmers in Rajasthan.

Key Points

• The IT applications have simplified the procedure for the agriculturists to apply for various government schemes and monitor the benefits available to them.
• According to the State Agriculture Commissioner, more than 12 lakh farmers had used the web portal so far and benefited from the schemes for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and agricultural marketing.
  • The paperless work had speeded up the procedure and brought transparency to the system.
• The Kisan Sathi portal has facilitated direct benefit transfer of ₹1,600 crore to about three lakh farmers, while the licenses for selling seeds, fertilizers and pesticides were issued in large numbers with the help of online verification.
• The portal, launched in 2021 as an initiative for “ease of doing farming”, had brought revolutionary changes for the farming community.
• The mobile apps developed for the farmers have also created new platforms connecting them with the buyers of agricultural produce.
  • The apps are rendering services for registration of sellers of farm produce, distribution of seed mini-kits, registrations for bio-farming and online submission of seed and fertilizer samples.