TALUQAN (SW) – Farmers in Takhar province say they are happy with the services provided by the online promotion center of the directorate of agriculture to improve and boost their yield.
The Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in Takhar has launched an online extension service center to facilitate and provide advice to farmers, which helps farmers share their problems by calling the helpline numbers.
The officials from the directorate say that to facilitate the farmers, they activated this center some time ago, and every day dozens of farmers call to address their agricultural questions, and the officials answer the questions of more than ten farmers on daily basis.
According to officials, the online helpline service center has been significant, and farmers receive information from it and the Imams in mosques also distribute brochures regarding the activities of this center.
According to them, in the near future, in order to inform farmers more, they are going to establish social networks as well as a channel on YouTube besides a special library for farmers.
Abdulalla Radmard, director for promotions at the directorate, told Salam Watandar: “Fortunately, the level of their yield has increased and the level of their awareness has also increased. It also has other good services that are always advancing in technology, and we can’t say only technology in the Internet, and technology in the agricultural sector is also advancing, for example, we had three or four types of modified wheat in the past, and now we have 12 and 13 varieties. It is always changing.”
However, the farmers who have benefited from the services of the online center express their satisfaction and say that this center has been able to prevent them from having to spend a lot of time and expenses for traveling to the relevant offices, and they can get answers to most of their questions with one call.
Mohammad Shayeq and Kamaluddin, two farmers from Takhar province, are among the farmers who contacted this center and they expressed their experience that after receiving advice from the center, the yield of their lands has increased.
“We contacted the online services because we are doing second round of cultivation. We used to cultivate tomato in the past; I was not a professional method and I was not in contact with this center and due to this, the yields were low. This year, when we contacted the center and received advices, our results have doubled and more,” said Mohammad Shayeq.
“In the past, we used to plant grains back to back. Now they have introduced good methods to us, which has increased our yields,” said Kamaluddin, another farmer.
At the same time, agricultural experts in Takhar consider the creation of an online extension service center for farmers as a good move and say that this solution has its own effectiveness, and can solve 70% pf their problems.
Farizullah Forotan, an expert on agricultural affairs in Takhar, tells Salam Watandar that by promoting standard horticulture, distributing modified seeds and providing subsidy services, the agricultural sector can be pushed towards modernity.
He added: “The systems should be mechanized, horticulture should be promoted, the distribution of seeds or its production should be provided, the determination of a subsidy should be considered for the farmers, the production factors, if it is fertilizer, if it is seed, or mechanized equipment; must be provided to the farmers.”
The agriculture experts emphasize the need to increase awareness among the farmers, stressing that awareness campaigns through both audio and visual media are essential.
It should be mentioned that the directorate of agriculture of Takhar is the first department in Afghanistan to set up a center for providing such services. It is believed that if necessary and timely information and the required services are provided to farmers across the country, the agricultural sector will make significant progress.
