Page 24 - Reliance Foundation Annual Report 2022-23
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22 Rural Transformation Reliance Foundation | Annual Report 2022-23 23
Digital Farm School and receive good returns from the crop,” says which was 50 kg more than traditional method of rice Creating awareness to protect
Ramanjaneyulu, a farmer from Dimmagudi village in cultivation. More importantly, Nityananda was able to animals during the outbreak of
The Digital Farm School is a ‘Phygital’ (physical +
Anantapuram district of Andhra Pradesh. clear weed without risking encounters with the lumpy skin disease
digital) platform specially created for farmers to
dreaded Chandrabora or Russell’s Viper. An extremely severe outbreak of lumpy skin disease
participate and enhance their skills, exchange The package of practices for each crop are relevant
knowledge, and build capacities to experiment and for future use as well. Recognising this, Reliance Use of RFIS Whatsapp Chatbot for knowledge sharing (LSD) created havoc in India since mid-2022. The
United States Department of Agriculture defines
innovate. It provides a digital connection between the Foundation leveraged YouTube to disseminate Link - https://www.facebook.com/RelianceIndus
farmers and other anchors in the ecosystem, to make advisories in the form of videos to benefit anyone at triesLimited/posts/haptik-helped-build-whatsapp-chatb lumpy skin disease as a fatal viral disease that spreads
food production sustainable in locally feasible ways. any point in time. Since January 2019, Reliance otfor-authentic-information-on-covid-19-in-en/486297 when cattle come in direct contact with vectors like
mosquitoes, flies and ticks or through contaminated
2420441559/
It functions through institutional partnerships that Foundation has leveraged YouTube for conducting live fodder and water. India first reported the disease in
channel authentic crop management advisories video conferences, and connecting communities with The knowledge gathered by programme since Gujarat's Kutch region. The disease affects milk
through multiple ICT platforms like WhatsApp groups, experts. This is in addition to content provided on inception has been gathered and hosted in a production. In order to assist the farming community
mobile-based audio advisories, chabots, YouTube agriculture, fisheries and livestock through the knowledge repository. A chatbot was developed to in overcoming this outbreak, Reliance Foundation has
provide users automated interactive access to the closely monitored the situation and worked with the
instructional video streaming and interactive YouTube in 10 languages, including Bengali, Gujarati,
advisories in the repository. The chatbot can connect Department of Animal Husbandry. Since July 2022,
programmes like multi-location audio conference, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi,
users with live agents. This improved community Reliance Foundation actively raised awareness about
multi-location video conference and the Reliance Tamil and Telugu. Users can also select and use specific
engagement reduced the response time to the queries lumpy skin disease by regularly notifying 6.1 lakh
Foundation Toll-Free Helpline. content that piques their interest.
raised by the farmers. The WhatsApp based chatbot farmers in 11 states with advisories on symptoms and
The Digital Farm School learning follows the crop These measures taken by Reliance Foundation are was piloted in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English. precautionary measures.
cycle right from seed selection to harvest. Timely resulting in increasing knowledge of communities.
advisories and interactive programmes based on During 2022-23, 496 live interactive programmes were
identified needs at each crop stage allow farmers to conducted and 914 video modules have been made
understand fruitful approaches and the science behind available on YouTube with a total viewership of around
them. In 15 states, more than 200 Digital Farm Schools
2.4 million.
are currently operational with the enrolment of nearly
Nityananda Debnath, a 44-year-old farmer in West
26,000 farmers, focusing on nine crops of national
Bengal’s Bankura district, was disturbed by the low
significance. To contribute to making farming
climate-adaptive, Digital Farm Schools propagate paddy yields owing to water shortage. He contacted
appropriate practices like varietal selection, sowing or Reliance Foundation’s toll-free helpline last year and
planting methods, appropriate use of fertilizers, yield was suggested skip row planting, a method where a row
improvement and post-harvest technologies. is skipped between every planted row to maximize
water usage. As low yields are a problem for farmers
“The WhatsApp group of the digital farm school
across the district, Reliance Foundation produced an
taught me about the scientific methods used for cotton
explainer video on YouTube about skip row planting to
cultivation. Earlier, I used to spend more on inputs and
help Bankura’s farmers.
spray unnecessary chemicals, which resulted in losses
and lesser yields. However, with the help of the As for Nityananda, he tried skip row cultivation this
Reliance Foundation, I was able to control my costs year and harvested 7.5 quintals from about one acre,
