Director Extension, union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Arun Kumar today inspected the working of upgraded Kisan Call Centre Jammu being managed by IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd.He was accompanied by Director Agriculture Jammu, H. K. Razdan and Director SAMETI, SKUAST-J, Dr K. S. Risam during inspection and review meeting.The Director Extension also chaired a reviewed performance and various aspects of agriculture in Jammu region. The meeting was attended by Deputy Director of Agriculture (Trainings), Sunil Koul, Assistant National Head IFFCO Call Centre, Delhi Pawan Dudeja,Chief Marketing Officer IFFCO, S. Nirmal Singh, Manager IKSL Jammu, Susheel Boni, Agriculture Information Officer, J. C. Raina, I/C ATMA Jammu, S. K. Bhan, Supervisor Kisan Call Centre, Jammu, Akshay Dev Singh besides others.Earlier, Director Agriculture Jammu welcomed the Director Extension, GOI to the state and said that the new features, including upgraded Kisan Call Centres, are expected to give a big boost to redress mechanism for farmers.Director Extension apprised that the upgraded Kisan Call Centres (KCCs) are part of national initiative in which farmers queries are being answered in 22 languages from 21 locations across the country and for the Jammu & Kashmir State the Kisan Call Centre is located at Jammu. These upgraded KCCs recently offer inclusion of many new features like improved quality of response, reduced waiting time for answer of the calls, response in local language of farmers and a new quality monitoring system of the Kisan Call Centre. Infusion of modern technology like use of Kisan Knowledge Management System (KKMS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for performance monitoring is being introduced. Director also informed that quality monitoring system of Kisan Call Centre is planned to be introduced on the lines of web-based taxi systems like Uber and Ola where performance of Farm Tele Advisors (FTAs) shall be rated by the farmers being answered. Meanwhile, Arun Kumar inspected various technical aspects like timely response to farmers calls, quality replies and asked for classification of farmers call into different categories depending upon types of information sort like Agriculture, Horticulture, Fertilizer Dosages, Plant Protection Measures, Marketing etc for prompt redressal of farmers issues and stressed on reply the inquires of the farmers in local language which can be easily understandable. He also directed the incharge Kisan Call Centre to integrate the biometric attendance system with the KCC portal. The visiting officer reviewed the internet/server connectivity, PRI lines, handling capacity of calls and shifts of Farmer Tele Advisors (FTAs). It was apprised that on average 8-10 thousand calls in J & K are being attended every month and Farmer Tele Advisors (FTAs), the front end personnel who reply the farmers call are being equipped with up to date knowledge of various farmers’ welfare government schemes and latest research solutions in agriculture & allied sectors.