Chittoor launches digital skills initiative for farmers

A new pilot project called 'Skill Up Chittoor' has been launched in Chittoor district. The initiative is designed to teach farmers about digital technology in agriculture. The goal is to help them access crucial information using their smartphones. The project is supervised by District Collector Sumit Kumar. He believes that technology is essential for modern farming. "We want farmers to use mobile apps to get information about weather conditions, market trends, and crop management," he said. This will help reduce their reliance on middlemen. Chittoor has about 160,000 farmers working on over 330,000 acres of land. There are 502 training centers called Rythu Seva Kendras (RSKs) under this initiative. Eight master trainers were assigned to teach farmers. In the first phase, 500 farmers completed training from March 7 to March 15. The next phase aims to train around 15,000 more farmers. The training includes using digital payment systems like UPI and agricultural apps such as Agri Central and Plantix. Farmers will also learn how to find useful agricultural videos on YouTube. In addition, top trainers and RSKs will be rewarded with cash prizes to encourage participation. Farmers have shared positive feedback about the initiative. R. Srinivasulu, a groundnut farmer, said he no longer needs to rely on middlemen for market prices. P. Lakshmi, a dairy farmer, mentioned that using UPI for payments has made transactions easier and safer.