"Workshop on Use and Application of voice-KVK and KVK-Net" 15th June, 2012

Knowledge Sharing and Innovation unit of ICRISAT in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur organized a one day workshop on June 15th, 2012.The workshop was conducted for the sensitization and capacity building of KVK scientists of ZPD-VIII on virtual extension activity using voice message broadcasting platform 'vKVK'. 23 scientists from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh participated in the workshop. Before this the KSI, ICRISAT had conducted one more such workshop to sensitize the KVKs of Zone-V about Agropedia, vKVK and KVK-Net in January, 2012.

Dr N T Yaduraju, coordinator of this workshop briefed about the workshop to the KVK scientists. Dr Dave Hoisington DDG (Research), ICRISAT presented the inaugural address. He highlighted the importance of effective communication between extension personnel and the farming community and appreciated the efforts of the ICRISAT and the IITK in using the modern ICTs to connect with the farmers. Dr Kiran Yadav demonstrated the agropedia portal, highlighting its features, the concept of knowledge model, different search functionalities of the portal and also how to add content to agropedia. Mr Jeetendra, (IIT-Kanpur) presented Voice-Krishi Vigyan Kendra and Krishi Vigyan Knowledge Network (KVK-Net) KVK-Net is an agricultural knowledge sharing platform meant for KVK scientists for information sharing and interaction among them. He gave a live demo on KVK-Net and on how to create and send voice messages using vKVK service. It has seven agriculture and allied communities to facilitate and share knowledge among the agricultural experts and extension functionaries. These presentations were followed by hands on session on the use of vKVK and KVK-Net.

The workshop was followed by hands on session on vKVK and KVK-Net and the participants were asked to record their message and interact among themselves by using vKVK and KVK-Net. The scientists participated with great ardor and appreciated the Agropedia portal. Dr Kiran Yadav, Mr B Bhanu Prakash, Ms Reeta Maru, Mr Upender and Ms Niharika of ICRISAT and Mr Sharwan Shukla and Mr Jeetendra of IIT-Kanpur facilitated the hands on session. Workshop ended with feedbacks from the participants and vote of thanks by Dr N T Yaduraju.