The other Channel for Kisan is WhatsAppHome

Yunus Khan's question on WhatsApp is rhetorical is that 'Why should you, a farmer who owns land, think of killing yourself?" An agri entrepreneur from Pusad district in Maharashtra, he is on an unusual WhatsApp group - 'Baliraja', a farmers' hub with over 400 members across the state. Its primary aim is to offer information and advice to farmers in need.

An agriculture graduate who has been on the group for a year now. Said Khan, "We help each other, Things like plant nutrition, soil problems, crop rotation and market prices are important for farmers. We discuss these on WhatsApp. "Sometimes, the messaging service can become an important support group. Amol Sainwar, from Chandrapur village said that "We tried to stop 10 suicides across five villages by sending messages on the group," Sainwar, who comes from an agricultural family, runs a charitable trust, HOPE, in the village which helps farmers find alternate employment in lean season.

Counselling is key to the group since the government-run kisan call centres lack practical information, say the farmers. "We have to wait for days to hear from them. The farmer is mostly an illiterate person who only looks forward to the limited subsidy. They don't see the other options available to them and this leads to depression," says Khan, who also runs an agri clinic in Akola district to counsel farmers on how to drive a better bargain. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana are also using WhatsApp but the emphasis there is on yield and technology. Harman Singh Randhawa, an orchardist from Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, uses it to connect to farmhands when he is travelling. "They send me photographs of disease or pests on crops if I am not around. I send them solutions in the form of pictures of chemicals to tackle the problem," says Randhawa, the first farmer to successfully grow apples in Punjab.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/