Kisan Pathshala also popularly known as Million Farmers School, is an extension programme that the government of UP has initiated in 2017 with a view to encouraging the use of modern farming techniques, to make farming more profitable, sustainable, and resilient. Unlike traditional extension services, Kisan Pathshala integrates various facets of Agricultural knowledge into a packaged format and delivers it through village-level training to farmers. Keeping the above objective in mind, a Kisan Pathshala was organized by the Department of Agriculture, Integral Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology (IIAST) in collaboration with IIMSR on 27 April 2023 to sensitize the natives of the Village Behta. Important information about the objectives of schemes, implementing agency, importance of insuring crops, crops covered under the scheme and the process of availing the scheme benefits were successfully imparted to farmers by the experts of IIAST. Besides addressing the agricultural needs of farmers a free medical health camp was organized by IIMSR to provide free health benefits to rural people of Behta Village.
The Programme was observed under the guidance of Prof. Mohd Haris Siddiqui, Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Technology and Prof. Saba Siddiqui, Head, Department of Agriculture, IIAST. The faculty coordinator Dr. Sunil Kumar along with supporting staff Mr. Syed Faisal Kirmani and Mr. Suraj Awasthi accompanied students of B.Sc (Hons.) Agriculture, to Behta Village where the Pathshala was organized. The farmers of village Behta and other nearby villages attended the Pathshala. Dr. Sunil Kumar successfully disseminated information about basics of the scheme such as how to enrol in the scheme with the NCIP portal, CSC centres, Insurance Companies, Banks, ways to claim insurance under various circumstances, grievance redressal and reporting crop loss. Contact details of district and block level functionaries, offices of implementing Insurance Companies, Toll-Free numbers, email, and other mechanisms developed by ICs like useful mobile apps for farmers were explained in an elaborative manner. Farmers were motivated to adopt PMFBY as it provides security coverage to each farmer. Interaction and communication approach of experts of Kisan Pathshala was impressive and there was good interaction with experts for solutions of farmers' queries. The Pathshala was concluded after taking the Feedback of farmers for assessing their level of satisfaction, which revealed that the majority of farmers attending the Kisan Pathshala were highly satisfied with the way Pathshala was organized and the quality of contents which was delivered.