Farm Advisory Services Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The Kisan Call Centres were started in 2004.

The Ministry of Agriculture launched the Kisan Call Centre scheme on 21 January 2004. Farmers can call a toll-free number (now 1800-180-1551) and get answers to their questions on farming in their own language from agricultural experts.

2001 and 2005 are near misses around the launch year, and 2010 is well after it; the service has run continuously since 2004.

Answer: C

The system is the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).

An IVRS answers calls automatically, plays recorded menus, and takes the caller's choices through the keypad or speech. It can gather information, give recorded advice such as weather or market prices, and route the call to the right person. Many agricultural helplines use it to direct farmers' calls.

The Kisan Call Centre is a helpline staffed by agricultural experts who answer farmers' queries; it may use IVRS but is not the telephony system itself. An expert system is software that gives advice by reasoning from a knowledge base, and a wireless sensor network collects field data from sensors.