Syngenta launches farmer helpline

Vijayawada: In response to farmers' concerns due to the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown, Syngenta India has launched a nationwide tele-consultation initiative called Syngenta Kisan Helpline.
"Farmers can place a toll-free call on Syngenta Kisan Helpline Number 1800-1-215-315 from both landline and mobile phones. The helpline will provide farmers across India with free crop advisory as well as any other information on agriculture issues that the farmers are facing in these unprecedented times of restricted movement due to COVID19 situation in the country.Syngenta’s team of experts will address questions, provide guidance, and will support them if any urgent help is required for specific agriculture challenges," a Syngenta India press release said on Friday.
It said thar a total of 16 channels have been created to address calls in nine different languages - Hindi for Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and North Eastern States. Rest of the channels will address farmer’s concern in regional languages such as Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Odia and Bengali for states of Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Odisha and West Bengal respectively.
Rafael Del Rio, managing director, Syngenta India said, "At a time when the farmers are approaching harvest and preparing for the Kharif season, it is paramount that proper advisories are given to the farmers and we thought it best to give the farmers a platform to raise their concerns. The dedicated lines will help address many critical issues as well as in providing important information during the lockdown period and beyond.”
Apart from receiving inbound calls, the call centre will reach out to farmers to inform them about maintaining social distancing, use of PPEs’ and other precautionary measures related to Covid-19. The helpline will be operational between 09:30 am – 05:30 pm every Monday to Saturday.
The Basel, Switzerland based Syngenta is an agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources.
Syngenta India has an agriculture research centre in Bhimadole in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.