For the use of ICT based agricultural extension model that has accelerated agricultural information and technology delivery across Bihar, Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Sabour has been awarded ‘National e-Governance Awards 2020' by the central government.
The Bhagalpur based university won the award under the ‘Outstanding Research on Citizen Centric Services by Academic/Research' category during 23rd National Conference on e- Governance held on February 7-8 in Mumbai.
Bihar Agricultural University is running an ICT-based e-extension and information dissemination system project through its media center. Under this programme, the university train and impart education related to agritech to farmer across the state through video conferencing and e-learning materials. The lessons and learning are also disseminated via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and YouTube.
Beside two community radio stations that focus on agriculture, the university also runs two Kisan Gyan Raths that reach the doors of farmers all over Bihar with an integrated communication system to impart agritech knowledge to farmers.
The award was received by BAU's Vice Chancellor Ajoy Kumar Singh, DEE R K Sohane, Asst Professors Srinivasaraghavan and Ishwar Chandra.
The event was organised by the central government department of administrative reforms & public grievances (DARPG) in association with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Maharashtra's public administration department.
According to reports, a total of 700 applications were received for National e-Governance Awards 2020 of which 20 projects were selected based on their merit under 6 different categories. The awards were presented by Union minister of state for DoPT Jitender Singh.
