Digital skills key to taking farm advice to farmers: HIRD Director Dr Chauhan
Four-day training at Nilokheri focuses on social media, AI tools and digital marketing
Girish Saini
Oct 9, 2026 09:13
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Nilokheri, October 9, 2026: Social media and digital marketing have emerged as vital tools for agricultural development, enabling extension officials to deliver scientific information and farming advice to farmers more effectively, said HIRD director Dr Virender Singh Chauhan.
He was addressing participants at a four-day training programme on social media and digital marketing skills for agriculture, organised by the Institute of Extension Education, Nilokheri. Extension officials from Punjab, Bihar and Jharkhand participated in the programme.
Dr Chauhan stressed the continued relevance of community radio in reaching farmers in remote areas and urged officials to create short, practical agriculture videos using simple Hindi. He said clear, credible and locally relevant digital content could help farmers adopt improved technologies and counter misleading information.
The training covered AI tools for content creation, podcasting, video production, digital communication, social media strategies, time management and digital marketing. Experts from the host institute, Chitkara University, HIRD and Kurukshetra University shared their expertise.
Participants also visited a progressive women farmers’ self-help group at Sanghor in Kurukshetra and the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Technology at Kurukshetra University, where they witnessed a live demonstration of television studio operations and digital audio-visual production.
Institute regional director Dr Vijaypal Singh Yadav said digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram could help connect farmers directly with consumers and wider markets, strengthening their economic prospects.
The institute, functioning under the guidance of CCS Haryana Agricultural University vice-chancellor Prof BR Kamboj and extension education director Dr Naresh Kaushik, conducts training programmes for agricultural and allied-sector extension officials across northern states and Union Territories. Certificates were distributed to participants at the valedictory session.
