Role of Community Radio in Promoting Agriculture in India

Abstract

Communication channels play an important role in disseminating information to its public. For promoting agriculture in the country various communication tools have been used that includes traditional media, print, radio and television. Some communication channels are inaccessible to rural farm community. But community radio can play a significant role in disseminating information to rural illiterate and semi-literate farmers as it is affordable and accessible. It is a powerful communication tool which reaches the farmers in the absence of regular and stable electric supply can run with a battery. As it is also a portable medium which a farmer be carried with him/her to the place where they work and listen to the station while doing their work. Community radio with its flexibility, immediacy, immense potentiality and capacity caters the needs of national, local, and rural masses in every corner in the country. From the beginning 1927 the All India Radio, the public broadcaster till now serving different needs of the public and now with its 96 stations broadcasting Kisanvaniprogramme has become one of the  essential communication medium serving the farm community. But the recent trend is that there are community radio stations doing a remarkable job in providing agricultural information to its community members. The present paper examines the significant contribution of community radio stations in promoting agriculture in the country.