NOTE ON THE CENTRAL SECTOR SCHEME

 ‘MASS MEDIA SUPPORT TO AGRICULTURE EXTENSION’

 

 

INTRODUCTION:-

 

1.1       The Tenth Plan Document recognizing the problems of the extension sector states:

 

“The Agriculture extension machinery and information support in most states seems to have become outmoded.  The staff created under the World Bank assisted Training and Visits (T&V) programme do not have much mobility.  The need to revamp the extension services in the country by using print and electronic media and information technology alongwith the involvement of the private sector is being felt increasingly.  The private sector, especially the input agencies and traders, are now one of the main sources of information for the farmers.  Radio, Television and the print media have become powerful means of education and technology dissemination”.

 

1.2       Over the last few years mass media has seen a phenomenal growth in this country both in terms of reach and advance in technology.  This medium has not been exploited to its full potential for the purpose of extension.  A concerted and well coordinated effort now needs to be made to use the electronic media in the Extension strategy.

 

1.3       The Scheme envisages to utilize existing infrastructure of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) to produce and transmit programmes covering a wide spectrum of topics in agriculture and allied fields for bringing the latest information and knowledge to the farming community.  The approved Scheme has four components – Narrowcasting using High/Low Power Transmitters of Doordarshan; Regional & National Agricultural Programmes by Doordarshan in terrestrial mode of transmission, Kisanvani using FM Radio transmitters of AIR; and Monitoring & support activities.

 

 

2.         OBJECTIVES OF THE SCHEME:-

 

2.1       The primary objective of the Scheme is to use Television and Radio with their massive penetration as a vehicle that could be exploited for the purpose of extension.  They have the advantage of reaching a wide audience at a very low cost.  The electronic media will therefore, need to be made a part of the strategy being adopted for delivering farm level extension services.

 

2.2       The Scheme ‘Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension’ aims to fulfill the following specific objectives:

 

-                     Broadcasting programmes covering a wide spectrum of topics in agriculture and allied fields to cover the entire country, with special focus on isolated areas and marginalized population.

-                     Repeat broadcasts at different time slots to suit the viewer’s convenience of different segments of population.

-                     Disseminate programmes in regional languages and local dialects for the specific needs of different regions.

-                     Promote live programming with phone-in feature, so that the viewers may interact and participate in the on going broadcasts.

-                     Undertake capacity building and training programmes to help upgrade the knowledge and expertise of programme executives, extension workers, field-level officials and other functionaries.

 

3.         BENEFICIARIES OF THE SCHEME:-

 

3.1       The project envisions the use of broadcast through electronic media for the dissemination of knowledge, hence it is very difficult to quantify the exact number and the type of population who would be the final beneficiaries.  Accordingly, to an assessment, there are approximately 81.6 million TV homes in the country of which 38.7 million are rural TV homes which would be benefited by Doordarshan Programmes.  There are 41.1 million exclusively terrestrial homes including 25.4 million rural homes where only Doordarshan can reach and a Cable TV based programme will not have much impact.  Keeping the concern outreach to these two-third Rural TV homes in mind the Scheme has included the Regional and National Programmes in terrestrial mode.

 

 3.2      Apart from the TV sets there are already 110 million radio receivers available in the country of which one-third are covered by FM Radio transmission.  More than two-third FM Radio Stations are covering rural areas.  These stations would provide a continuous and sustained means of information and education to the remote villages majority of who either do not have electricity or cannot watch TV due to lack of power supply.

 

3.3       The project caters to the nation at large for spreading education and information in the field of agriculture and allied areas like rural development, animal husbandry, community welfare, environment, energy conservation natural resource conservation and management etc.  The target audience can be classified under the following groups:

-                     Farmers, extension workers, field-level functionaries.

-                     Agriculture scientists, researchers and policy makers.

-                     The general public.

 

4.         DOORDARSHAN PROGRAMMES:-

 

4.1             Doordarshan through its countrywide network of transmitters is running the only terrestrial channel in the country.  This channel which is operated on DD 1 has a very wide viewership in the rural areas.  It is estimated that terrestrial transmission is available to about 89% of the country’s population. As this channel can be received directly by the Television set through a simple antenna, it is not dependent on any Cable operator for distribution.  For certain hours in a day 18 Regional Kendras of Doordarshan also transmit their programmes in terrestrial mode in Regional languages. 

 

4.2       Through the introduction of narrow casting technology, it is possible to convert each of the High and Low Power Transmitters ( HPT/LPT) of Doordarshan from a simple relay mode to a stand alone TV station.  This can be achieved by providing playback equipment at each of the transmitter stations. The playback equipment can then playback locally produced programme which can be received by TV sets located in the range of the transmitter.  While playing back the recorded programme the transmitter delinks from the national broadcast and functions as a local TV station.  This becomes a powerful tool for delivering extension services as each HPT/LPT, which is located in predominantly rural areas, is able to broadcast programmes relevant to that area. 

 

4.3       Thus, the approach adopted under the Scheme to strengthen the extension through a mixed dose of both narrow-casting and terrestrial mode programmes.

 

4.4       With the availability of Narrowcasting it would be possible to provide extension services that meet the needs of that particular agro climatic zone.  Further specific problems of the agriculturist residing in that area can be addressed in a specific manner by taking help of the local and nearest available agriculture research station.  As each transmitter operates as a stand alone station, there is thus need to create content for each of these transmitter locations.  With a view to keep the task of content creation to a manageable level, the scheme envisages the sharing of the same programme by five transmitters on an average.

 

4.5       In the year 2003-04 twelve DD Stations started narrowcasting programmes in various States, which have been expanded to 42 DD Stations in November, 2004, with each station producing a stand alone programme.  Now, half an hour of programme is proposed to be  telecast by 180 HPTs/LPTs of Doordarshan, five days a week, with five transmitters, on an average, sharing the same programme.  There would be production of one hour fresh programme and remaining would be taken from the stock in a week.  The revised outlay for this component will be Rs. 115.34 crore (Annexure – I)

 

 4.6      Scheme also envisages to provide 30 minutes of regional agricultural programmes five days a week, back to back with Krishi Darshan programme of Doordarshan, through the eighteen Regional Kendras of Doordarshan.  These programmes will be repeated during the morning hours through respective Regional Satellite Channels of Doordarshan. Also, 30 min. national agricultural programme for 5 days a week is proposed to be telecast on DD National Channel in the morning. This approach has several advantages.  The programmes will be telecast in terrestrial mode providing maximum outreach.  The regional programmes will be in local languages.  The National/Regional channels of Doordarshan are mandatory for cable operators.  These are also being carried on the Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform of Doordarshan.  Thus, this approach will provide the maximum outreach.  The revised outlay for this component will be Rs.110.36 crore (Annexure-II). 

 

5.         ALL INDIA RADIO PROGRAMMES:-

 

5.1       At present All India Radio is using the existing MW and SW network for broadcasting agriculture based programmes.  The emerging technology is in the form of the FM transmitters.  This has the capacity to provide high quality output and also deliver local content in the area of its range.  As the infrastructure for the FM transmission is already available, there would be no capital cost involved; instead only cost towards transmission, programme production and playback facilities would need to be incurred.  

 

5.2       At present 96 FM stations of All India Radio are catering to the rural areas. The Scheme envisages that all 96 FM transmitters will produce separate programmes.  The AIR has started Kisanvani programmes from 23 FM Radio Stations in 2003-04 and has with one-hour daily transmission, six days a week.  With effect from 1^st April, 2005 the Kisanvani programmes from 96 Rural Area FM Stations will be of half an hour duration, 6 days a week with each station producing a separate programme, half fresh and half from the stock.  Expanded coverage to 96 FM Stations w.e.f. 3.12.2004.  The revised outlay for this component is Rs. 59.38 crore (Annexure – III).

           

6.         MONITORING AND SUPPORT ACTIVITIES:-

 

6.1       An outlay of Rs. 29.5 crore under the Scheme would be utilized, as needed, for action research, concurrent feedback, training, capacity building, travel cost, handholding, professional services, publicity, monitoring, impact evaluation, etc.  

 

6.2       The component for action research has been included for conducting research on an on-going basis to determine the information and knowledge requirements of the farming community so as to provide inputs for programme production.  A component has been provided for impact assessment to determine the effect of the scheme on farm level practices and farmer incomes.  To meet the requirement of a trained human resource, which would be needed in the operation of the channels a component for training has also been provided.  This component is for training scientists, extension workers and other functionaries in the use of media for delivering knowledge based services.   To spread awareness about the availability of this channel, a component for advertising in the print and electronic media has also been provided for.

 

6.3       The revenue generated from advertisements under the Scheme will be kept as a separate corpus and utilized for developing programme content.

 

6.4       Approved phasing plan of the Scheme, cost at a glance and State-wise list of Doordarshan Stations/Transmitters and AIR FM Radio Stations covered under the Scheme are given in Annexure – IV, V and VI respectively.

 

7.         MANAGEMENT OF CONTENT CREATION:-

 

 7.1      The success of this initiative will depend considerably to the extent that we are able to make programmes relevant to the selected audience.  This would imply that the content created conveys the state of art information and solutions to the farming community.  It is proposed that Content creation will be the primary responsibility of the broadcaster.  Thus the media organizations would attend to the task of making programmes but they will be dependent on inputs from the Ministry of Agriculture to be able to produce meaningful and relevant programmes.   For this purpose the ICAR instructions, the State Agriculture Universities and the Krishi Vigyan Kendras will have to be involved in a big way.

 

7.2       A two level set up is being proposed to manage the content creation and ensure that it is able to generate interest and measure up to the expectations of the farming community. The first level which will be formulated at the National, State and District levels and will deal with the larger policy issues.  The second strata are to be formed at the level of the broadcaster and will involve itself with the actual requisitioning of content creation and broadcasting of the same.

 

[A]       Central Apex Committee:-

 

            At the Central level, a Central Apex Committee  has been set up under the Chairmanship of the Hon’ble Union Agriculture Minister which has  following mandate:-

 

1.                It would take decisions on all important matters concerning the implementation of the Scheme, consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the broadcasters.

2.                It would broadly indicate information and educational needs of the farming community in furtherance of the objectives of the Scheme.

3.                It would review the programmes that were broadcast in the past six months and the audience response to the same and to provide appropriate advice to the broadcasters.

4.                The Committee would also review the need for increasing or reducing the transmission time on the various channels for appropriate decisions.

5.                The Committee would consider and provide appropriate advice to the broadcasters on the reports being submitted by the state level committees/IGNOU Committee.

 

The Committee will meet as frequently as may be necessary.

 

[B]       State Level Committees:-

 

            The Government of India has requested State Governments to set up a State Level Committee at the State level to oversee the FM Channel and the narrow casting and

 

Regional terrestrial channel of Doordarshan which would be handling localized and area specific programming.  This would be the umbrella Committee to monitor these programmes at the State level and would be headed by the Agriculture Production Commissioner or Agriculture Secretary of the State.  The proposed constitution of the State Level Committees is given at Annexure- VIII. 

 

This State-Level Committee would have the following mandate:-

 

(i)                 Approve the policy and broad guidelines for content creation for the LPTs/HPTs and FM stations of All India Radio.

(ii)               Lay down the broad guidelines indicating the direction in which content creation should be done for each month.

(iii)             The committee would review the content broadcast over the last month and suggest changes and modifications in the format and the substance.

(iv)              The committee would also review the reports sent by the district level committees.

(v)                The committee would submit a quarterly report to the Apex Committee on the activities for the quarter.  A consolidated report together with their observations on the reports sent by the district committees shall form a part of the report.  The report shall also include the suggestions given to the broadcaster and action taken on the same.

 

The Committee would meet at such frequency as may be necessary to formulate guidelines.  In any case, the Committee would be required to meet at least once in a month.

 

[C]       District Level Committees:

 

            The narrow casting mode of DD and the FM transmitters of AIR will have broadcasts by and large covering the geographical area of one district.  Thus it would be necessary that a content monitoring committee is put in place at the district level. Government of India has already requested State Govts. to constitute these Committees in all such Districts where a Narrowcasting Programme Generating DD Station or Kisanvani FM Radio Station is located.  The District Level Committee will be headed by the concerned District Collector/Deputy Commissioner of the area. Proposed constitution of these committees is given at Annexure-VII. A List of Districts where these Committees would be required to be constituted is given at  Annexure-XI.

 

The District Level Committee would have the following mandate:-

 

(i)                 The Committee would formulate a monthly guideline for production of content which is of  relevance to the area under the range of the transmitter.

(ii)               The Committee would review the programmes that have been broadcast over the one month and suggest changes that may be necessary.

(iii)             In case of a crisis situation or a situation that the Chairman feels needs a daily Media intervention the committee will make suggestions at such intervals as may be necessary to address the crisis.

(iv)       The Committee will send quarterly reports to the State level committee indicating the activities undertaken during the last month, suggestions made and the action taken on the same.

 

Annexure – I

APPROVED X PLAN COST FOR DOORDARSHAN NARROW CASTING

                                                                                                                                                         (Rs. In Crore)

 

 

Annexure – II

 

 

APPROVED COST OF REGIONAL & NATIONAL AGRICULTRUAL PROGRAMMES ON DOORDARSHAN       (Rs. In Crores)

 

 Grand Total for X Plan = Rs. 110.36 Crores

Annexure – III

 

APPROVED COST OF PROVIDING HALF AN HOUR BROADCAST USING

 FM TRANSMITTERS OF AIR

 

 

 

Grand Total for X Plan Period = Rs. 59.38 crore

 

1.   Transmission  and other charges @ Rs. 3000 per hour per station till 2.12.2004 as per earlier

Approval.

2.   Transmission and other charges @ Rs. 3219 per hour per station on an average w.e.f.     3.12.2004 as proposed by AIR, for the remaining period of X Plan.

3.      Cost of programme production @ Rs. 20,000 for one hour of fresh programme as approved earlier.

4.      On an average, half programme would be fresh and half from the stock.

 

Annexure – IV

 

APPROVED PHASING PLAN AT A GLANCE

 

 

  

 

Annexure – V

 

APPROVED COST AT A GLANCE (Rs. In crore)

 

 

ANNEXURE  VI

Ministry of Agriculture

Department of Agriculture & Cooperation

Directorate of Extension

Farm Information Unit

 

List of Narrowcasting and FM Kisan Vani Stations in the Country

 

 

ANNEXURE-VII

 

Proposed composition of the District Level Agriculture Mass Media Committee

 

 

 

 

Proposed mandate of the District Level Committee

 

 

1.                  The Committee would formulate a monthly guideline for production of content which is of relevant to the area under the range of the transmitter.

2.                  The Committee would review the programmes that have been broadcast over the last one month and suggest changes that may be necessary.

3.                  In case of a crisis situation or a situation that the chairman feels needs  a daily Media Intervention the committee will make suggestions at such intervals as may be necessary to ad dress the crisis.

4.                  The Committee will send quarterly reports to the State level Committee/Central Apex Committee indicating the activities undertaken during the last month, the suggestions made and the action taken on the same.

 

ANNEXURE -VIII

Proposed composition of the State Level Agriculture Mass Media Committee

  

 

 

Proposed mandate of the State Level Committee

 

1. Approve the policy and broad guidelines for content creation for the Regional Kendras and Narrowcasting LPTs/HPTs and FM stations of All India Radio.
2. Lay down the broad guidelines indicting the direction in which content creation should be done for each month.
3. The committee would review the content broadcast over the last month and suggest changes and modifications in the format and the substance.
4. The committee would also review the reports sent by the district level committees.
5. The committee would submit a quarterly report to the Apex Committee on the activities for the quarter.  A consolidated report together with their observations on the reports sent by the district committees shall forma part of the report.  The report shall also include the suggestions given to the broadcaster and action taken on the same.

 

ANNEXURE -IX

 

 

LIST OF DISTRICTS WHERE DISTRICT LEVEL COMMITTEES ARE REQUIRED TO BE CONSTITUTED.

 

1.  Andhra Pradesh:

i)              Vijayawada

ii)            Hyderabad

iii)          Chittoor

iv)           Warangal

v)             Anantpur

vi)           Khammam

vii)         Ongole

viii)       Nizamabad

ix)          Kurnool

2.  Arunachal Pradesh:

 

i)              Itanagar

3.  Assam:

 

ii)            Dibrugarh

iii)          Jorhat

iv)           Dhubri

v)             N.C. Hills

vi)           Nagaon

4.  Bihar:

 

i)              Muzaffarpur

ii)            Purnea

5.  Chhattisgarh

 

i)              Raipur

ii)            Bilaspur

iii)          Bastar

iv)           Raigarh

6.  Gujarat:

i)              Rajkot

ii)            Panchmahal

iii)          Surat

7.  Haryana:

i)              Hissar

ii)            Kurukshetra

8.  Himachal Pradesh

i)              Kangra

ii)            Hamirpur

iii)          Kullu

iv)           Solan

v)           Kassauli

9.  Jammu & Kashmir

i)              Jammu

ii)            Kathua

iii)          Rajouri

iv)           Doda

v)             Poonch

10.  Jharkhand

i)              Palamu

ii)            Ranchi

iii)          West Singhbhum

iv)           Hazaribagh

11.  Karnataka

i)                    Gulbarga

ii)                  Mangalore

iii)                Bangalore

iv)                 Mysore

v)                   Bijapur

vi)                 Hassan

vii)               Hospet

viii)             Chitradurga

ix)                Raichur

x)                  North Kannada

xi)                Kodagu              

12.  Kerala

i)                 Thrissur

ii)               Cochin

iii)             Idukki

iv)              Cannanore

13.  Madhya Pradesh

i)                    Indore

ii)                  Gwalior

iii)                Balaghat

iv)                 Betul

v)                   Chhindwada

vi)                 Guna

vii)               East Nimar

viii)             Sagar

ix)                Shahdol

x)                  Shivpuri

14.  Maharashtra

i)                    Nagpur

ii)                  Pune

iii)                Ahmadnagar

iv)                 Akola

v)                   Chandrapur

vi)                 Dhule

vii)               Kolhapur

viii)             Nanded

ix)                Nasik

x)                  Satara

xi)                Yavatmal

xii)              Beed

xiii)            Osmanabad

15.  Manipur

i)                    Imphal-

16.  Meghalaya

i)         Shillong –

ii)               Jaintia Hills

17.  Mizoram

i)                    Aizawl

ii)                  Lunglei

18.  Nagaland

i)                    Mokokchung

 

19. Orissa

i)              Sambalpur

ii)            Kalahandi

iii)          Bolangir

iv)           Ganjam

v)        Puri

vi)           Sudergarh

20.  Punjab

i)              Jalandhar

ii)            Patiala

iii)          Bhatinda

21.  Rajasthan

i)       Jaisalmer

i)              Alwar

ii)            Banswara

iii)          Chittorgarh

iv)           Churu

v)             Jhalawar

vi)           Sirohi

vii)         Nagaur

viii)       Sawai Madhopur

22.  Tamil Nadu

i)              Chennai

ii)            Kanyakumari

23.  Tripura

 

i)              Agartala

ii)            N. Tripura

iii)          S. Tripura

24.  Uttar Pradesh

i)              Varanasi

ii)            Mau

iii)          Aligarh

iv)           Allahabad

v)             Jhansi

vi)           Faizabad

vii)         Bareilly

viii)       Gorakhpur

ix)          Sonebhadra

25.  Uttaranchal

i)              Dehradun

 

26. West Bengal

i)              Jalpaiguri

ii)            Bardman

iii)          Birbhum

iv)           Murshidabad