Role of the media in agricultural development

Naorem Nishikanta Singh *

A Pineapple farmer at the 5th Manipur Pineapple Festival 2012 at Sendra Craft and Mela Ground, Bishnupur in August 2012 :: Pix - Bunti Phurailatpam

We need mother earth to survive and food to sustain. How much of us do sometime rethink the worth of a bowl of food during famine, drought or flood? Recently in North Korea, Father kills his child to cook and eat up due to famine, says the Daily Mail. The father is not heartless, mind it! It is the demand of hungry man who took up that most rare case. The security of life, esteem of family, social relations are all gone when there is no food to fill up our hungry stomach. Giving a pressure on this, we should not discourage or look-down the farmers. They are the real hero of our Nation's pride.

Maximum of Indian citizen are agrarian, 70% of the population live in village, who do not go to office but do go to field to feed the nation. Agriculture is the back bone of economy, the innovation and advance education in this platform definitely will provide a room to improve nation's socio economic conditions. There is no doubt that agriculture is back on the development agenda.

But despite the promises and the rhetoric from governments worldwide, investment in agriculture and rural development is still lagging. Unemployment is a big issue that hurdles the development of nation and it also lead to commit different unwanted crimes regarding drug paddling, sex assault, and monetary demands etc in almost every cities and towns in India. We are now in a high time to come into a resolution. One of the points towards the resolution is Food Security.

Understanding the role of journalists

I think the media is decisive in helping farmers access the information that they need and transmitting their concerns. But I think we are making a mistake in depending on mainstream media to do this. In the country like India, farmers are generally poor and they do not have their own farm land to cultivate and such farmers cannot afford sophisticated technologies and media to nurture their cultivable land or food grains. So they depend on Radio, as such they are illiterate to read newspapers at large.

In our context, agri-based programmes should be more innovative and it should cover most of day schedule. Discussion in a studio room and giving suggestion in practical is impractical, so better be on spot. Still, the role of the media in our country as an effective player in agricultural and rural development is undervalued. The media have a role to play in funding and investment for agriculture. By creating greater awareness, they can encourage political decision-makers to become more actively involved in agricultural and rural innovation processes.

In other country

WRENmedia - is a multi-media communication company based in the UK focusing mainly on agriculture. One of its main activities is producing an online magazine on agricultural development in the tropics, New Agriculturist. It also have a monthly radio service with interviews recorded by Africans for Africans, which is sent to over 80 radio stations across Africa. Agriculture is back on the development agenda and radio is still seen as one of the most effective ways of reaching rural populations. However, African journalists have very little training, if any, or background in agriculture.

In Benin, a country in West Africa, farmers are making videos to share skills and knowledge on good agricultural practice with other communities.

The African, Caribbean, and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)'s 2009 annual seminar at Belgium in 2009 considered that, the media need to provide more reliable, up-to-date information on development, particularly the consequences for development of food, economic, and financial crises, and should disseminate information appropriately to political decision makers and rural communities, among the most seriously affected by these crises.

In India

In our country, eventhough a poor country, the central and state government set up many programmes to increase our productivity with limited available resources and to preserve the existing resources to sustain the future generations. Regarding irrigation, HYV seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. Our government put up many plans and actions like seeds in subsidized rate, AIBP-accelerated irrigation benefit programme (major, medium and minor projects), waves of farmers loan to retard farmer suicide etc. India is a agrarian society and maximum of the farmer depend on monsoon, and their cultivation is extremely affected by the global unbalance in climate.

Government's media organizations like PIB, DAVP and NGOs occasionally exhibit the developmental programmes and schemes regarding agriculture, animal husbandry, soil testing in addition to the information disseminate by institutions and universities. Radio and Television programmes carry such useful episodes to educate our illiterate and literate farmers. Sponsor projects for farmers exclusively are found in media (print or electronic). We are no afar from such programmes from utilization. Anybody can take a chance to use media to grab information in such account.