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Harish Damodaran
Nithya Subramanian

New Delhi , Jan. 10

HERE is yet another of those seemingly never-ending pre-election offerings from the ruling BJP-led alliance, directed at the country's 12 crore-odd farming households. On January 20, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will formally unveil a dedicated `Jaikisan' television channel, an FM radio service and, to top it all, a call centre facility for agriculturists.

According to official sources, the proposed farm channel involves both narrowcasting using Doordarshan's wide terrestrial network as well as beaming through the Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) satellite/cable TV infrastructure. The projected outlay: Rs 350 crore over the next three years.

DD currently has the world's largest terrestrial network of 829 low power transmitters (LPT) of 15 km range, 166 high power transmitters of 60-70 km range and 371 very low power transmitters. This network reaches about 41.1 million homes, of which nearly 16 million are in rural areas.

"The LPTs, each of which cover a population of about four lakh, have the capacity to deliver very localised programmes. The plan is to start with pilot functioning in 12 State Agricultural Universities and have one-hour programmes incorporating local farm-related content for six days of the week," the sources said.

The second, parallel route would utilise IGNOU's transponder on INSAT 3-C, whose footprint covers the entire country. The transponder has a capacity to beam six digital channels, which can be received by any C-band downlink.

"IGNOU already has earth stations, transmission equipment and studio facilities that can be upgraded to launch a full-fledged channel," the sources added. These can be used to reach out to the estimated 40.5-million cable/satellite homes, including over 13 million in rural areas.

Besides TV, the agri-related programmes will also be aired through the All India Radio's (AIR) 140 FM radio stations, of which 98 are rural/semi-urban-based.

"The intention is to have programming in local languages specific to each State's agro-climatic regime. There is no point in broadcasting information regarding timely sowing of wheat or late blight in potato to a rubber farmer in Kerala.

To monitor content creation, there will be, in addition to a Central apex committee under the Agriculture Minister, similar bodies at the State and district-level headed by the Agricultural Production Commissioner and District Magistrate concerned," the sources added.

Finally, in an apparent bid to dispel the impression that IT and telecom are only for the `classes', there is the move to establish Kisan call centres, enabling farmers to obtain crop, weather and price-related information through phone.

All the farmer has to do is dial `1101', a toll-free number, and post his query.

The call will land in 12 locations around the country and be received by an agent, who would be an agriculture science graduate.

"If the agent cannot answer the query himself, he will revert to the farmer after plugging in for further expert advice. The Government will pick the tab on the phone call made by the farmer," the sources said. A budget of Rs 50 crore has been set aside for this purpose during the remaining period of the Tenth Plan.

More Stories on : Agriculture | Radio/TV | Agricultural Policy

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