Kisan Channel fails to reach farmers

The prestigious and ambitious 'Kisan Channel', being telecast by the Vijayawada Doordarshan (DD) Kendra every day from January last year, has failed to reach the targeted groups "� farmers and other rural folk "� in the villages of Krishna and Guntur districts and a number of selected villages in Khammam, West Godavari and Nalgonda districts.

The reason being a simple technical problem "� lack of an antenna and a switchover system as the cable operators refuse to switch over from Hyderabad DD to Vijayawada DD.

The channel has been conceived and executed by the central government exclusively for the farmers in selected areas, costing crores of rupees.

Speaking to Business Standard, BRC Reddy, deputy director of Hyderabad Doordarshan (DD) Kendra, said: "Though the district collector asked the cable operators to screen the Kisan Channel programmes between 6 pm and 6.30 pm every day, the latter have not yet fallen in line."

The high power transmitter, specially erected at Kondapalli near Vijayawada, is capable of telecasting Kisan Channel programmes to villages in the five districts that come under 70-km radius around the city.

The channel specialises in producing and telecasting localised problems of farmers and various other dimensions of rural life in the selected districts.

It telecasts programmes between 6 pm and 6.30 pm every day when Hyderabad Doordarshan Kendra programmes are jammed. The Kondapalli transmitter deviates Hyderabad DD programmes and telecasts its own Kisan Channel programmes during that half-an hour slot.

The viewers, however, should change from the Hyderabad DD to Vijayawada DD with the help of a simple switchover system and an antenna and watch the programmes.

Though the Vijayawada Doordarshan Kendra had produced and telecast hundreds of useful programmes on agriculture this year, unfortunately none of them reached the villagers of the five districts.

The kendra produces programmes in collaboration with agricultural and animal husbandry ministries, departments, universities, and research stations of state and central governments, and private experts and farm institutions.

The programmes depict and debate a gamut of agri issues, technologies, methods, storage, remunerative prices, marketing problems, exports, suicides, bureaucratic hassles, short-sighted policies, delays in the implementation of well intentioned programmes, fake seeds, fake pesticides, fake fertilisers and other related subjects.

However, the channel had failed to serve the purpose as the service did not reach lakhs of cable TV households as cable operators refuse to switch over from Hyderabad DD to Vijayawada DD. The agri programmes can be watched only in a few non-cable TV houses.

Interested viewers should fix an antenna and a switchover system to their TVs to watch the programmes. The switchover system with antenna would cost them only Rs 100 and help them view Vijayawada agri programmes after Hyderabad DD programmes are squeezed.

As almost all the houses in the villages of five districts do not have separate antenna and switchover system, they are unable to watch the Kisan Channel programmes and get benefit out of them. "We are unaware of the Kisan Channel and its programmes," a number of villagers told Business Standard.

"Farmers and other villagers should voluntarily buy the cheap switchover system with an antenna, get it installed to their TVs and watch programmes. At present, my teams are doing episodes in 20 villages each in Krishna and Guntur districts, covering 35 to 40 mandals," Reddy said.

"Most of the villages in the five districts have community television sets. We have advised the sarpanches and village leaders to take initiative to equip those TVs with the switchover systems. If they fail to avail the service, the government's mega and meaningful venture would go in vain," Reddy said.

"The DD surveys revealed that the villages of the five districts are under siege by a number of chronic problems including acute water scarcity, both irrigation and potable, which should be solved as early as possible," he added.

"The Kisan Channel was first inaugurated in the country at Amalapuram in East Godavari district on an experimental basis with a token transmitter, which can telecast programmes to places lying under 15-km radius only. In the second phase of the Kisan Channel, implemented this year, Vijayawada, along with 11 other cities spread across the country, was selected. The channel would be extended to 30 more cities soon and 300 centres by the end of this financial year. The government envisions opening of these separate channels in about 1,600 centres all over the country," he said.