Community Radio Station for Hisar farmers

HISAR: Thousand of farmers in the Hisar district of Haryana will now be able to tune in to the first Community Radio Station (CRS) on FM 91.2 set up at Haryana Agricultural University.
Apart from informing and educating farmers about agriculture and best practices in technology, seed,soil,weather, climate, it will also bring to focus important social issues and different government schemes for them.

Set up at a cost of Rs 25 lakh, the state government now targets to set one such CRS in each district. Currently it has got clearance by the Central government and approval of funding for two more such radio stations.

According to government officials the government plans to engage NGOs, universities and schools to popularise the concept in the state.Also, the government is contemplating to give radio sets to farmers at subsidised rates.

"In north India this is first community radio station for farmers and the programmes on agriculture and animal husbandry will be broadcast. Initially we will be broadcasting news for 8 hours in a day but we plan to extend it to 18 hours in the coming days,”Haryana Agriculture University ,vice-chancellor,Dr K.S.Khokhar.

The programmes will be made in local language and will also relay success stories of farmers to attract more farmers

The country's first community radio station for farmers was set up in Dharwad in Karnataka in 2007.Similar stations have been launched across the country to disseminate information on issues related to agriculture to farmers.

The broadcasting of the programmes began on Sunday and the station would transmit to a radius of around 30 km. Hisar is the hub of commodities like cotton, mustard, guar and wheat and dairy sector.

Community radio is expected to play a positive role in enhancing agriculture development in Haryana. "It will tell farmers how to cope with weather calamities, management of land, water and pesticides in farming and to adopt new methods to increase their earning," said Dr Khokhar.

According to the agriculture department ,nearly 70% of the state's population live in villages and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.