Govt cuts farm airtime: Kisan Ki Baat, Kisanvani 3 days a week

Sources said the decision was taken after the agriculture ministry asked Prasar Bharati to reduce the frequency of such programmes, both on Doordarshan and Akashvani, citing “better utilisation of funds”.

In a letter to Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Gaurav Dwivedi dated July 19, Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary (Extension), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, said: “In order to better utilisation of funds under the Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension Scheme (MMSAE), this department has decided to place about 40 per cent of fund under advertising and publicity with the CBC (Central Bureau of Communication, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) for effective dissemination of information of department’s schemes, ongoing initiatives, policy decisions, advisories etc for wider publicity among the farming community and other stakeholders.”

“Hence, the frequency of a number of fresh sponsored programmes being telecast/ broadcast through 18 DD Regional Kendras, DD Kisan and 97 FM AIR Stations have been reduced each from 05/ 06 days to 03 days/week and also the time duration of programmes namely Hello Kisan on DD Kisan is reduced from 60 minutes to 30 minutes from August 1, 2023 onwards,” he wrote.

“Prasar Bharati is hereby requested to take the needful action and may submit media plan accordingly, along with other requisite documents for the release of the first installment of funds towards sponsored programmes (2023-24),” he wrote.

Kumar did not respond to queries on the issue.

When contacted, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s office said the “main goal” is to use “new methods of media”.

Following Kumar’s letter, Prasar Bharati, in a communication to programme heads of the AIR stations dated July 26, said: “All identified 96 Akashvani stations broadcasting Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Govt of India, sponsored ‘Kisanvani’ programme and Akashvani Delhi FM Gold Channel broadcasting ‘Kisan Ki Baat’ programme, are informed that the frequency of broadcast of these programmes has been reduced from six days a week to three days a week with effect from August 1, 2023.”

It said the “duration of the Kisanvani programme will however, remain unchanged i.e. 30 minutes”. “Concerned stations are therefore advised to reschedule their programmes planned in advance accordingly; broadcast in-house farm & home programmes in the vacated programme time slots and try to seek local sponsorship for the same,” said the circular.

Launched in February 2004, ‘Kisanvani’ is a half-an-hour radio programme aired from Monday to Saturday, at 6:30 pm, through 96 stations of Akashvani across the country. It is aimed at keeping local farmers informed about the daily market rates, weather reports and day-to-day information in their areas at a micro level, said a source.

Aired in local languages and dialects, ‘Kisanvani’ is mostly interactive in content, involving field-based recordings of farmers and studio dial-outs and dial-ins with experts and the farming community which are quite popular among the target audience, said the source.

Following the popularity of this programme, the government launched ‘Kisan Ki Baat’ in September 2018, on the lines of ‘Kisanvani’, said the source. ‘Kisan Ki Baat’ is also a half-an-hour programme, aired from Monday to Saturday at 3:10 pm. Both programmes come under the “Farm & Home Unit” of Prasar Bharati.

According to sources, ‘Kisanvani’ is among the sources of revenue for Akashvani. It raked in an annual revenue of Rs 38 crore in 2013-14, which increased to about Rs 45 crore in 2022-23, said a source.

In its response, Tomar’s office said: “With the consent of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, schemes and other information related to agriculture should be effectively conveyed to the farmers through new mediums. That is why it has been decided to broadcast 30-minute Kisanvani and Kisan Ki Baat programmes… on three days in a week instead of six days a week, and on other days the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting can re-telecast these programmes.”

“New agricultural techniques, advisories, scheme provisions, new initiatives, agricultural-related schemes… and other information has to reach the farmers by making maximum use of other means of media such as print advertisements/ materials, social media, digital publicity, effective publicity on TV/radio etc,” it said.

“Earlier, the expenditure on agricultural publicity was done through Prasar Bharati… now the expenditure will be done only through the Central Bureau of Communications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,” the statement said.

“Therefore, to say that there has been a reduction in the expenditure for the dissemination of information related to agriculture, is not correct, but the main goal is to spread among farmers, quickly and effectively, new initiatives and other information of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, using the above new methods of media,” it said.

According to sources, the agriculture ministry’s decision followed exchange of communication with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in May-June this year. On July 6, a meeting was held for allocation of advertising and publicity budget of the central ministries/ departments to the CBC.