Hirday Paul Singh

Radio in Agricultural Development: Farm Radio Popular in Hills and Mountains Hirday Paul Singh

The study on Role of Radio in Agricultural Development was undertaken with the objectives to trace the role of radio in agricultural development, to find-out whether there is any shift or change in the farm practices of earlier times to the present times and drawbacks experienced by the farmers alongwith their suggestions for making radio more useful to the farming community. The results of the study revealed that nearly half of the respondents listened to the radio for agricultural information. It was noted that 85% of the respondents agreed that information gained through radio has improved their farming practices. About 28% of the respondents said that they have been able to adopt farm machinery, tools and their technical skill has also been enhanced. About 43% of the respondents got information about high yielding crop varieties and their sowing time from radio. Farm radio provided knowledge about balanced and judicious use of fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides to about 51% respondents. Respondents expressed their satisfaction as far as content, quality, presentation, duration, etc. of the radio programmes was concerned.