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Do agricultural magazines like Adike Pathrike have a market in Karnataka?

Fortunately we don't have many parallels to the like of Adike Pathrike. Right from writing, editing, publishing a good deal of distributing is also shouldered by practicing farmers. If your objective is welfare of your farmers, then you should have some clear policies. Then, the magazine can't be commercial. Yet, it can be professional. If you can provide need-based and useful information, with some voluntary inputs from a group of activists, you can make the magazine survive. But this calls for hard work. Adike Pathrike has proved that if the product is good, even an agricultural magazine can sell in new-stands. Today, nearly 60% of AP's sales is through newsstands.

You are an agriculturist and a well-known journalist. Does your experience in farming aid your career as a journalist?

This is like tightrope walking. You have to compromise in one field to achieve something in the other. Achievement, in its true sense. Farming fills my belly; journalism my heart. I take up issues that have positive and constructive messages. Without farming background it is difficult to do justice to the latter. In our country, the greatest tragedy is that the ones with practical knowledge never write. Being a farmer, I know the needs of fellow farmers regarding information, what is practical for us and what is not and about farmers interests.

Has the IT revolution helped the growth and development of agriculture in any form?

I have my own doubts. Technological advances alone, I am afraid, will not contribute towards the growth & development of the farming sector. You need pro-farmer policies, sincere efforts to provide justice to this deprived field and also a proper understanding of farmers' problems and real needs. In a country where most of the bureaucrats and politicians treat farmers as second-rate citizens, how can technology alone, however powerful, bring in constructive changes? You need understanding humans to exploit technologies for the benefit of certain sections- farming or any other sector.

Are there any new ventures in the field of need based journalism?

There are few good ventures of farmer-to -farmer communication or what we call as self-help journalism. Apart from Adike Pathrike, magazines like Siri Samrudhdhi, and Sujatha Sanchike are working for the cause. Recently, Centre for Alternative Agriculture Media (CAAM) has been launched in Dharwad with the same intention. CAAM has a website, www.farmedia.org. In Kerala, Kottayam farmers have launched a farm monthly by name Meenachchilinde Bhoomi Malayalam about a year ago.

How far can participatory journalism be successful in India? Has it helped farming in any way?

It is a relatively new concept. It is difficult to evaluate it on a national basis since there aren't too many experiments in this direction. But with regards to Adike Pathrike, I feel it has helped farmers in many ways.

Recent protests in Kasargod district against the spray of Endosulfan by the Kerala government has got worldwide attention. Could you give a clear picture of the situation?

Thrice a year, State owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala has been spraying endosulfan (before 1976 it was Endrin) over 4,500 hectares of cashew gardens of Kasaragod District since the last 3 decades. The aerial spray by helicopter is done violating all the precautionary measures . The area is very populated. One of the precautionary measures is that PCK should temporarily cover all the waterbodies in the area at its expense. This is totally violated . Though our people understood that this is causing harm - death of cattle, fish, frogs and other animals - it was late when we realised the gravest tragedy, which is suspected to be caused by this organo- chlorine poison. A local doctor, Dr.Y S Mohankumar, has been worrying since 4-5 years as to why there is a high incidence of Cancer & Central Nervous System (CNS) related diseases like Mental Reatardness, Psychiatry, Epilepsy and other disorders like born handicapped and suicides in our area, parts of Padre village.

This year, as in other areas, youngsters assembled and protested against the endosulfan aerial spray. Police shooed them away. The incident prompted our doctor to make two plus two. The diseases might be due to the insecticide, he suspected. A random survey showed 198 cases of these serious diseases in 124 houses, in a population of 2000. Families with 2 or more cases are 49 . We don't have a polluting industry nor our elders had these diseases. What probably is the country's second biggest pesticide tragedy. Though the tragedy has drawn a wide media limelight, administration and PCK seems to be deaf. Endosulfan being a persistent organic pollutant, our soil, atmosphere, waterbodies, milk -everything seems to be highly polluted moreover it is highly geno-toxic. Nobody can reverse the damage . Cancer seems to be tapping at our doors. It's high time that our government should institute an in-depth medical investigation and stop spraying till the results are out.

There is an enormous outflow of drilling borewell these days. Do you consider it as a constructive development?

Drilling more and more borewells is certianly not development. It is deterioration. In fact, the Department of Mines and Geology has warned a few years ago that if the pace with which groundwater is being pumped out from borewells in erstwhile DK district continues as it is, there are possibilities of sea water invading inside in coastal belt. Unfortunately, nobody has taken this warning seriously.

We should understand that groundwater is like overdraft loan; unless you repay, you can't withdraw. Groundwater Recharge or Rainharvesting is the need of the hour. We should also realise that if our conventional water source dries up, may it be dugwell or tank, sinking a borewell is not the only resort. For urban areas, roofwater harvesting is ideal. Depleting our water table by way of more and more borewells will only promote the water business that is increasing in cities like Bangalore, Mangalore, Tiptur and elsewhere.

Courtesy: www.southnexus.com dated February 24, 2001.

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