I Appreciate your effort to the welfare of the farming community. Go-head with your concept. Good luck!

M.G.Sathyanarayana
Magosan Exports, Kukkujadka

Congratulations. It's a good begining.
Do let me know as to how do you expect others to participate. Is it informal communication on issues of common concern or are you visualising it as a possible e-tool to empower the farmer. Keep up the good work.

U.N.Ravikumar
Director, CART, Mysore

Thank you very much for your email announcing setting up of centre for alternative agricultural media. I am sure it is an exciting venture. Please arrange to send some more details on the proposed modalities of operating the centre especially specifying the immediate activities that are proposed to be taken up. Also kindly specify the kind of participation that you are expecting from us.

G.N.S.REDDY
Programme Director, BAIF, Tiptur

It is a good effort and keep it up.

Prof Anil K Gupta
Professor, Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad and
Coordinator SRISTI and Editor, Honey Bee

The e- bulletin is such an interesting idea and am sure a very useful one at this juncture. The document on Alternative Agricultural Media is a very innovative way of involving farmers to write about themselves and their experiences. It had always made me so helpless reading magazines like Kisan World, which is basically an industrialist’s idea of the world of Kisan.
Please kindly send me your e- bulletin. I would like to read it regularly.

Pushpa Surendra
Farmer/Writer, Mysore

Greetings! Congratulations & Best wishes for the proposed Centre for Alternative Agricultural Media.
I would like to receive CAAM bulletins as I find them to be interesting, useful and educative.
I know one Malayalam publication titled ‘Bhumimalayalam’, a magazine brought out by a group of farmers from Kottayam District in similar lines with ‘Adike Pathrike’.

I extend my wholehearted support and co-operation for your efforts. Kindly let me know how I can be of help to you. Hope a workshop of the like-minded people will help in networking.

Dr. R. M. Prasad
Kerala Agriculture University
Mannuthy

I am delighted to get your email and to know that you are going to be setting up an alternative agricultural media. This is something very important because we are all neglecting public discussions on agriculture despite its critical importance.
With my very best wishes,

ANIL AGARWAL
Editor, Down To Earth, New Delhi

I have gone through your communication with great interest. I find that it is extremely good, on the following aspects.
1. What you are attempting to do, is necessary in view of gaps in today's communication processes.
2. Your intentions and enthusiasms are in right direction.
3. Your background and experience will be of help for the task.

Korah Mathen
Ahmedabad

I have browsed your proposal and it appears to be full of practical knowledge and wisdom. I must confess this is not an area I have delved into in any depth but I am interested in the themes you raise from 2 perspectives –

1. As a communication teacher who is learning more about how communication networks can link local communities (including agricultural) with useful knowledge and how information flows and is used by different sectors e.g. farmers and experts/scientists in the cities.
2. As a radio practitioner and educator, in many countries incl. my own, radio has been the most popular medium for rural people to access info from the centres of power and organise their own networks. Realistically i believe lasting benefits still require substantial input from policy makers and eventually funds to realise some of the insights that you provide in your proposal.

Steve Sharp
Internews Indonesia
Training Consultant, Jakarta

I write quickly to wish you all the best of luck with your efforts. I think your objectives and intentions are noble and I hope you succeed.
Meanwhile, I have a suggestion. Give your centre a mainstream name: on the whole I would suggest you not use the word alternative as it might ghettoise your effort. Why not Centre for Agriculatural Media? Straight and simple?

Once again my very best wishes.

P. Sainath
Journalist, Mumbai

I was much affected by the utmost seriousness of concern and the incisive understanding of our distressingly insensitive intellectual situation, which your "test bulletin " reveals. I have read them with much interest.

Ravichandra Chittampalli
Mysore University

After going through the CAAM proposal and other materials, the potential of your project to make a difference where it really matters, interests me.
I am no farmer but an english teacher in a college in bangalore. One of the things I like doing is expose  myself and my students to 'other' and perhaps more fulfilling ways of thinking and living.I am just wondering if your website  will eventually have some material to offer which could be used in the classroom as a part of interventionist pedagogy.
It was a pleasure to here of you and your work.The very best  of wishes for your effort and warm regards,

R. Rajaram
Bangalore

I have read through the back issues of your e-bulletin and also visited your site. Accept my greetings for the great work you are doing.
I started off Food Updates while looking for specific information on Indian Agriculture on the web and not finding enough. When I started in Aug 99, it was news clips compiled and sent to a few friends in Tamilnadu. But, since June 2000 we have taken a different direction, giving more focus and also trying to reach more people. Now we reach about 300 people (mostly institutions).
I shall be very interested to use some of the material published in the CAAM with due credits. I can also add a link with short write-up on the site as part of the updates, this could be even a regular feature. We would be happy if the information we carry reaches more people.

Ram
Chief
SAMANVAYA
Chennai, Tamil Nadu

I am interested to know more about CAAM and to participate in your quest for farmer friendly communication systems.
I am 31 years old. I hold a diploma in Mass Communication, a Bachelor of Arts Degree also in Mass Communication at the Benue State University, Makurdi-Nigeria. I have completed a Master of Arts Degree course work in Mass Communication at the Benue State University recently and currently working on my thesis.
I have interest in development journalism and have started a rural Newspaper titled "The Outreach" as a way of bridging the communication gap between the rural and urban dwellers in Benue State and beyond. I believe if we work in tandem, farm journalism will receive a boost in our community as well.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Samson Ademagba Sambe (ANIPR)
Public Relation Unit
Hospital Management Board, P.M.B. 102338
Makurdi, Benue State