|
|
Self-help journalism |
|
Mr. Shree Padre, a farmer and journalist, narrates a unique success story of self-help journalism among farmers. Those who grow never write; those who write don't grow. This, in a nutshell, is the root problem of our farm journalism. We have good number of farm magazines, supplied at highly subsidized rates through subscription. Their aim: betterment of farming community. In numbers, they look impressive. But what about quality and purpose? Before going into the details of an unique, successful experiment of self-help journalism, that is, farmers penning for their fellowmen, it is essential to examine the deficiencies and drawbacks of the present kind of farm journalism. Farm journalism is being fed mainly through two ways. One: through the magazines. Nine out of ten such magazines are either published by our agriculture universities or by the agriculture research institutes run by Indian Council of Agriculture Research. Two: through farm pages of mainstream dailies and periodicals. One thing common in both are the writers. Either they are scientists or professors of these institutions or so called agricultural experts. In one way or other all these writers are government controlled. Before going into the details of a successful experiment called self-help journalism, that is, farmers' writing for their fellowmen, it is essential to examine the deficiencies and drawbacks of the present kind of farm journalism. These gentlemen write what they believe is useful for the farming community. But, in reality, for the target groups, it's nothing more than an academic output, which remains far off from their information needs. Library-borne write-ups Most of these write-ups are library-borne. Field contact is conspicuously lacking. That's why, a feature titled, Profitable crop: Turmeric is almost a carbon copy of what has appeared a couple of years ago; Except the long list of 4-5 writers attached to it. Old wine in old bottle. In the fields, cultivation methods differ from plot to plot; they don't remain stagnant for years. But even after a decade, our experts present the same old turmeric article as if it is new. All these writers stick to a hackneyed formula. Take any crop, there are fixed sub-headings. Botanical description of the plant, required soil type, spacing, cultivation method, irrigation, manuring, diseases and pests, plant protection and economics. There is so much about the crop, but unfortunately, so little about the farmer who has grown it. What does the farmer have to say about this crop? What are its merits and demerits according to him? How does he compare it with his older crops? Is there Dependency for seed/planting material? Is this crop labor intensive? How easy or difficult the marketing is? Does it need profuse irrigation? How is the incidence of pest attack and diseases? Is pest/disease management difficult? How does he assess the prospects of the crop? Aren't these unanswered questions important from readers' point of view? Does your statistics of 'income per hectare' picked from research plots have any relevance for him? Most of the articles recommend a heavy dose of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Much against the ethics, many a times, brand names are also mentioned. This leaves a reader wondering whether the writer is doing a public relations exercise for some chemical company. Even if there are some proven non-chemical methods adopted by farmers that are not included in article, at least saying that 'some farmers follow this non-chemical method, which they claim as successful'. Presentation of half-truths Exaggeration and passing half-truths, as reality is another serious problem. A farm journalist should have more responsibility and self-restraint before going into black and white. It is not like a filmy gossip or political 'king might fall tomorrow' sort of write-up. Thousands of farmers read an agricultural article, put lots of expenditure and pains to implement the recommended idea. Result comes very late, may be in a year, or half a decade after. Even if doesn't offer anything new or useful, the farm writing should never amount to misleading the farmer readers. The writer should try to see all the aspects from farmers' eyes. Whenever an article on a new crop or latest technology appears, it seldom makes any mention of the demerits. Only after years, when next crop is released or when improved version of this technology comes, the experts reveal the drawbacks of earlier crop/technology to emphasize that the newer is better. Scientists not being able to communicate simply and effectively is altogether a different issue when compared to the above-mentioned serious deficiencies. To be fair to our scientific fraternity, during the course of their education, except the extension people, others are not trained for this. I am always of the opinion that the curriculum for agricultural scientists should include a thorough training to equip them with better and simple communication methods, to do so in local language too. You can't have extension staff everywhere you go and every time you are required to interact with your target group. Adike Pathrike's efforts
Being let down by the farm articles many a times, we, an apolitical farmers organisation , All India Areca Growers Association® , started a publication of our own , Adike Pathrike , 12 years ago. A monthly in Kannada mainly catering to areca growers. On all the subjects under sun which is useful or informative - in that order of priority. Uniqueness of the publication is that starting from writing articles, all major disciplines of a magazine production such as editing, publishing and even distribution (news agency) is mainly shouldered by practicing farmers. An adventure, which perhaps have no parallels in the country. We keep the areca growers info needs in mind. One advantage we have is that being farmers ourselves, we are in fairly better position to precisely list out our information needs and to divide it according priority. Our major challenge lies in identifying the writers who can deliver right kind of information, and then, to get it written by them. The subjects we cover are of a very wide range. It's not about arecanut alone. Animal husbandry, dog rearing, poultry, research news, other crops like coconut, cocoa, banana, pepper, spices, vegetables, fruit varieties, farmer innovation, experiments, indigenous knowledge, herbal medicine, labor saving devices, farmers organizations, marketing achievements, organic farming, non-chemical pesticides, manure preparation, success stories, failure stories, post harvest technologies, driers, environment, rain harvesting, soil and water conservation (SWC), forgotten agriculture practices - the list is endless . A meaningful platform When we started, there was no such open platform for farmers. We thought, since we sincerely intend to highlight farmers' own time-tested experiences, articles would pour in. That was not to be. What poured in were the same formula articles, which had a big name tag and very poor content. It didn't take us long to realize that to provide need-based information, you can't rely on write-ups that come on their own by mail. You have to slog to achieve quality. We started appealing to farmers to send in any write-up, which they thought has a new and definite message for their counterparts. If need be, we'll rewrite it, we announced. This melted the ice, but not to the desired extent. One thing we were convinced was that if there is content in the output sent by somebody, style can be given. Doesn't matter if the situation requires 2-3 rounds of correspondence or a few telephone calls. In the initial 5-6 years, more than 80 percent of farmers' inputs required subbing, rewriting or salvaging depending on the contents. But then, it is worth all the trouble taken. Another realization that came is this: Unless the writer has a thorough knowledge of farming, or still better, experience in farming, it is very difficult to do justice. This is because a farm article calls for lot of practical ideas. It requires judgment, putting right questions to your source at right time, eliciting the information etc. Somebody has wisely said that only those who wear shoes can pinpoint where exactly it pinches! Training farmers in journalism
Instead of pinning our hopes on staff journalists who didn't have time or inclination or both to pen down a worthy article for us, we wondered, why not impart a working knowledge of journalism to enthusiastic farmers ? This is the objective with which we started our Krishikara Kaige Lekhani (meaning handing over pen to farmers, in Kannada) workshops. We gave wide publicity. Trainees were selected from among the applicants after screening. So far we have conducted six four-day workshops in some selected rural hamlets covering 5 districts . One was organised in GKVK campus of University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore. Workshops covered lectures, exercises and a field assignment to identify issues and to elicit right kind of information from fellow farmers. Apart from 175 farmers, a sprinkling of agriculture officers from banks, professors from agricultural universities, a good number of agriculture graduates have been trained this way. The orientation is not only to write to our magazine, but to the mainstream media as well. At least more than hand counts have risen the rungs of journalism and are today writing for even bigger publications. The syllabus of the KKL workshops is brought out in a book form under the title Krishikara Kaige Lekhani. Today this has turned a reference guide to all the farm journalism workshops.
Instead of 'producing' an issue from the voluntarily sent articles, we started identifying and commissioning farmers and others who had the stuff. If they were entirely new to writing, we would send a threadbare questionnaire. Answering all the questions almost provided the info you were looking for. If the writer is our trainee, some guidelines here and there is suffice. Lions share of our contents are exclusive and are commissioned. If need be, we contact the commissioned farmer again and again by post or mail. On special situations either us or our trainees make a spot visit to help prepare a more reliable and objective article. Identifying the information needs, searching for writer, contacting, encouraging him, follow-up - this is always an ongoing task. If you make a contact today, the article in its final shape might get ready after 6 months or one year . Our editor's job is not restricted to 'editing' only. He is more of a visualizer, an organizer, a guide and sometimes even a 'pesterer'! Whenever we publish about a new crop , we juxtapose the introductory article with an opinion oriented one from an experienced farmer who has grown it for at least some years . His contact address and telephone number is also published. Idea is to provide maximum scope for the interested farmer to have a first-hand study and to come to his own conclusion. Similarly in farmers' meets and seminars where we participate as co-organizers, we suggest inviting experienced farmers also as guests along with experts. There should be a mutually respecting relationship between the science and experience. It's high time to change the mental block that 'all experts are here to say and farmers to listen '. Farmers plight Present day farm journalism has taken farmer, a vital information source, for granted. As far as farming information is concerned he is an unavoidable source because he is the real performer. Moreover, question of credit, policy restrictions, director/VC's permission, Institutional reputation, and other ' helplessness' doesn't come in his way of revealing the truth. He calls a spade a spade. Even if some of them try to exaggerate or to plant stories with vested interest, other farmers criticize this in the very next issue, though they might chose to ignore such acts by a scientist. If a new crop grown by a farmer fails, he never conceals it. Most of them are transparent in their views. If a newly wed bride asks with a mother of two as to how the delivery pain is like - the latter won't lie. Seeking an experienced farmer's views can be likened to this. Though his bent of mind might reflect in his views, for another farmer, it is always easy and helpful to arrive at his opinion. Approach of our agriculture extension is such that it doesn't take note of the wisdom, thinking capacity and intelligence of the receiver. Moreover, it's always one sided. A farmer's innovation or invention, however successful it is, not picked up by extension network for further spreading. Instead, it'll prefer to impose an unsuccessful one from a government research centre. Self-help extension We, by our over a decades observation, found that for many of our farmers problems, their own counterparts have the right answer. Because of our poor farmer-to-farmer communication, this potential is not realized by the higher-ups and extension pundits. We, for example, have a monthly column, Readers' Questions in which farmers put many specific questions. The questions they don't know whom to put. Some very silly looking but is very important for his profession. Like how can we control crab menace. Or why the coriander available in market doesn't germinate. Interestingly, other farmers come out with answers most of which are very useful. This column of ours is very popular. An agricultural publication, like many other profession-based journals has three possible expectations from its consumer. Buying, Reading and most important - Implementing. We get a feedback of considerable amount of implementation of practical ideas carried in our magazine. By way of diffusion, there are instances where it has extended to non-readers too. Electronic fence to prevent cattle and wild boar, control of crabs, fruit-flies, rhinoceros beetles, vermicomposting on home and commercial scale, growing paddy on your threshing yard under rain fed conditions, 'ringing' method to induce yielding in citrus plants, pruning of mango trees for yielding, growing vegetables by double-digging method, top-working in jack & mango, emphasis on growing multiuse variety of forest spices like Kokum (Garcinia indica), Uppage (G.gummigutta), Protecting areca gardens from northern sun-rays , recycling dried areca leaves etc in garden itself , fodder production for dairying, liquid slurry usage instead of buying manure from outside , sand bag check-dams, rain harvesting, the list of widely adopted ideas is still big . Creating awareness By painstakingly collecting and disseminating information -even through slide-shows and demonstrations- we are able to build up considerable awareness in our circulation area of 8 districts - where water recharging was an unknown word earlier. Since the last four years , we have been running a feature series in the subject . Mostly success stories collected from different parts of the country. Taking clue from the series quite a good number have implemented rain harvesting in their own way. Hand counts of success stories have come from our readers themselves. The interest is growing. One outstanding success story has come from Soraba. Mr. Lakshminarayana, a Junior Engineer in State Electricity Department had had a 30 ft well dug. It was almost a failure - with only one feet of water. He then started harvesting rain. Spending 1,200 Rupees, he had 4-5 long contour trenches dug in his 2-acre plot. That changed the whole scenario. Last year, 3 seasons later, when Lakshminarayana wrote the feature on our request, his well had a pretty 16 ft of water in summer end. We have a column called Seed distribution. Agricultural Universities and Research Stations release new plant varieties. But the interest with which they send the press releases for publication doesn't continue while interested farmers approach them for some sample seeds. We tried to bridge this gap in a small way. We keep on collecting seeds from such scientific institutions as well as from farmers. The new releases from universities, and rare, threatened verities from farmers. A publication on the variety follows in the magazine. Seeds are then distributed by mail to those who send envelopes and directly to farmers who visit our office for the purpose. Widening the canvas
Later, we started two important columns: Plant friendship and Farm Experience Exchange Tour. Like pen friends column, readers with plant varieties and those interested in having some specific plants send their entries to the column. After publication, there will be mail and personal contacts, developing into friendship, courtesy a plant.
Imagine that a farmer wants to make a study about a particular crop or technology. It is no use directly visiting the place, staying in nearby lodge and then making inquires. Instead, if he visits a farmer of that area with prior consent, he can very well make further contacts and get to the bottom of the issue. This way farm information is exchanged between those interested to 'tell about it ' and those who want to ' know further '. Five years ago, we floated a unique plant friendship organization at Puttur, 'Samruddhi'. Objective is to exchange information and planting material between hobbyists of vegetable, fruit, ornamental and medicinal plant growers. About 40-50 farmers from the neighboring five taluks meet regularly in a month. Exchange takes place in the meeting and also personal contact between members. Newer varieties of plants, seeds etc are 'imported' from other parts of the country and are distributed. Study tours are frequently conducted. Variety consciousness has risen a great deal. For plant-lovers around, Samruddhi meeting is a much-awaited occasion now. Main limitation of farmer-to-farmer communication is that somebody has to zealously encourage and follow-up the assignments. Many farmers have hesitation and inferior complex. They have to be reassured. Instead of they themselves expressing in paper, most farmers would be damn happy if somebody volunteer to do the job for them. Payment or things like cover page exposure are not much of an attraction for farmer writers; nor do they understand the pressure of deadlines. Yet times, there is a tendency to generalize and to jump to conclusions. But all said and done, they have a Pandora's box of information - for those who are able to open it. Compared to the theoretical, academic jottings of a person who has never stepped down to a field, the raw, styleless, initial penning attempt of a resourceful farmer would always outweigh. Though getting farmers to write for their fellowmen seems and is difficult, it is not impossible. Adike Pathrike, during its over a decades standing has been successful in making a definite footprint in purposeful farm journalism. Many of the district newspapers reproduce articles from our magazine, mentioning the source. Mainstream press is now accommodating more agriculture articles. On invitation from Krishiloka, a Kannada farm monthly of 25 years, Ksheerasagara, Kannada monthly on dairy farming by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and Kerala Horticulture Development Corporation (KHDC) which publishes a newsletter in Malayalam - Adike Pathrike team has planned and conducted journalism workshops. Honeybee (English periodical from Gujarath) and Iliea (English - Netherlands), Malayala Manorama (Malayalam - Kerala) and many Kannada periodicals have published features hailing the idea - farmer-to-farmer communication. As per an opinion poll conducted by us, most of the subscribers of Adike Pathrike don't put their old issues to 'raddi'; they are book bound and preserved for future reference. Reliability, it seems, is our greatest achievement. Also read: Reforming farm journalism: The experience of Adike Pathrike in India
Shree Padre |
