80 years of service to the farmers of India
Today All India Radio completes 80 years of service to the country. I recall when I was young All India Radio was the source of cricket and other important commentaries. Commentators like Melville De’Mello became household names. All India Radio played a particularly important role in ushering the Green Revolution in the 1960s. There were no televisions and mobile telephones at that time. AIR popularised inexpensive transistor radios which farmers used to carry to the fields. Hourly advise was given on how to handle the new high yielding varieties which required different agronomic management. For example, the depth of sowing of seeds and the timing of the first irrigation were different in the case of the dwarf varieties. Thanks to AIR farmers learnt how to manage the new plant type very speedily. Also the new varieties were known as ‘radio varieties’ since they had heard about them only through the radio. On this occasion, when we have graduated from a ship to mouth existence to conferring the legal right to food through the Food Security Act, I salute AIR on its invaluable contribution to the genesis and growth of the Green Revolution.
M S Swaminathan,Email: swami@mssrf.res.in,Twitter: @msswaminathan
Contributed by :Farm Radio Chennai – farmradiochennai@gmail.com R. RAJAGOPAL, PROGRAMME EXECUTIVE, FARM & HOME SECTION, ALL INDIA RADIO, CHENNAI – 600 004.