The jingle of Vayalum Veedum paints a picture of rusticity and greenery in the minds of the listener. After all, that is what radio is all about — sound that invokes the imagination of listeners. As the valedictory of the silver jubilee of Vayalum Veedum concluded here on Thursday, the discussions could not but turn to the role that the programme has played in transforming Kerala’s agricultural landscape.
From 1960s
“In the 1960s, when India was facing food shortage, the government was perplexed as to how they could reach the farmers and impart the knowledge of hybrid seeds and fertilizers to farmers. On the advice of the Ford Foundation, the Nehru government chose the medium of radio. That is how All India Radio started a big network of farm and home programmes whose main aim was to attain self-sufficiency and food security in India through information and communication. These programmes provided support to the masses and educated them. Vayalum Veedum was such a programme,” recalled R. Haley, former Director of Agriculture.
“There was a time when people used to gather in public places and listen to the radio as a community. When AIR aired Vayalum Veedum for the first time, the programme was much more interactive in nature. Farmers used to send their queries and AIR would respond to them in the programme. Vayalum Veedum was almost like a textbook for them. Earlier, our aim was to communicate new knowledge and techniques that farmers would otherwise be unaware of. Now, we have taken up the additional responsibility of bringing back Malayalis to farming. We provide information on terrace cultivation, grow-bag cultivation, hi-tech cultivation, and so on suited to the limited spaces that we are accustomed to today,” said Muraleedharan Thazhakkara, who now anchors the programme.
The jubilee of Vayalum Veedum , an epitome of everything that the radio symbolises — democracy of expression, information and communication — ended with Governor P. Sathasivam and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan gracing the valedictory event.
