In the 1960s, the Union government began thinking about effective ways to spread awareness of farming techniques and efficient food production in the country’s villages. The failure of the ‘Grow More’ campaign, which began during the British era, set off such a thought process. It led to the conceiving of a programme which has now completed 50 successful years in All India Radio stations – Vayalum Veedum (Farm and home).
Thrissur station was among the 10 stations initially selected for farm-related programmes. The first episode was broadcast on August 11, 1966. In 1972, the programme was broadcast from the Kozhikode station and in 1986, from Thiruvananthapuram. Currently, the programme is being broadcast in the name of Kisanvani from all stations.
In the initial days, the programme was run by officials on deputation from the Agriculture Department. They used to serve as ‘Radio farm officers.’ For scripting the episodes, the Akashavani had the services of several writers including Kovilan, Akkitham, Madambu Kunjukuttan, S. Ramesan Nair, P.P. Sreedharanunni and N.N. Kakkad. Filmmaker P. Padmarajan and his wife Radha Lekshmi had served as announcers of Vayalum Veedum. The programme provided a platform for voices from across the rural belt of the State, with the air waves enriched by a variety of dialects. The advisory committee meeting of the Vayalum Veedum programme held every three months, has served as a kind of social auditing on developmental journalism. The meetings analyse the programmes of the past three months and plan for the next three months. The Thiruvananathapuram Akashavani still dedicates around four hours a week for programming on agriculture. In the golden jubilee celebrations held in recent months in various districts, farmers and farming experts from the districts participated. On May 3 and 4, Thiruvananthapuram will host a State-level agriculture exhibition, quiz, and other programmes. The suggestions collected from farmers at the district-level programmes will be submitted to the State government.
