Agricultural Communication and Sustainable Development

Contents: Introduction. I. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and agricultural communication: 1. The role of communication in agricultural development/N. Jayaram. 2. Expanding the village knowledge centres in Pondicherry/S. Senthilkumaran and Subbiah Arunachalam. 3. Transforming lives with ICT's--focus on Thiruvaiyaru Village, Thanjavur District/L. Vedavalli. 4. Institutional innovations and markets linkages for poverty alleviation and sustainable development of small scale farmers/Ashok S. Alur, P. Parthasarathy Rao, Ch Ravinder Reddy, Belum V.S. Reddy and CLL Gowda. 5. ICT and women's empowerment/Dhanraj A. Patil and Jaywant B. Ambekar. 6. ICT Projects and agricultural development in India/Amol Patil and J.B. Ambekar. II. Socio-cultural and ecological dimensions of sustainable development: 7. Role of Navdanya for sustainable agriculture : a review of activities/R.B. Patil. 8. Land and water management practices in Warana region : implications for sustainable agriculture/Sarjerao Salunkhe. 9. Socio-cultural determinants of modern agricultural communication pattern : a study of peasant society in Karnataka State/Chandrashekar Buggi. 10. Changing aspects of socio-cultural dimensions of agricultural communication--a study in Central Karanataka Village/C.A. Somashekharappa. 11. Migrant sugarcane cutters and pattern of communication: a study in Kolhapur District/B.N. Kendre. 12. Increasing market-oriented agricultural communication and unsustainability of eco-social life in the villages: some observations/D. Shrikant. III. Role of universities and mass media in agricultural communication: 13. The role of University in agricultural communication : a case study of University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka/Shakuntala C. Shettar. 14. Role of ICTs and Print media in agricultural communication : a case study of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri/P.G. Khalache and S.S. Patil. 15. Role of Krishi Vighyan Kendra in Agricultural Communication : (A case of KVK Chittorgarh)/S.C. Rajora. 16. Role of Universities in sustainable development : a case study of Shivaji University, Kolhapur/Sujata Gokhale and Akhilesh Shinde. 17. Community Radio and agricultural communication : a case study of Vasundhara Vahini, Baramati/Vinayak Patil and J.B. Ambekar. 18. Farmer's exhibition or Melava : an effective tool for transfer of technology/U.D. Jagdale, S.B. Shinde and G.K. Sasane. 19. Coverage of farm information in Agroone newspaper/S.B. Shinde and Manoj C. Jadhav. 20. Agricultural development through Agroone : a case study/V.K. More and P.M Mane. Index.

"Indian villages are characterized by caste, class and religious institutions, inequality and hierarchy both in terms of caste as well as class, further, information gap between the elite, middle classes and the poor classes in another major threat for achieving balanced rural development.

What are the ways out to change such an incompatible situation in Indian society? Part of the solution lies in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for reaching need based agricultural and other developmental information to the poorest of the poor.

This is an edited collection of papers presented in the UGC/SAP National Seminar on: Agricultural Communication and Sustainable Development. It consists of field level experiences of scholars belonging to various institutions.

This is a unique collection that aims to learn from the communication experiments and studies that have used communication concepts and ideas such as information villages, knowledge societies, village resource centre, community radio, and wired villages. Role of mass media such as radio, television, farm bulletins, newspapers and agricultural universities is also discussed. The aim is to apply social science research for achieving sustainable rural transformation. The book is useful for students as well as faculty of sociology, social anthropology, mass communication, agricultural sciences, social work and other social sciences. It will also be useful for planners and administrators." (jacket)