A State Level meeting on Evaluation and Impact Assessment of Mass media Support to Agricultural Extension under Sub Mission on Agricultural Extension (SMAE) was held here today.The meeting was chaired by Director Agriculture Jammu cum State Nodal Officer ATMA, H K Razdan and attended by Director Extension SKUAST-J Dr K S Risam, , Associate Director Extension SKUAST-K Dr Sheikh Muzaffar Ahmed, Associate Director Extension SKUAST- J Dr RK Arora, Joint Director Agriculture Jammu Sh Bhulesh Zutshi, Joint Director Agriculture Kashmir Sanaullah Mir, Chief Agriculture Officers from different districts, Programme Coordinators from KVKs, Programme Executive Radio Kashmir Jammu S K Malhotra and farmers from different areas and representatives from Doordarshan Jammu.Pertinently, Union Ministry for Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has appointed Indian Society of Agriculture Business Professionals (ISAP) for conducting assessment study of Mass media support to ATMA.The meeting took a detailed review of the contents, timings and quality of Krishi Darshan and Krishivani Programme, focussed publicity and awareness campaign.
The participants also held deliberations on strategy for implementation of Mass Media Support finalization of the decisions for third party monitoring and evaluation.It was informed in the meeting that the enumerators will conduct grass root survey to study the impact of mass media campaign to achieve the envisaged goals under ATMA.Speaking about the mass media interventions, various stakeholders including Agriculture department, SKUAST, Doordorshan, All India Radio, representatives from ISAP and progressive farmers highlighted their views regarding media usage in Agriextention.Director Agriculture said that mass media is a potent tool for creating awareness and information dissemination at the doorsteps of farmers. He said that keeping the farmers well informed is vital for survival of societies which will help increase farmer’s income and growth of agriculture sector.