Budget 2014: Government announces to launch new TV channel for farmers

New Delhi: The government on July 10 announced a new 24-hour TV channel dedicated to agriculture sector with an outlay of Rs 100 crore for providing real-time information to farmers. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech for 2014-15 said that a sum of Rs 100 crore has been set aside for Kisan (Farmers) Television to provide real time information on various farming and agriculture issues.

Earlier this month, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar told a channel will be named 'DD Kisan' will come very soon and Prasar Bharati is already working on finalising the plans for launching the channel at the earliest. The BJP had before the 2014 General Elections declared that if voted to power, it would "explore setting up of regional Kisan TV channels."

Earlier, Prasar Bharati had been deliberating whether a single agriculture channel would suffice considering the different languages and requirements in various states and regions of the country. Doordarshan and the All India Radio already have been running programmes related to agriculture and farming. The Prasar Bharati Act lays down that the public broadcaster should pay special attention to fields of agriculture and rural development along with areas like education and spread of literacy, environment, health and family welfare and science and technology.