Progressive Research – An International Journal Society for Scientific Development Print ISSN : 0973-6417, Online ISSN : 2454-6003 in Agriculture and Technology Volume 12 (Special-I) : 1146-1149 (2017) Meerut (U.P.) INDIA TELEVISION FOR EFFECTIVE DISSEMINATION OF FARM INFORMATION TO BANANA GROWERS : A STUDY FROM TAMIL NADU P. Ravichamy 1 , S. Nandakumar 2 and K.C. Siva Balan 3 1 ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Thogamalai Road, Tiruchirapalli-620 102, Tamil Nadu and Ph.D Scholar Dept. of Journalism and Mass Communication, Periyar University, Salem-636011, Tamil Nadu. 2 Dept. of Journalism and Mass Communication, Periyar University, Salem-636 011, Tamil Nadu 3 School of Agriculture Science, PRIST University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. E-mail : nandakumar.su@gmail.com ABSTRACT In the information explosion era, mass media (newspaper, television and radio) and new media (computer, internet and website) plays prominent role in dissemination of scientific information to farming community. The information disseminated leads to knowledge enhancement and decision making among farming community. In this context, a study was carried out to know the farmer’s preference over watching farm television programme on banana cultivation and timing for the programme.The present study was carried out in banana growers in Theni district, in Tamil Nadu, India. A random sample of 300 banana growers was administered with structured questionnaire. It was observed that the vast majority of the respondents (87.7%) have own television sets and 18 percent of the respondents prefer to watch the agricultural programs on television. It was also found that half of the respondents (52%) were not satisfied with television as a medium for disseminating agricultural information. Key words : Television, Agricultural development, Banana growers India is the largest producer of banana in the world, producing 30 million tonnes (25.58% global banana productions) from an area of 8.3 lakh hectares (15.5% global banana area) with a productivity of 37 tonnes / hectare. By the year 2020, India has to produce 50 million tons of bananas to cater to the needs of exploding population and for export purposes (ICAR–National Research Centre for Banana Newsletter, Vol.20 No.2/ 2016). The production demand could certainly met out only when the technologies are reaching the farmers in timely manner. But the banana farmers could not get adequate information regarding latest development and technology in agricultural sector. The low literacy among farmers create set back in using information technology from cultivation to harvest their product. They could not have technical knowledge about the use of pesticide management, fertilizers management and advance technology of in farming. According to Butt (2002) it is expected that latest technology accessibility could be possible by dissemination of agricultural Information among the farmers. Farmers need to be informed and educated about enhanced agricultural practices to enable them grow their production and income. Several channels can be used such as extension agents, individuals’ contacts, and farmer-to-farmer transfer the information regarding agriculture related problems to Supplement mass media. Electronic media such as radio, television, film, slides and film strips have been widely used to disseminate information to farmers in rural areas but due to non- availability of electricity farmers still are facing many problems to get the information about agriculture (van den Ban and Hawkins, 1992; Olowu and Oyedokun, 2000). Anandaraja et al., (2015) had assessed the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to achieve information literacy in agriculture. With the ICT enabled price- forecasting mechanism, farm advisories were extended on the market behaviour as well as advising farmers when and where to sell their produce. ICT enabled advisory services have not only enabled the vast outreach of farmers but also facilitated in immediate slack in farm remuneration. The electronic media both radio and television are playing pivotal role in disseminating the technical and scientific information to people. Today the audio visual television medium has emerged as the best medium of mass communication to disseminate farm and home information to millions of farmers. Earlier studies (Lwoga, 2010, Hassan et al, 2009) revealed that in rural areas mostly farmers still depend on television, newspaper and radio regarding the information about agriculture in rural areas. Print and electronic media still is the main source of getting agriculture information among the farmers in the rural areas. Krishi Darshan programme in India : FAO (2001) reported that television is the most important medium for communicating information among rural people of developing countries. India had started in the late sixties (January 26, 1967) telecasting a farm TV programme popularly known as Krishi Darshan Programme (KDP) in