ABSTRACT

Krishi Community Radio Station (KCRS) of UAS Dharwad features different agricultural programmes to uplift the farming community from 2007. A study was thus conducted to analyse knowledge and utilization of KCRS radio programmes. Purposive random sampling was used for selection of 15 KCRS listeners per village in eight selected villages forming 120 sample size. Results revealed that among the respondents, 35.83 per cent had medium level of knowledge followed by 32.50 and 31.67 per cent had low and high level of knowledge about the KCRS programmes respectively. Of the different selected KCRS programmes, nearly 71.00 per cent of the respondents had knowledge about Farmers interview programme while, 69.17 per cent of the respondents had knowledge about Weather forecast programme. Utilisation level of KCRS programmes revealed that 45.00 per cent had low level of utilization followed by equal per cent of the respondents in medium and high categories. This was calculated based on different components viz. regularity of listening, understandability, discussion pattern, implementation of practices, period of listening, preferred time of utilization, purpose of listening, participation in the programmes and extent of use of individual programmes. Results revealed that among the respondents, 33.33 per cent listened to the programmes occasionally, 59.17 per cent partially understood the programmes, 48.33 per cent never discussed about the programmes and 31.67 per cent of the listeners implemented practices suggested through the programmes. Findings also revealed that 46.67 per cent of the respondents listened to radio for up-to 30 minutes, 35.83 per cent prefer to listen to the KCRS programmes from 7.00 am to 8.00 am and 58.33 per cent of the respondents listened to KCRS programmes to get agricultural information and had participated in broadcasting different programmes. Among the respondents, 14.17 per cent use Weather forecast regularly.