Special cell to feed content to DD Kisan

The agriculture ministry has decided to constitute a special cell to provide content to the newly launched Kisan Channel. Officials said the cell would coordinate with all the arms of the department of agriculture and cooperation, which also includes research agencies such as the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), and state universities to provide necessary inputs for the channel.

"Programmes will also be sourced from private parties as and when necessary," an official said.

Software for the channel and experts in various fields have been lined up.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had sanctioned Rs 100 crore for setting up the channel. Ranjan Mukherjee is the chief executive officer of the channel. It will have regular weather updates, crop information, sowing details, advisories and other stuff. For farmers in non-Hindi belt, the channel will beam its programme in regional languages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while launching the channel on Tuesday, said focus should be on increasing food grain productivity from 2 tonnes per hectare to 3 tonnes per hectare.