CONTENT ANALYSIS OF

HORTICULTURAL INFORMATION IN

AGROWON NEWSPAPER

Sakal group’s Agrowon, touted as India’s first news

daily devoted to agriculture.

Marathi language Agrowon now plan to expand

outside Maharashtra in other languages as well.

Nearly 90 per cent readers of Agrowon are

farmers.

Circulation – one lakh circulation a day.

It also seen good response from advertisers not only

at the local level, but from national brands too.

E-edition of Agrowon was launched on the

occasion of its fifth anniversary i.e., 19 April 2010.

The Agrowon newspaper group conducted more than

200 even activities for farmers.

Two hundred farmers were sent to Israel under this

programme to get good knowledge of farming. It

helps to establish a good connection with the farmers.

Offline version of Agrowon

newspaper

Online version of Agrowon newspaper

Editor in chief – Shriram pawar

Managing director – Mr. Abhijit pawar

A brief profile of 'AGROWON' is described as follows.

1. Date of publication : 19 April 2005

2. Language : Marathi

3.Price : 2.00/-For Monday to Sunday

4.Annual subscription : 720/-

5.Proprietor : Sakal Paper Ltd., Pune

8.Paper size : Overall size :38 cm x 27.4 cm

: Size of printed page 35 x 25.5 cm

9.Average number of pages : From Monday to Sunday 16 pages

10.Ratio of text to advertisement : 60:40

11.Source of agricultural and

horticultural information

: a. Agricultural universities

b. Development Department

c. Private personnel

d. Other

13.Source non agricultural

information

: a. News agencies

b. Reporters

14.Regular features : Two types

a. Agricultural and Horticultural

b. Non-agricultural

Agricultural and horticultural features

◦ Editorial

◦ Farm articles

◦ Farm articles

◦ Market rates of daily commodities and weather

◦ Farm articles

Non-agricultural features

◦ Film and drama

◦ General information

◦ Articles regarding general information

◦ Current affairs

Content analysis is “a wide and

heterogeneous set of manual or computer-

assisted techniques for contextualized

interpretations of documents produced by

communication process strictiore sensu (any

kind of text, written, iconic, multimedia, etc.) or

significant processes (traces and artifacts),

having as ultimate goal the production of valid

and trustworthy inferences.

In a more focused way, “content analysis” refers to a

family of techniques oriented to the study of “mute

evidence”, that is text and artifacts. Texts come from

communication processes strictiore sensu (i.e. types

of communication intentionally activated by a sender,

using a code sufficiently shared with the receiver).

There are 4 types of texts in content analysis:

Written text (books, papers, etc.)

Oral text (speech, theatre plays, etc.)

Iconic text (drawing, painting, icons, etc.)

Hypertexts (can be one or more of the texts above, on

the internet).

'AGROWON' a farm Marathi newspaper was

considered purposefully for the study. The issues of

the Agrowon newspaper published in three year

during June 1st 2008 to may, 31st 2011 were

considered for the study, from this selected issues

making the size of sample about 122 newspapers

were selected randomly for the study.

Measuring total space in square centimeters covered

by horticultural information, agricultural information,

non-agricultural information and advertisement were

counted and space occupied in square centimeter was

measured.

The classification of the horticultural crops was done

as per the criteria laid by the Arora (1990) and Gupta

and Naik (2002).

Sl. No.

Newspaper contentSpace coveredin sq.cm.

(n = 1797495)Per cent

1. Information

a. Horticultural 309180 17.20

b. Agricultural 855290 47.58

c. Non-agricultural 431929 24.04

Sub total 1596399 88.82

2. Advertisements

a. Horticultural 32128 01.79

b. Agricultural 51677 02.87

c. Non-agricultural 117291 06.52

Sub total 201096 11.18

Grand total (1+2) 1797495 100.00

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

A B C D E F

17.2

47.58

24.04

1.792.87

11.18

Total spacq.e covered (sq. cm.)

Per

cen

t sp

ace

cover

ed (

sq. cm

.)

Sr. No Newspapers Percentage of agricultural news

1. The Hindu 1.19

2. Eenadu (Telugu) 0.60

3. Indian Express 2.60

4. The Tribune 2.08

5. Ajit 1.05

6. Jagbani 1.20

7. Punjab Kesri 0.10

8. Punjab Tribune 2.74

Average 1.32

:

Sl.

No.Type of articles

Frequency

(n =3673)Per cent

1. Agricultural articles 2658 72.36

2. Horticultural articles 893 24.32

3. General farm advice 122 03.32

Total 3673 100.00

13.55

10.18

4.06

72.21

Crop huabandary

Animal husbandary

Agricultural policies

Other agricultural articles

Sl.

No.

Type of horticultural

Information

Frequency(n =

893)

Space covered

in

sq.cm.(n=3091

80)

1. Fruit crops 487

(54.53)

174811

(56.54)

2. Vegetable crops 275

(30.79)

91191

(29.50)

3. Flower crops 69

(7.73)

24251

(7.84)

4. Spices crops 38

(4.26)

10368

(3.35)

5. Aromatic and Medicinal

crops

24

(2.69)

8559

(2.77)

Total 893 309180

(Figures in the parentheses indicate percentage).

Sl. No. Types of fruit crop information Frequency(n = 487)

Space covered insq.cm. (n=174811)

1. Tropical crops (Banana, Mango,

coconut, cashewnut, custard apple,

papaya, pineapple, sapota,

jackfruit)

171(35.11)

62707(35.87)

2. Sub-tropical crops (Grape,

pomegranate, Mandarin orange,

Fig, Aonla, Sweet orang, Kagzi

lime, Ber, Jamun, Karavanda)

207(42.51)

74970(42.89)

3. Temperate crops (Strawberry) 07(1.44)

2695(1.54)

4. General 102(20.94)

34439(19.70)

Total 487(100.00)

174811(100.00)

Fruit Crop Information

Sl. No. Types of vegetable crop information Frequency

(n = 275)Space

covereinsq.cm.(n = 91191)

1. Solanaceous crops (Chilli, Tomato,

Brinjal)

52(18.91)

17162(18.82)

2. Bulbs crops (Onion, Garlic) 78(28.36)

15772(17.30)

3. Cole and leafy vegetable crops (Leafy

Vegetable, Cauliflower, Cabbage)17

(6.18)5650(6.20)

4. Cucurbitaceous crops (Water melon, Bitter gourd)

15(5.45)

6687(7.33)

5. Other crops (Potato, Drum stick, Okra) 33(12.01)

12804 (14.04)

6. General 80(29.09)

33116 (36.31)

Total 275 (100.00)

91191(100.00)

Vegetable Crop Information

17.03

9.75

3.13

6.44

13.2644.26

1.07

5.09

50.42

Prepatary planting operation

Intercultural operation

Harvesting

Farm mechanization

Post harvest Tech.

Marketing

Govt. and SAUs policies

Other

Sl.

No.Types of flower crop information

Frequency

(n = 69)

Space covered in

sq. cm.(n = 24251)

1. Shrubs (Rose, Jasmine) 15

(21.74)

4361

(17.98)

2. Bulbus (Jerbera, Orchids, Daliya, Gladiolus) 08

(11.59)

2955

(12.19)

3. Shade loving plants (Anthurium, Aster) - -

4. Annuals (Aster, Merigold) 02

(2.90)

1247

(5.14)

5. Climbers 02

(2.90)

510

(2.10)

6. General 42

(60.87)

15178

(62.59)

Total 69

(100.00)

24251

(100.00)

*

Sl. No. Type of spices crop information Frequency

(n = 38)Space covered in

sq.cm. (n=10368)

1.

Major spices (Turmeric, Ginger, Black Paper)

29 (76.32)

7897 (76.16)

2. Tree spices (Cinnamon, Nutmeg)

- -

3. Seed spices (Mustard) 01(2.63)

380(3.67)

4. Herbal spices (Pudina) - -

5.General 08

(21.05)2091

(20.17)

Total 38 (100.00)

10368 (100.00)

Spices Crop Information

Sl. No.

Type of aromatic and medicinal crop information

Frequency (n = 24)

Space covered in sq.cm. (n =

8559)

1. Aromatic crops (Java sitronela, Tikhadi,

Lamon grass)

01

(4.17)

212

(2.48)

2. Annuals (Ashwagandha, Khazakhali,

SafedhMusali, Khalamegha, Alvora)

05

(20.83)

1473

(17.21)

3. Shrubs (Gugul) - -

4. Climbers (Shatavari) - -

5. Trees 01

(4.17)

650

(7.59)

6. General 17

(70.83)

6224

(72.72)

Total 24

(100.00)

8559

(100.00)

Aromatic and Medicinal Crop Information

Types of illustrations Colour of illustration

89.84

10.16

Photograph Chart

24.57

75.43

Black and white Multicolour

With Illustration Without Illustration

Sl.No. Source of article Frequency(n = 6115) Per cent

1. State Agricultural Universities 389 6.36

2. Development Departments 39 0.64

3. Government Institutes 23 0.38

4. Private institutes 21 0.34

5. Private personnel 4210 68.84

6. Editorial 122 2.00

7. Without source 1292 21.13

8. Others 19 0.31

Total 6115 100.00

Sl.

No.State agricultural universities

Frequency

(n = 389)Per cent

1. MPKV, Rahuri 237 60.92

2. MKV, Parbhani 71 18.26

3. Dr. PDKV, Akola 26 6.68

4. Dr. BSKKV, Dapoli 24 6.17

5. Animal Husbandry and Fishery,

Nagpur

31 7.97

Total 389 100.00

The Agrowon newspaper is very useful to farmers. It covers vast subject of agricultural and horticultural

information. The expansion of newspaper in vernacular languages

and expand to national wide, thus it helps in increase the food production.