KJ Choupal: Pravat Kumar Roul, VC of OUAT Discusses Significance of Agri Media for Development of Agriculture Sector

Pravat Kumar Roul is the vice-chancellor of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Bhubaneswar. He has been a teacher for over 29 years. He has written 24 books and supervised nine PhD students. Professor Roul visited KJ Chaupal on March 6, 2023 to speak with the team and share his thoughts and vision for the advancement of the agriculture sector.

Greeting guests with a plant is a long-held tradition that is exclusive to Krishi Jagran. KJ Team welcomed Pravat Kumar Roul by presenting a small plant as a token of affection & good fortune.

The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) is one of India's oldest agricultural universities. Many major steps are taken by OUAT for agricultural development. OUAT has expanded its research and extension capabilities by establishing eight Zonal Research Stations, four Zonal Sub-stations, seven Commodity Research Stations, and thirteen Adaptive Research Stations across the state, in addition to 48 All India Coordinated Research Projects.

Welcoming Kailash Singh, M C Dominic, Editor-in-chief of Krishi Jagran stated that “We eagerly await his ideas on how we can become more involved as a media player to provide more value to our farming community. And we are extremely fortunate and happy that the uniqueness Prof Roul will bring to this audience will be appreciated.”

Professor Roul, according to M C Dominic, has also suggested an idea of initiating 'Student The Journalist' Program in the same sense as the 'Farmer The Journalist' initiative to train students in Agri Journalism.

"Being from a rural background, I sought to understand the basics of agriculture and also tried to introspect why it is not going ahead. So, one of the responses I received was that perhaps at this point we need media support, i.e. Agri Journalism. Aside from that, I believe that young people are there, that technology is there, and we need to have government policy support & incentives to help students succeed as Agripreneurs," said Pravat Kumar Roul while interacting with employees at KJ Choupal.

"Farmers have not been fairly compensated. Their children have no desire to work in agriculture and have no desire to be associated with it. This mindset got to be changed," underlines PK Roul while speaking about the role of agri media and the relevance of knowledge, which he believes can bring this change!

“If agriculture is to progress, awareness is critical at this time because many people in rural areas are unaware of the types of benefits offered by the government to farmers. Agri-Journalism can play an important role in this,” he added.