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 content
Space 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
1.79
2.87
11.18
Total spacq.e covered (sq. cm.)
Percentspacecovered(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)
(Figures in the parentheses indicate percentage).

Sl. No. Types of fruit crop information Frequency
(n = 487)
Space covered in
sq.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 174811

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
13.26
44.26
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.