Krishak Jagat

About Krishak Jagat

Krishak Jagat is India's pioneering agriculture newspaper and digital news portal, headquartered in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and published online at krishakjagat.org. Founded in 1946, it describes itself as the first agriculture newspaper in India, and it has served the farming community for eight decades with news, technical information, and guidance on crops, seeds, irrigation, machinery, and agri-business. With a claimed readership of about 2.5 million and the largest farmer subscription base in Indian agricultural media, Krishak Jagat remains a trusted source of authentic and unbiased information for farmers and agri-allied individuals across central India and beyond.

1946: Born in the Freedom Struggle Era

Krishak Jagat was founded in 1946 by Shri Manik Chandra Bondriya and his younger brother Shri Suresh Chandra Gangrade. The two were like-minded and patriotic freedom fighters who wanted to help the Indian farming community, which was badly affected by the economic and social circumstances of the time. To improve the availability of information and technology for farmers, they started the Krishak Jagat National Agriculture Newspaper, launching it in the final years of British rule when India stood on the threshold of independence.

The founding vision was straightforward but ambitious: to give farmers access to the knowledge they needed to improve their livelihoods. In an era when agricultural information travelled slowly and unevenly, a dedicated newspaper for the farming community was a radical idea. The founders believed that an informed farmer was an empowered farmer, and they built the publication around that conviction, a mission the organisation says it has carried forward for more than 78 years.

India's First Agriculture Newspaper

Krishak Jagat claims the distinction of being the first agriculture newspaper in India, a pioneering position it has held since 1946. For over 74 years, as its own about pages note, the publication has been associated with the farming community, playing what it describes as a pivotal role in shaping the outlook of farmers and agri-allied individuals. The newspaper presents itself as a source of authentic and non-biased information, a positioning that has helped its readers develop deep trust in the publication over generations.

This legacy matters in agricultural media, where credibility is the most valuable currency. Farmers make high-stakes decisions based on the information they receive, about seeds, crop protection, weather, and markets, and a publication that has served their grandparents and parents carries an authority that newer outlets cannot easily replicate. Krishak Jagat's eight-decade association with the farming community is the foundation of its brand.

Print Operations: A Weekly Across States

Krishak Jagat is published as a weekly newspaper, with 52 issues a year. The publication covers farmer households in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh through three state-specific editions, and it also reaches farmers in the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Bihar. This regional focus on central India reflects the publication's Bhopal roots and the agricultural profile of the region, which includes major growing areas for wheat, soybean, pulses, and cotton.

The print edition carries national agriculture news, state-specific agriculture news, agriculture and allied articles, and technical information on agrochemicals and crop protection, seeds, irrigation, agricultural machinery, and the latest technology. Farmer stories, including profiles of progressive farmers across all segments of agriculture, are tied to the agricultural season, giving readers timely and practical guidance. The state-specific editions allow the newspaper to address the distinct cropping patterns and concerns of each region it serves.

The Digital Portal: krishakjagat.org

The digital face of Krishak Jagat is its website at krishakjagat.org, which extends the newspaper's mission to the internet. The portal publishes the newspaper's content online and operates in both Hindi and English, with the English edition available at en.krishakjagat.org. The website's about section describes Krishak Jagat as an agriculture newspaper with the largest farmer subscription base in India in both print and digital media.

Alongside the farmer-facing content, the organisation operates a corporate-centric website covering the latest news in global agriculture across segments including seeds, crop protection, biocontrol and biopesticides, crop nutrition, agriculture machinery, agtech and research, and startups and investments. This dual approach, serving both farmers and the agri-business industry, gives Krishak Jagat a unique position in agricultural media, connecting the grassroots with the corporate world. The organisation also offers mobile apps, including a Hindi agriculture news app and an English app, bringing its content to smartphones.

Coverage and Content Pillars

Krishak Jagat's editorial coverage spans the full spectrum of agricultural life. Its content pillars include national and state agriculture news, keeping readers informed about policy developments, minimum support prices, and government schemes. Technical content covers agrochemicals and crop protection, seeds and planting material, irrigation and water management, and agricultural machinery and mechanisation. The publication tracks the latest technology in farming, from precision agriculture to digital tools, and reports on agtech startups and investments that are reshaping the sector.

Farmer stories form the human core of the publication. By profiling successful farmers and their practices, Krishak Jagat spreads practical knowledge peer to peer, a format that resonates strongly with its audience. The coverage is organised around the agricultural calendar, ensuring that information about sowing, crop care, harvesting, and marketing arrives when farmers need it most.

Audience and Reach

Krishak Jagat claims a widespread readership of about 2.5 million, which it describes as one of the most rewarding factors sustaining its legacy. Its core audience is the farmer, and the publication says it holds the largest farmer subscription base among Indian agriculture newspapers. The organisation's LinkedIn presence describes it as India's biggest agriculture media platform, with offices listed in New Delhi, Bhopal, Jaipur, Indore, and Raipur, reflecting its operational footprint across its core states.

The trust the publication has built is central to its business model. In agricultural media, advertisers, from seed companies to tractor manufacturers to agrochemical firms, value access to a verified farming audience, and Krishak Jagat's subscription base gives it a direct channel to rural households. The combination of print subscriptions and digital reach allows it to serve both traditional readers and the growing segment of smartphone-using farmers.

Leadership and Organisation

The organisation is led by Vijay Gangrade as CEO, continuing the family's stewardship of the publication founded by the Gangrade brothers' generation. The Bhopal headquarters at 14, Press Complex, M.P. Nagar, Zone-1, anchors the operation, with additional offices in New Delhi, Jaipur, Indore, and Raipur supporting the state editions and advertising business. The company is structured as a partnership and operates in the broadcast media production and distribution category.

The continuity of family leadership across eight decades is unusual in Indian media and has helped preserve the publication's founding mission. While the media landscape around it has transformed, from the dominance of print to the rise of digital and social media, Krishak Jagat has maintained its focus on serving the farming community, adapting its formats while holding to its editorial purpose.

Legacy and Role in Indian Agriculture

Krishak Jagat's eight-decade history parallels the transformation of Indian agriculture itself. Founded just before independence, the newspaper chronicled the Green Revolution, the expansion of irrigation, the mechanisation of farming, the liberalisation of agricultural markets, and the recent wave of agtech innovation. Through each of these eras, it provided farmers with the information they needed to navigate change, from new seed varieties to new government schemes to new technologies.

The publication's role in shaping the outlook of farmers, as it describes it, goes beyond news delivery. By consistently presenting scientific and technical information in accessible language, Krishak Jagat has contributed to the modernisation of farming practices in its core regions. Its farmer stories have celebrated agricultural entrepreneurship, and its technical content has helped disseminate best practices in crop management.

Krishak Jagat Today

Today Krishak Jagat operates as a multi-platform agricultural media organisation, combining its legacy weekly newspaper with a bilingual digital portal, mobile apps, and a corporate-facing agri-business news service. Its claim of 2.5 million readers and the largest farmer subscription base in the country underscores its continued relevance in an era of fragmented media. As Indian agriculture confronts new challenges, from climate change to water stress to market volatility, the need for trusted, farmer-focused information has only grown. Eight decades after two freedom fighters founded it to serve the farming community, Krishak Jagat continues that mission in print and pixels, from its Bhopal headquarters to farms across central India.