The purpose of this research is to determine the extent of ICT usage and access among farmers of Bengaluru Rural and Chikkaballapura districts of Karnataka. The ex-post facto research design has been used for the current study and samples have been collected by using both random and purposive sampling techniques. From each district 120 farmers were drawn as the sample size, making a total of 240. Most of the respondents from both districts were well aware of mentioned ICT tools but comparatively less in the case of the common service centres (CSCs). Ownership of ICT tools in both districts shows that cent per cent of the respondents possessed a mobile and nearly cent percent respondents possessed TV and subscribed for Internet services in their mobile. Mobile acts as a single source for the multi functions like audio, video, calling etc. Other ICT tools like TV, Radio, DVD/CD, and Telephone lost their importance. In both districts, the majority (98.34% in Bengaluru Rural and 80.33% in Chikkaballapura) of the respondents frequently access Mobile and TV and the majority (87.50% in Bengaluru Rural and 61.67% in Chikkaballapura) of the respondents never accessed Radio, DVD, and Personal Computers In both districts, the majority of respondents preferred and used print media like newspapers, magazines and posters which are published in the local language with very well understanding and none of them used e-journals and e-books. In the case of general access to various mobile applications, out of five applications which are mentioned in the current study the applications like Varuna Mitra, Meghasandesh and Sidilu apps are quite popular as compared to other applications . The most of the respondents from both districts responded as the electricity was the main energy source for operating ICT tools and only a meager per cent of them used solar as a source of energy for operating various ICT tools. The Affordability of ICT tools in both district found that almost all the respondents felt that they can easily affordable to all ICT tools other than personal computers and Internet services.

Access and Usage, Common Service Centre, ICTs, Mobile

The study's findings showed that mobile devices, followed by TV and the internet, had the highest levels of accessibility and usage. Compared to other ICTs, mobile phones and televisions were the two most frequently used ICT tools. The reason might be that mobile phones nowadays became more affordable because of multi companies are competing with each other to increase their sales and thus they were trying to provide more features in single mobile at very affordable price for middle-class people. In the case of TV nowadays its became a prestige matter for everyone to have a TV in their home this type of mindset of the people made them to had a TV in their home. Telecommunication wizard of India i.e. Jio-Reliance made the tele-revolution by offering its services (Data and Calling) free of cost and later on at a very minimal price which can be easily affordable by the common man. The majority of the respondents were using Varuna Mitra mobile application because of that it provides its services to framers via a Web portal, SMS and toll-free that too in the local language might be the reason for familiarity and famous in both districts. It was found that the government of India's plan to use ICT to deliver services to the general public—Common Service Centre, (CSC)—is not being fully implemented in both districts. This may be because people are unaware of CSCs, which are typically found at the Panchayat level, some distance from the farmer's village. This study suggests creating awareness of CSCs and, if possible, providing CSC services at least at the cluster level. Another suggestion is that since mobile phones and televisions are the two main ICT tools that are widely available in both districts. The extension agents and other organizations who wish to improve the livelihood conditions of the farmers by efficient use of ICTs to provide agro-advisory and new information.

Narendra V.N., Satya Prakash and Ashok K. Singh (2022). Access and usage of ICTs among the Farmers of Bengaluru Rural and Chikkaballapura District of Karnataka. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 37-43.