Farmers Attitude Towards the use of ICT Interventions in Khurda District of Odisha

Author: Shilpa Bahubalendra, B.P. Mohapatra and Harihar Jena

Journal Name:

Download PDF

Abstract

Agriculture sector is one among the foremost important sector in India. Keeping in view of the demand for agricultural growth, evolutionary changes have been made in transfer of technology to reach the farming community effectively. The technology revolution encompasses new ways of capturing, processing, storing, and displaying information and is capable of increasing productivity and competitiveness through information provision. Effective use of ICT tools in rural areas depends on the preparedness of people through proper knowledge and attitude in using these tools. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of these solutions and has recently unleashed incredible potential to improve agriculture in developing countries specifically. There in regards, extensive use of information technologies must be promoted to farm level for transfer of technologies. The study was conducted during the year 2019 to assess the attitude of farmers towards information and communication technology tools in two blocks i.e., Balianta and Balipatna of Khurda district of Odisha. Pre-structured interview schedule was used for data collection from the farmers and appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the collected data. Proportionate random sampling was used in the selection of one hundred and twenty (120) farmers as the sample of the study. The outcomes confirmed that a half (50.00%) of the respondents opined that they got timely information on inputs through the ICT interventions and informed that they increased their knowledge on specification of prices. More than half (54.16%) of the respondents said that the available data through the station may not accurately represent the current weather condition on a farm. Majority of the respondents (56.68%) were happy, satisfied. Half (50.00%) of the respondents said that they were getting timely information on the demand of product and subsidies available in the market. An appraisal of the content analysis of the statements shows that the majority of the respondents had more favorable attitude towards ICT tools.

Keywords

Agriculture, Attitude, Farmers, ICT, Knowledge

Conclusion

The findings revealed that the majority of farmers had favourable attitude towards the use of ICT Interventions still there is dependence on the informal sources of information due to the lack of credibility in the information provided by the ICT tools, the farmers are not adopting the recommendations given by them. So, the extension agents should make efforts to enhance the credibility of the ICTs by providing adequate, timely and useful information and impart skill in using ICT tools. This enables them to utilize the ICT tools and develop a favourable attitude towards ICTs use. Therefore, there is a need to make available these tools at village level along with creating awareness about the importance of ICT tools and types of services providing by these tools to the farming community. Providing such facilities at village level will further attract them to use these tools for doubling their income. Further providing services in local language and making the tools more users friendly which will result in developing positive attitude towards ICT tools. Hence, there is a strong need to educate the farmers during extension programmes regarding usefulness of ICT tools, type of information provided and authority of information to make them aware about these tools.

References

-

How to cite this article

Shilpa Bahubalendra, B.P. Mohapatra and Harihar Jena (2023). Farmers Attitude Towards the use of ICT Interventions in Khurda District of Odisha. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(4): 557-561.