Role perception of information sources and channels used by farmers

Abstract

Information sources and channels are the essence of extension, which provides knowledge and information for rural people to modify behaviour in ways that provide sustainable benefit to them and to society in general. These communication technologies serve both as direct information channels to farmers and as indirect channels improving extension agents, agribusinesses and other intermediaries access to information resources. The study was conducted by interviewing randomly selected 120 farmers of the Sumerpur panchayat samiti were having highest contact to development departments. It was found that the sources which were most utilized by the farmers were neighbours (3.20 MS), private agencies (2.78 MS), friends (1.97 MS), agriculture supervisors (1.90 MS) and progressive farmers (1.69 MS), whereas the least utilized sources by the farmers were agriculture graduates (0.0.57 MS), ATIC (0.77 MS) and NGOs (0.33 MS). It was further found that the channels which were most utilized by the farmers were group discussion (3.43 MS), group meetings (2.80 MS), television (2.44 MS), radio (2.10 MS), news paper (1.90 MS) and farmer's training (1.79 MS), whereas the least utilized channels by the farmers were literature (1.11 MS), posters/charts/circulars (0.90 MS) and field day/field visit (0.66 MS).