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O. SARADA* AND G.V. SUNEEL KUMAR
*Scientist (TOT) DAATTC, ONGOLE – 523 262
The present study was conducted in 5 villages of Prakasam Dist., with a sample size of one hundred and fifty farmers. Great majority of the framers expressed their information needs on new varieties in major crops (92.17%), new molecules for pest and disease management (81.33%) and pre emergence and post emergence herbicides in major crops (78.00%). Majority of the farmers preferred ADA/AO/AEO, bank officers, ANGRAU scientists and market committees as formal sources of informa-tion. Family members, neighbors, friends & relatives, progressive farmers and input agencies were the most preferred informal sources of information. Whereas Television and news paper were the most preferred mass media sources of information. With respect to constraints, over dependence on neighbors and input dealers for agricultural information, insufficient extension officers and non availability of need based information were the major constraints expressed by the respondents.
Constraints, Information needs and Information sources
Information is a critical input for Agricultural Development which can be efficiently converted into economically rewarding opportunities. Information needs assessments give programme designers that ability to develop interventions that target users with specific information needs. In an information needs assessment, a farmer may highlight an important information need based on his/her requirement or interest, but unfelt or unrecognized needs will be revealed through his approach. Nevertheless, the value of an information needs assessments, by engaging directly with users of information, should not be over looked (Ali and Kumar, 2011). Knowledge about the information needs and information seeking behaviour of small-scale farmers is crucial to effectively satisfy their felt information needs and develop demand-led extension and advisory services (Garforth 2001). With relevant agricultural knowledge and information, farmers could improve their work in order to sustain agriculture and also benefit economically (Lesaoana-Tshabalala 2003).
Farmers use many different sources to obtain the knowledge and information they need to manage their farms well. Effective use of information sources for dissemination of information helps to reduce the time taken in the adoption process. Knowledge about the
information sources would be helpful in developing a suitable extension strategy to uplift socio economic status of the farmers. Utilization of improved agricultural technology by the farmers, to a large extent, depends upon the effective sources of information and channels to which they are generally exposed directly or indirectly. But, to harness the potential for agricultural development, it is essential to understand the existing sources of information and their utility and relevance in terms of outreach, subject matter coverage and utilization by the farmers. Apart from identifying information needs and sources of agricultural information it is equally important to understand and analyze the constraints faced by the farmers in acquiring agricultural information. With this background the present study was designed to investigate the agricultural information needs of the farmers, information source preference and to analyze constraints expressed by the farmers.
Five villages of Prakasam Dist. Viz., Dronadula, Bobbepalli, Bollapalli, Isukadarsi and Kolalapudi were selected randomly for conducting present study and accordingly gathered relevant information. An equal size of sample of 30 respondents each from these villages was drawn randomly to make the total size of 150 respondents. For collection of data, the interview was held personally
at homes or the farms of the respondents in local dialect. The farmers were asked to list their information needs and constraints faced while acquiring agricultural information. The sources were placed into three groups i.e., formal, informal, and mass media. Each group was sub-divided into individual sources. To measure the extent use of information sources by the farmers, four point scale was used as ‘regularly’, ‘occasionally’, rarely’ and ‘never’. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Frequency and percentage).
Table 1shows the most common information needed by the farmers. The study revealed that great majority of the farmers (92.17%) said they needed information on new varieties with short duration, resistant to biotic constraints and drought in major crops of the district, followed by eighty one percent with an information need of new molecules for pest and disease management, pre and post herbicides in major crops (78.00%), insecticides, fungicides and herbicides compatibility (72.00%) and alternate crops to paddy (69.33). Whereas above half of the respondents expressed their need for information on micronutrient management (62.00%), biofertilizers use (58.66%), crop loans and crop insurance (58.00%). Nearly forty six percent expressed need for information on market forecast. Integrated pest management (54.67%) and Integrated disease management (52.67%). Almost forty five per cent had higher need for information on Phosphorus management, thirty eight per cent felt the need for organic farming, thirty seven percent sought for information on alternate crops to tobacco, thirty five per cent need information on management of problematic soils while thirty three percent needed information on water conservation methods and drought mitigation measures. Meitei and Devi (2009), in rural Manipur, found that farmers needed a variety of information related to seed varieties, pesticides and fertilizer. All these information needs expressed by the farmers were considered while planning training programs by the District Agricultural Advisory and Transfer of Technology Centre, Ongole.
Sources of information used by the farmers Formal sources of information
It could be inferred from table 2 that almost fifty percent of the respondents used officers of Department
of agriculture (ADA/AO/AEO) occasionally as a preferred source of information followed by forty three percent using bank officers as a good source of information. This is in agreement to the findings of Tologbonse and Adekunle, 2000; Tologbonse, 2002 and Tiamiyu, et.al. (2009), that extension agents are important sources of agricultural information. Whereas thirty eight percent of farmers were using Kisan Call Centers to get agricultural information regularly and same percent of respondents were using market committees occasionally to get market information. Forty percent of the respondents expressed ANGRAU scientists as their preferred source occasionally for technical knowhow. However, great majority of the farmers never used school teachers (98.00%), NGOs (96.00%), gram sarpanch (94.00%), ICAR scientists (90.00%), State level call centre (72.00%) and Cooperatives (50.00%) as a source of information.
The results given in table 3 are clearly depicting that ‘family members’ as a source of information proved to be the most important as it has been preferred by great majority (74.00%) of the respondents as a good source of information. Similarly, neighbors, progressive farmers, relatives and friends were preferred and used regularly by the farmers under personal localite sources of information. The trend where farmers relied on friends, neighbors and farmers’ colleagues were also observed by Okwu and Dauda (2011), Achugbe and Anie (2011) and Rezvanfar et. al. (2007) indicating the strong social dynamics of ‘across the fence’ contact when in need or facing challenges. The ease or proximity of the source could also be an enabling factor here. Meanwhile, the findings indicate the importance of farmer-to-farmer extension model in technology dissemination.
Obviously, it can be said that input agencies and neighbors were occasionally preferred informal sources. Therefore, it is suggested that these information sources should be made use of by the extension agents in effective diffusion of technical know-how among the farmers. In addition, attempts should also be made to keep in view the preference expressed by the respondents for use of different sources while making use of these sources for dissemination of the knowledge among the farmers. Cent percent of the farmers never approached agri clinics for information; this may be because of non existence of agri clinics in the study area.
From table 4 it could be inferred that great majority of the farmers said television (94.00%), followed by news paper (92.00%) were the major mass media sources referred by them regularly to acquire agricultural information. Cent percent of the farmers never referred information kiosk as a source of information. This may be because of lack of awareness among the farmers about information kiosk. Almost seventy percent (68.00%) of the farmers never used information bulletins. Above half of the respondents never preferred radio as an information source. Nearly fifty percent of the farmers never preferred journals and university publications for getting agricultural information. Forty six percent of the farmers were never using film shows. On the other hand some of the farmers were using journals (22.00%), magazines and university publications (20.00%) occasionally.
It is evident from Table 5, almost three fourth (74.00%) of the farmers expressed over dependence on neighbors and input dealers for agriculture information is their major constraint which ultimately leading indiscriminate and excess use of agricultural inputs resulting in increased cost of cultivation and poor net returns. This is because majority of the farmers prefer neighbors, relatives, input dealers as a source of information due to their local availability. Almost seventy one percent of the farmers expressed insufficient number of extension officers as their constraint. The probable reason for this may be large area to be covered by the Mandal Agricltural Officer and large number of schemes to be implemented by them. Non availability of need based information is another constraint expressed by 64.67 per cent farmers. Above fifty percent of the farmers expressed
that non availability of reliable information sources locally (59.33%), untimely visits of Dept. of Agriculture officers (56.67%) . Illiteracy was also one of the constraints perceived by almost half of the respondents (46.00%). Below half of the respondents perceived that mass media programmes are not location specific (44.67%), lack of awareness on information sources (40.67%) and complexity of the information given through mass media (34.67%) as their constraints in getting agricultural information.
Access to adequate, relevant and reliable agricultural information is an essential factor towards building a strong and virile agricultural foundation. Therefore, how far people progress in whatever they are doing in agriculture depends largely upon the availability and access to accurate and reliable information. An effective extension strategy should be designed with the farmer’s information needs and their preferred sources of information in mind. This would reduce the number of sources of information the farmer needed to access, reducing the time and effort the farmer had to spend on information seeking and potentially hastening the adoption decision.