| Hafiz Amjad Ali Rana (acyber310@gmaiil.com) |
| Agricultural Extension, University of Agriculture Faisalabad |
| October, 2016 |
| |
Abstract |
| Agriculture extension is the main driving force in technology transfer from researcher to the end users. But it is facing tremendous challenges due to the lack of government interest and financial resources. The prominent issue of agricultural extension is to cover huge numbers of small farmers in scattered form. ICT can play a vital role to inform farmers in the situation of urgency and emergency. The present study was conducted in tehsil Khanewal to analyze the role of ICT in agriculture. Data were collected with the help of well-structured interview schedule and collected data were statistically analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It was revealed that (93.9%) of the registered ICT farmers receive text message or call from the agriculture department regarding field conditions. The results further indicated that majority of the farmers did not know about the term ICT at all. Vast majority (73.6%) of farmers receive text messages or call about the fertilizer dose while in case of pesticides information (67.1%) of farmers receive information regarding that. The most common and approachable source of information transfer was mobile phone. There was very little awareness regarding agricultural websites and agriculture related mobile applications. One-third of the respondents have computer in their home but its use was just limited to entertainment purpose. Exchange of knowledge and ideas with fellow farmers was very common. The most prominent ICT device used as a source of agricultural information was TV (66.6%) followed by mobile phone (63.6%). It was calculated that there was a need to create awareness among the farmers about the use of ICT. Farmers must be educated by the extension staff about the use of internet and agriculture mobile apps for fetching the information and finding the solution of the problems which they face in fields. |
