Vasudha Sulakhe
Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, India
Title: Use of Modern Information and Communication Tools and Constraints Encountered in its Accessibility by Livestock Farmers
Biography
Biography: Vasudha Sulakhe
Abstract
ICT is the foundation of economy and a driving force of social changes in the 21st century. The present study explores the use of different ICT tools by livestock farmers in Maharashtra, India. A total of 120 livestock farmers were randomly selected from Pune and Satara districts of Maharashtra, India. The data was collected with the help of structured schedule by personal interview method. Findings revealed that majority of respondents are in the middle age group (58.33%), belonging to rural area (64.16%), with higher secondary level of education (35.83%). It showed that, mobile phone was the most preferred ICT tool (40.00%) followed by T.V (33.33%) and they used internet on their mobile phones for browsing information related to agriculture and animal husbandry practices (66.66%). Social media like Whatsapp (45.09%) and Facebook (37.25%) are being used by the respondents for sharing information in the field of animal husbandry. Most of the respondents were aware about different android based mobile applications (77.50%) but only 40% of the total respondents used this facility to access information related to animal husbandry. Other most widely used mobile applications were KISAN, Agrostar and Agrowon (45.00%). It was also revealed that, majority of the respondents used mobile phones as a communication channel (27.52%). The constraints encountered in accessibility of mobile applications by majority of respondents included digital illiteracy and, lack of mobile friendly and locally relevant digital content in local languages. Effective use of ICTs will help to improve access of information to farmers so as to achieve the broader objective of improving productivity.