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ThesisItem Open Access Development of multimedia WhatsApp module for dairy farmers: A study in Garhwal division of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-10) Bhatt, Sakshi; Sharma, ArpitaIndia’s transformation in the field of dairy, from acute shortage to the world’s leading milk-producing Nation has been highly commendable. Over 70 percent of the milk produced in India is by small and marginal farmers whose landholdings are small with few heads of cattle or buffaloes. Hence it is powerful instrument to bring about social and economic transformation which can improve their livelihoods and development pattern that will leads to the economic growth of the country. In the era, where information is considered as a valuable resource yet dearth of information has been a critical concern for farmers of India that leaves them with a wide knowledge gap. The main reason for this gap is the lack of access to information due to scarcity of extension personnel and technical human resource. The farmers’ ignorance towards recent advances like social media and ICTs is another probable reason which keeps the knowledge gap as it is. This is where WhatsApp appears, it makes knowledge dissemination easy, vibrant and effective. It can also be considered as a good extension tool that emerged out of the digitization and communication revolution that strengthen the extension setup. The present study was conducted in the Haridwar district of the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand. One village from each of the two blocks was selected using chit method of simple random sampling. A total of sixty respondents, thirty from each village were procured with the help of Pradhan and Additional Director (Dairy) through purposive sampling. In the present study Interview schedule and knowledge test were the tool used for data collection. The statistical techniques such as percentage, mean, frequency, weighted mean score, standard deviation, t-paired test were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. The finding of the study reported that majority (63.33%) of the respondents were middle aged. None of the farmers were illiterate and 31.66 per cent of farmers were educated up to intermediate level. It was found that 76.6 per cent of the farmers had medium family size i.e. 4 to 9 members, and 58.33 per cent were engaged in dairying with agriculture. About 43.33 per cent of the dairy farmers had small landholdings of 1 to 2 hectare and 58.33 per cent had medium level of dairy experience of 7 to 18 years. It was also found that three fourth of the dairy farmers had medium (3 to 6) herd size and 70 percent of the respondents had medium milk production because of which 80 per cent of the respondents had medium level of dairy income. It was observed that 66.66 per cent of respondents were having medium level of extension contact. All of the respondents had television, Smart phone and Internet subscription and 86.66 per cent of the respondents were having medium mass media exposure. It was also revealed that majority (63.33 per cent) of the respondents were having medium level of information seeking behavior. The information needs of the respondents were assessed on the basis of Weighted Mean Score for every sub-area. The prioritized sub areas on basis of high WMS were selected for the development of Multimedia WhatsApp module with the participation of the respondents. Later, it was observed that at level of significance post- test score of the respondents was higher than pre-test score. It reveals that multimedia WhatsApp module is significantly effective in term of gain in knowledge. The study signifies the role of Multimedia WhatsApp module for the improvement of dairy extension services and in bringing favaourable changes in the knowledge level of the dairy farmers.
