Opinion of extension professionals about utility of agricultural e-content to the farmers of Haryana
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Date
2021-09
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Publisher
CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
The primary goal of agricultural extension services is to provide relevant and useful information to the farmers in order to persuade them to adopt new technologies that will result in an increase in agricultural productivity (Okunade and Oladosu, 2006). E-content is best way for extension functionaries to keep themselves updated and conveying information to the farmers
The study was conducted in Karnal, Kaithal, Hisar and Mahendragarh district of Haryana state, 20 respondents were selected randomly from each selected district. Thus, total eighty extension professionals were selected and interviewed with the help of well-structured schedule. Data were collected through Google forms technique, e-mail questionnaire technique and personal interview technique. Findings of the socio-personal profile of the respondents revealed that majority of the respondents were males of young age group (20-35 years), educated up to post graduation, almost two fifth of the respondents had 5 to 10 years of job experience and half of the respondents did not receive any training on ICT and web browsing. The study further illustrates that 90 percent of the respondents had either low or medium level of knowledge of agricultural e-content and in tool wise analysis respondents had maximum knowledge about social media and minimum knowledge about websites/web portals. So, on an average 62.40 percent of respondents have knowledge about various sources of agricultural e-content. Most of the respondents (87.5%) were found either in medium or low-level category of use of agricultural e-content and in tool wise analysis social media was used more frequently and expert system less frequently or rarely. So, on an average only 40.40 percent respondents used agricultural e-content for keeping themselves update and conveying information to the farmers. Education, Training received on ICT and web browsing and availability of I.T gadgets were found significantly associated with the level of use of e-content. Most of the respondents faced either medium level or high level of constraints in using e-content. The major constraints faced by them were “official environment of extension professionals is not pro digital content; huge internet data consumption & shortage of data storage in the electronic devices; lack of authentic e-content on the web, mobile apps and social media platforms”. Regarding opinion, 78.75 percent of the respondents had opinion that the e-content available on digital platforms is most useful whereas, 21.25 percent respondents found the e-content least useful