Utilization Pattern on Use of Mobile Phones among Small Ruminant Farmers in Tirunelveli District
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Date
2018
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Abstract
The mobile phone has emerged as one ofthe widely accepted and adopted ICT tool to deliver the information in agriculture,
livestock and allied sectors. Though mobile phone in the livestock sector is considered as an emerging tool, there is a need to study the
utilisation pattern on use ofmobile phone among thefarmers who were engaged in animal husbandry enterprises‘ Accordingly, 60
sheep and 60 goatfarmers were selected randomly in Tirunelveli District ofTarnil Nadu that constituted a sample size of120for this
study. The primary data were collected from the selected respondents by using well structured pre-tested interview schedule. The
study revealed that, majority of the respondents (77450 per cent) owned mobile phones and only 22.50 percent did not have mobile
phones. About 28.33 per cent ofrespondents used the mobile phones for contact with extension personnel to get livestock related
information. As regard to credibility of information received through mobile phone, 40.83 per cent trust the information to a great
extent whereas 40.00 per cent of the respondents reported to trust it to some extent. About 50.00 per cent of the respondents faced
signal problem while using mobile phone and 28.33 per centfaced other constraints such as language and voice problem‘ The study
concluded thatalrnostall the respondents were using mobile phones regularlyfor retrieving information on aniinalhusbandry related
information depending on their needs. Hence, it is recommended to develop mobile application software in small ruminants as
decision support system to cater to the infmnation needs of farmers.