.GOPI KRISHNA, Dr. T.KRISHNAJI, M.V2021-12-082021-12-082021-12-08https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810178822FARMERS’ TELEVIEWING BEHAVIOUR AND EFFECTIVENESS OF FARM BROADCASTS IN ANDHRA PRADESH – A CRITICAL STUDYIn India, two third of the population depend on agriculture and one fourth of countries GDP is contributed by agriculture. But, it is very upsetting to note the insufficient coverage of agriculture in media including print and electronic which is even less than two percent. This is probably because of the non-lucrative nature of farm information to the media organizers. In the present context of increasing importance of mass media for communication of farm information, what is expected is that an appropriate content, process, structure and system that are to be pragmatically developed. For that purpose, a detailed study on farm information communicated through Television with special reference to the nature and extent of farm information telecasted through mass media with their basis giving consideration for clients‟ needs for the farm information, extent of credibility of farm information from scientific and users‟ point of view, different factors there off and so on; are of immense importance. An ex-post facto and experimental research designs were followed to study the televiewing Behaviour of farmers, effectiveness of farm broadcasts and gain in knowledge after exposure to farm broadcast programmes. The study was conducted in four districts viz. West Godavari, Srikakulam, Guntur and Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh during the year 2014 – 2019. In addition to this, analyzed the content of two popular farm broadcast programmes namely Pasidi Pantalu and Annadata. Two mandals from each district was selected, comprising a total of eight mandals viz. Yelamanchili, Mogalthur (West Godavari), Amadalavalasa, Etcherla (Srikakulam), Maddikera, C.Belagal (Kurnool), Tsundur, Duggirala (Guntur). Two villages from each mandal was selected randomly for the study viz. Gumparru, Kaza (Yelamnchili), Mogalthur, K.P.Palem (Mogalthur), Nimmathorlavada, Ravikantipeta (Amadalavalasa), Kongaram, Nandigam (Etcherla), Edlapalle, Valiveru (Tsundur), Tummapudi, Duggirala (Duggirala), Maddikera, Edavali (Maddikera), Kothakota, Brahmanadoddi (C.Belagal). A total of 15 televiewing farmers were selected randomly thus comprises a total sample of 240. xv One village from each selected district was chosen randomly for control group viz. Mutyalapalle (West Godavari district), Kondapuram (Kurnool district), Munnangivaripalem (Guntur district) and Ajjaram (Srikakulam district). Fifteen farmers were selected from each control village thus making a sample of 60. The farmers response was collected by using a well structured and pre-tested interview schedule. The data analysis was conducted by using various statistical tools like frequency, percentage correlation coefficient, regression analysis, t – test, multiple linear regression and ranking. After analysis it was found that majority of televiewing farmers were middle aged (44.58%), having primary education (22.08%), with marginal farm size (26.70%), high farming experience (50.84%), medium level socioeconomic status (54.17%), medium innovativeness (40.42%), medium mass media exposure (52.92%), medium marketing orientation (39.17%), medium risk orientation (44.17%), medium economic orientation (55.42%), medium scientific orientation (55.83%), medium extension contact (60.84%), low annual income (39.17%), medium social participation (47.92%), medium cropping intensity (57.50%), medium training exposure (45.84%). The detailed analysis of dependent variables revealed that more than half of the televiewing farmers (53.75%) had medium televiewing behaviour followed by those with low (27.08%) and high (19.17%) level of televiewing behaviour. Majority of the televiewing farmers (46.25%) had medium level of effectiveness, followed by low (28.75%) and high (25.00%) levels of effectiveness. After exposure to farm broadcast programme on rice production technology in experimental group, the mean difference score was 7.12 and in control group it was 1.04 only. It clearly indicated that there is a significant improvement in gain knowledge after exposure to farm broadcast programme. The profile characteristics of televiewing farmers namely education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation and training exposure had significant relationship with televiewing behaviour. Whereas, the profile characteristics such as age, farm size, annual income and cropping intensity did not show any significant relationship with televiewing Behaviour of the farmers. The MLR analysis revealed that the selected sixteen profile characteristics put together, explained about 80.05 per cent variation in the televiewing Behaviour of the farmers. Remaining 19.95 per cent is due to the extraneous profile characteristics which were away from the present study. Out of sixteen profile characteristics, thirteen of them such as age, education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation and training exposure of televiewing farmers had significant relationship with effectiveness of farm broadcasts. The other profile characteristics such as farm size, annual income and cropping intensity did not show any relationship with effectiveness of farm broadcasts. The MLR analysis found that all the 16 profile characteristics put together, explained about 78.64 per cent variation in the effectiveness of farm broadcasts. Remaining 21.36 per cent is due to the extraneous characteristics which were not considered under study. Out of sixteen selected profile characteristics, thirteen profile characteristics of televiewing farmers such as education, farming experience, socio-economic status, innovativeness, mass media exposure, marketing orientation, risk orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, extension contact, social participation, xvi cropping intensity and training exposure had significant relationship with gain in knowledge. The other profile characteristics namely age, farm size and annual income did not show any relationship with gain in knowledge of the televiewing farmers. The MLR analysis found that all the sixteen profile characteristics put together, explained about 55.23 per cent variation in the gain in knowledge of farmers. Remaining 44.77 per cent is due to the extraneous effects of the profile characteristics which were away from the present study. The content analysis of selected farm broadcast programmes viz., Pasidi Pantalu and Annadata indicated that, in „Pasidi Pantalu‟ programme more emphasis was given to agriculture enterprise (33.21%), dairy and other animal husbandry practices (17.77%), research stations (42.48%), general package of practices (18.00%), highest time was allotted to agriculture enterprise (33.21%) and straight talk mode (71.41%). Whereas, in case of „Annadata‟ programme the main emphasis was given to horticulture enterprise (42.71%), fruit and orchard crops (18.41%), research stations (40.70%), plant protection aspects (29.65%), highest time was allotted to horticulture (42.71%) and straight talk mode (98.09%). Through constraint analysis it was found that, the most important constraints encountered by the televiewing farmers were: frequent interruption in electricity supply, too much repetition of the programmes, usage of old video footage, lack of attention to upload important programmes in social media for further reference, poor quality of visuals and sound, lack of information about experts for further consultation, low level of education creating problems in understanding advanced technical information, lack of reinforce effect of farm broadcasts on farmers, lack of cooperation from other family members to watch the farm broadcast programmes, lack of emphasis to the local dialect/ colloquial language, less emphasis given to Phone in programmes to get solutions to farmers problems directly from experts, orientation of speakers to script reading rather than talking, lack of visual effects for difficult concepts, introduction of the topic is not catchy to raise the farmers interest, lack of summarization of salient points in the end of the programme, less coverage to government policies and schemes, no coverage about source of input availability related information, less emphasis to market intelligence related information, less coverage to success stories of adoptable technologies, non inclusion of cost and benefit aspects. Suggestions made by the televiewing farmers to overcome the constraints were : Avoiding too much repetition of the programmes and usage of old video footage, providing information on source of input availability, more emphasis on programmes of government schemes and subsidies, training the technical experts to improve their script preparation and presentation related skills, broadcasting of programmes related to market intelligence, broadcasting the programmes on post harvest management and value addition related information, publishing the programme schedule in all the major news papers well in advance for wider publicity among farmers, increasing the number of programmes on organic farming and certification, giving priority to latest visuals, visual effects and sound effects in the programmes for increasing farmers interest, focusing on demonstration mode of presentation to improve the skills of farmers, incorporation of cost benefit related information for creating interest among farmers, use of more local experts or progressive farmers / farm women, strictly adhering to seasonality in the programmes broadcasts, incorporation of the visuals of pest and disease symptoms, announcing xvii address and phone numbers of the experts at the beginning as well as after completion of programme, giving emphasis on programmes related to rural and agrobased industries to attract youth in agriculture, uploading of information in social media for further future reference, repeat important programmes at weekends, avoiding too much usage of English words and technical terms, improving picture and audio quality, dramatized presentation of farmers‟ field experiences and success stories, broadcast phone – in live specific to different areas to solve local problems and giving priority to programmes on latest technologies like terrace gardening, kitchen gardening, hydroponics and aquaponics etc.EnglishThesis