SREENIVASA RAO, IRAKSHA2016-09-082016-09-082014http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/75949Agricultural Extension is an educational service or system which assists farmers through educational procedures in improving farming methods and techniques, increasing production efficiency and income, bettering their levels of living and lifting the social and educational standards of rural life (Maunder, 1973). Agricultural extension services include transferring knowledge to farmers, advising and educating farmers in their decision making, enabling farmers to clarify their own goals and possibilities, and stimulating desirable agricultural developments. Traditional public-sector extension services use a variety of extension programmes to overcome barriers to technological adoption without much success. Agricultural extension, which depends to a large extent on information exchange between and among farmers on one hand, and a broad range of other actors on the other, has been identified as one area in which ICTs can have a particularly significant impact. There is growing recognition that farmers and members of rural communities have needs for information and appropriate learning methods that are not being met. A descriptive research design and exploratory study were adopted for the present investigation. The study was conducted in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh purposively as it is the one of the major states where a number of ICTs projects are being implemented. A proportionate number of respondents were selected both from public and private sectors. For representation from public organizations, respondents were taken from State Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture-National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) GOI, State Agricultural University-Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) and ICAR institutes. For private sector, respondents were taken from Nagarjuna fertilizers, ETV, TV5, e-choupal (ITC) etc. were purposively selected for the study. A proportionate sample of 60 respondents each was selected randomly from State Department, Research and development (R&D) sector and Private Organizations for the study. Thus a total of 180 respondents were selected for the study. For R&D sector respondents from SAU (ANGRAU)-KVKs, DAATTCs and ICAR institutes were selected. The data was collected with the help of questionnaire. In R&D sector, majority of the respondents were old, male, doctorates, hailing from both rural and urban areas, have less experience in job and extension was their major job responsibility. In case of SDA, majority of the respondents were young, male and graduate, hailing from rural areas and belongs to the low category of number of years of service. Extension was the major job responsibility. A majority of the private sector respondents were young, male and post graduate, hailing from urban areas. They have less years of service and extension was their major job responsibility. Majority (82.22%) of the respondents have personal computer/laptop. About 69 per cent of the respondents have personal computer/laptop with internet connection. Cent percent respondents have the mobile phone while a little less than half of the respondents (45.56%) have smart phone. With regard to SDA sector respondents, majority (53.33%) were hailing from low category followed by medium (33.33%) and high (13.33%) whereas about 47 per cent private sector respondents were belonging to high category followed by medium (40.00%) and low (13.33%). About 94 per cent respondents have awareness about ICTs through interpersonal communication channels like family members, friends and colleagues followed by mass media channels (84.44%) like newspaper/magazines/books etc., trainings (81.67%) and internet (57.78%). It could be seen from the table that slightly more than half of the respondents (57.78%) had undergone trainings on ICTs. R&D and SDA sector respondents learned ICTs skills majorly as guidance from colleagues/friends whereas private sector respondents majorly learned ICTs skills from trainings. Trainings to learn ICTs skills are a major method in private sector in comparison to R&D sector and SDA Sector. Thus, trainings on ICTs is a major area where both R&D and SDA sector are lagging behind and it should be a focus point for higher authority or policy makers to update knowledge and skills of respondents on ICTs. Besides, trainings, guidance from colleagues/friends is also a major contributing factor in method of learning ICTs skills. Majority of the training by the R &D sector respondents were of one week to one month duration followed by the up to one week (23.33%) and more than one month (08.33%). SDA sector respondents received training on ICTs maximum of up to one week (20.00%) and about 07 per cent trainings were of one week to one month. Not a single respondent was trained on ICTs for more than one month. Majority of the private sector trainings on ICTs were of one week to one month (53.33%) followed by up to one week (36.67%) and more than one month (26.67%). On an average, majority of the trainings were of one week to one month duration (29.44%) followed by up to one week (26.67%) and more than one month (11.67%). A majority (40.00%) of the R & D sector respondents have favourable attitude towards use of ICTs in agricultural extension followed by highly favourable (33.33 %) and neutral (20.00 %). With respect to SDA respondents, 45 per cent respondents have favourable attitude towards use of ICTs in agricultural extension followed by highly favourable (11.67%), neutral (25.00 %) and unfavourable attitude (18.33%). About 42 per cent private sector respondents have more favourable attitude towards use of ICTs in extension followed by favourable attitude (33.33 %). Not a single respondent from all three respondents‘ categories having the highly unfavourable attitude. In total, it can be summed up from the table that majorly respondents have favourable (39.44%) and highly favourable (28.89%) attitude towards the use of ICTs in agricultural extension. At individual level, majority of the respondents (60.00%) have experience in Mobile SMS from more than five years followed by telecommunication facilities (58.89%), computer hardware (55.00%), audio visual systems (52.78%), LCD (53.33%), VCD/DVD players (51.67%) and others. About 39 per cent respondents were having experience in use of video conferencing from one to five years followed by audio visual systems (37.22%), computer software (32.78%), computer hardware (33.89%) and others. There is very less percentage of the respondents who were using ICTs tools from less than one year like computer software (26.67%), video conferencing (26.11%), telecommunication facilities (12.22%), VCD/DVD Players (24.44%), LCD (27.22%), computer electronic communication (20.56%) and others. Organization has a cent per cent experience in use of technologies like computer hardware (100.00%), audio visual systems (100.00%), telecommunication facilities (100.00%), computer networks (100.00%), VCD/DVD players (100.00%), LCD (100.00%) etc. from more than five years but when it comes to the use of latest ICTs tools, like kiosks, mobile telephony, online social networking etc., not a single organization has experience from more than five years. Majority of the (51.67%) R&D sector respondents have medium e-readiness following by high (25.00%) and low (23.33%). About 64 per cent SDA sector respondents belong to medium e-readiness followed by low (28.33%) and high (08.33%) whereas about 84 per cent private sector respondents were falling in high category of e-readiness followed by medium (13.33%) and low (03.33%). In total majority of the respondents (42.78%) belong to medium category of e-readiness followed by high (38.89%) and low (30.56%). Power supply is one of the major problems identified by the respondents in all stages of effective use of ICTs followed by content development, expert availability, trainings and working conditions of ICTs. As these all problems are connected to each other so these problems should handle with care and in integrated mode instead of isolation mode. Suggestions provided by the respondents with respect to use of ICTs in Agricultural extension systems are for effectiveness of the technology. There is a need to focus on the regular and frequent update of the information which is to be provided to its end users as information is the first and foremost requirement of not only the farming community but also the other stakeholders in the agricultural extension system. The updation of information should be supported by the frequent updation of the software or the hardware of the technology as both are complementary to each other. Besides, regular updation of information and software, there is also a need to see the compatibility of technology with the technology components itself, with other methods used and definitely with the end users etc. For the effectiveness of ICTs, strategy should be planned in an integrated manner covering the important aspects like polices, institutions, stakeholders, human resources development, ICT knowledge centre, ICT infrastructures, content development, blending, identification of ICT experts and innovative leaders, ICTs upgradaton, refinement and innovation and monitoring and evaluation.enINFORMATION, COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGIES, AGRICULTURAL, EXTENSION, SYSTEM, ANDHRA PRADESHThesis