THAMMI RAJU, D(MAJOR)SUDHAKAR RAO, BMAHENDAR, MSHANTHAL, B2018-10-052018-10-052007-09http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810074853THESESABSTRACT : An ex- post facto research design was adopted for the present study conducted in Puducherry. Four out of seven communes viz. Bahour, Nettapakkam, Villianur and Manadipet were selected purposively, as the ICT initiatives were undertaken by agencies like M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences etc. Two villages from each commune were selected randomly thus making a total of eight villages. 120 respondents out of which 15 livestock farmers per village were selected randomly. The data were collected personally with the help of an interview schedule; processed and analysed and interpreted. The salient findings of the research work are as follows. Majority of the livestock farmers of the study area were middle aged with primary school education and agriculture formed as the main occupation. Livestock farming was taken up as a subsidiary occupation. Most of them had medium experience in livestock farming, with medium herd size and average annual family income. Mass media exposure, information seeking behaviour, scientific orientation, achievement motivation and risk orientation were moderate among the livestock farmers. In the study area, the respondents were utilizing six important ICT tools i.e. Information kiosk, Mobile phones, Videoconferencing, Internet, Open Knowledge Network and Multimedia CDs. Among the above tools, Open Knowledge Network (OKN) and Information Kiosks and Mobile Phone were used very effectively for getting the latest information on Animal Husbandry for knowledge empowerment. The other ICT tools i.e. Multimedia CDs, Videoconferencing and Internet browsing were utilised to a minimum extent. The situational factors affecting the use of ICT tools are applicability, infrastructure facilities, capacity building and affordability. The applicability of ICT tools for the livestock development was very high as indicated by majority of the respondents that ICTs have utility in livestock rearing, advantageous over traditional extension methods, saves time and money, provides accurate information and no distortion of messages, feasible to use in present times and help in quick and timely decision making except that ICTs are interactive. The accessible infrastructure facilities pertaining to ICT tools received good response as indicated by majority of the respondents that access to the ICTs is always available, ICTs are present in the vicinity , all the latest equipments are present to run the ICTs, functional at all the times and good connectivity. But few have agreed to the availability of updated information regarding livestock. With regard to capacity building, the findings revealed that majority of the respondents expressed that basic computer training is required for the end users, training on ICTs is not a barrier to get information and training should have local relevance. But majority of the respondents disagreed to the fact that language used in ICTs should not be a barrier. The affordability of the farmers was expressed in terms of their capacity to pay for information. Majority of the respondents expressed that „it is good to pay for the ICTs which are worth‟, „government shall provide some concessions in the user charges based on their socio-economic conditions‟ and „suitable initiatives must be taken by the policy makers to improve the users‟ purchasing power‟. On the contrary about half of respondents disagreed that „there is no economic benefit from ICT‟. The extent of use of ICT tools was found to be medium among majority of the livestock farmers. The remaining respondents distributed in to low and high categories. The knowledge level of majority of the livestock farmers on scientific dairy farming was found to be medium, followed by low and high categories. Relational analysis between independent variables and knowledge on scientific dairy farming revealed that age, education, annual family income, mass media exposure, information seeking behaviour, scientific orientation, achievement motivation and risk orientation exhibited positive and significant relationship with the knowledge level of the livestock farmers on scientific dairy farming. Education, mass media exposure, information seeking behaviour, applicability of ICT tools, infrastructure facilities, capacity building and affordability indicated positive and significant relation with extent of use of ICT tools. The inter correlation between extent of use of ICT tools and knowledge on scientific dairy farming showed highly significant relationship. The inter correlation between dependant variables i.e. knowledge on scientific dairy farming and extent of use of ICT tools was significant at 1% level of significance. The positive inter correlation between knowledge level and extent of use of ICT tools revealed that majority of the low knowledge group and medium knowledge group used Open Knowledge Network only, whereas majority of the high knowledge group used both Information kiosk and Open Knowledge Network. The problems perceived by the livestock farmers on use of ICT tools were i) time consuming in retrieval of information as it is not customized, ii) repetition of the contents or messages which the farmer already is aware of iii) all the relevant information is not available in the kiosk iv) too much text in Open Knowledge Network, v) lack of training on use computers vi) no time to use ICT vii) frequent change of functionaries at OKN by transfer or replacement, viii) not aware about the benefits of internet and ix) accessibility to ICT tools is restricted as it is being located in a farmers house.ennullThesis