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COMPENDIUM, IEEC-2023   ( ISBN : 978-81-967860-4-5 )
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Theme-4: Advances in Social Management in Agriculture and Allied Sciences

Awareness and Utilization Pattern of ICT Tools perceived by Coastal Farmers of Odisha during Cyclone Warning Stages

Biswajit Mallick

Kotang Konark, Puri, Odisha, 752118
biswajitmallick9999@gmail.com

Abstract

Despite numerous advanced scientific technologies, we are still at the mercy of some uncontrollable natural calamities. A tropical cyclone has violent winds, torrential rain, high waves, destructive storm surges, and coastal flooding. The cyclone is responsible for considerable losses to Indian agriculture. After all, farmers are informed, aware, combat, and cope with these difficulties successfully with past experiences, warn through various ICT tools, social media, and organizational sources. The study was carried out with a specific objective: to determine the utilization pattern of information sources the farmers perceived in the cyclone's early warning stages. The state was selected purposively because Odisha is highly vulnerable to cyclonic events. 8 villages from 2 coastal districts of the state were considered for the study, and 20 respondents from each village made the sample size of 160 for data collection. The primary data was collected through a well-structured interview schedule and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. Results divulged that television was available with 96.25 per cent of the respondents, followed by Mobile phones (71.25%), Smart phone (67.50%), Radio (35.63%), Laptop (22.50%), Personal computer (14.38%) and Tablets (5.53%). TV news was the major social media with mean score (3.55) ranked first, followed by SMS (3.50) and WhatsApp (3.26) which most of the farmers regularly retrieve information. In contrast, Blog, with a mean score (2.04) was the least used social media by a small proportion of farmers to gain information before cyclones. In the community, there were 5 primary organizational sources, out of which 51.87 per cent of respondents were informed through all the organization, 19.38 per cent were from 4 sources, followed by 11.88 per cent from 3 sources, 13.75 per cent from 2 sources, and 3.12 per cent from a single source. Early warning creates a great advantage in dealing with such climatic vagaries.

IEEC-2023 at RARI (SKNAU, Jobner), Jaipur, Rajasthan organised by Society of Extension Education, Agra, India