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

The Attitude of Livestock Farmers Towards the Use of ICT Tools During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Krushna Adwe, Adhiti Bhanotra and Manish Sawant

Mumbai Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai, MAFSU, Maharashtra, INDIA
adhitindri@gmail.com

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created extreme vulnerability in the livestock sector, impacting farmer’s livelihood, food security, and livestock market systems. While this COVID-19 pandemic presents many challenges, it also created opportunities for digital tools to better serve the farmers and to prefer for new livestock/animal husbandry needs that arise. The present study was carried out at the Thane district of Maharashtra. Thane district has 7 blocks, out of which four blocks were randomly selected. From each block, five villages were selected and from each village, six respondents who were using ICT tools and having at least 03 milch animals at the time of study were selected randomly. Therefore, a total of 120 livestock-rearing farmers were selected for the present study. The respondents were interviewed, individually, at their homes. Statistical measures used during this study include frequency, percentage, and Cumulative square root frequency (CSRT). 84.17 per cent of respondents agreed that ICT ICT-based disease outbreak warning system facilitate farmers to take preventive measures, while only 0.83 per cent strongly agreed with the statement. The majority of livestock farmers i.e., 86.66 per cent agreed that ICTs provide possible solutions to the present animal husbandry situation, 85.84 per cent of respondents agreed that ICT-based extension services assist the farmer in planning and decision-making aspects in animal husbandry, 83.34 per cent of respondents agreed that ICTs were potential tools to reach the needy farmers and ICTs based extension services provide new opportunities to build a skilled and knowledgeable community. 71.67 per cent of farmers agreed that feedback was faster through ICTs than through traditional methods. 69.17 per cent reported that expert advice makes enterprise/activities productive, and 65.83 per cent of farmers agreed that they can get remunerative prices to their produce through ICT-based market intelligence.

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