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Type : Other Article

Farmers' Perception about ICT Application : A Case study of Gujarat state

Nikulsinh M. Chauhan

Abstract

Amongst the various means for information communication are available, satellite based internet communication found very efficient, accurate, quick and somewhat cheaper in the field of disseminating the information from research system to farmers. Internet communication has touched almost all the district in our country and is mainly down up to the village levels. Internet offers a means for bridging the gap between developmental professional, rural people and agricultural producers through the initiation of interaction and dialogue. Keeping all the views in mind it was decided to study the expectations and opinion of the farmers regarding internet facility. Most of the respondents was expected the Community Internet Center (CIC) facilities at panchayat office of the village. The information on farmers’ related sites was expected by most of the farmers in local (Gujarati) language that too in the audio-visual form. The major purposes to have CIC explained by the respondents were to collect agricultural information, government’s programmes, and market prices. Majority of the respondents expressed their desire to use Internet daily or twice in a week by their own. All of them expressed positive response to have proper training about the use of Internet facility through government agency, at CIC. The results showed that majority of the farmers understood that internet is a rich source to collect world wide information on agriculture and it is the fastest way to exchange information in shortest time’. Majority farmers completely or to a certain degree felt that though internet is costly affair for the farmers but it is the best mean to collect information on market prices of agricultural products. It was concluded that Education, Land holding, Contact with NRI's, Experience of internet use and Mass media exposure are significantly and positively correlated with the opinion of the farmers about the use of Internet for farming community

Keyword: Information communication

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