The agricultural domain is one of the knowledge-intensive sectors in which accurate, correct, and timely information is necessary. The development of rural areas cannot be imagined without the advancement of agriculture. For this, useful agricultural information should reach the farmers in time and in the form most suitable to them. Also, in order to meet the agricultural development, customized agricultural information is highly essential for reducing uncertainties from production to consumption. Newspapers in India are considered as one of the important sources of communication and information dissemination. The current study was undertaken in order to identify the percentage cover of agricultural information in a local daily and the utility perception of the agricultural information published by the farmer readers. The study revealed that only 2.39 percent area was given to agricultural information in newspapers and the majority of the respondents (74.17%) had a medium utility perception of agricultural information. The weighted mean score was found to be maximum (2.45) for the terminology of the newspaper, indicating its language is easy to read and understand, followed by enjoyment in reading (2.39) and lowest for the motivation (1.70) for the adoption of new technologies. Also, the utility perception index value was maximum for terminology (81.94) and lowest for motivation (56.94), whereas credibility and understandability had an index value of 77.5 and 75.55 respectively.

Keyword: Agricultural information; Utility perception; Newspaper; Farmer readers.