USE OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA BY THE FARMERS IN RECEIVING INFORMATION ON SELECTED WINTER VEGETABLE CULTIVATION

Abstract

urpose of the study was to ascertain the extent of use of communication media by the farmers in receiving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation. Attempt was also made to explore the relationship between the concerned variables. Nine selected characteristics (age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, organizational participation, innovativeness, opinion towards improved winter vegetable cultivation and agricultural knowledge) of the farmers constituted independent variables of the study, while use of communication media by the farmers were dependent variable. The findings revealed that 38% of the farmers were young aged, 44% had no education, 46% had large family size, 50% had marginal fann size, 35% had low income, 85% had low organizational participation, 64% had low innovativeness, 41% had low favorable opinion towards improved winter vegetable cultivation and 50% had medium agricultural knowledge. Data were collected during November 9 to December 8, 2006 from 100 randomly selected farmers, who were related to winter vegetable cultivation. Eighty two percent of the respondents had medium use and thirteen percent had high use of communication media in receiving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation. Seventy four percent of the respondents perceived medium effectiveness and 17 percent perceived high effectiveness of communication media of communication media in recei ving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation. Sixty percent of the respondent's perceived medium credible and 21 percent perceived highly credible of communication media in receiving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation. Forty seven percent of the respondents perceived medium accuracy and 41 percent perceived high accuracy of communication media in receiving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation. As regard, to relationships, level of education, annual income, organizational participation, opinion towards improved winter vegetable cultivation and agricultural knowledge of the farmers had significant positive relationship with their extent of use of communication media. However, age, family size and innovativeness of the farmers had significant negative relationship with their extent of use of conununication media while farm size of the farmers had no significant relationship with their extent of use of communication media. Experienced fanners, relatives, group discussion, input dealers, and neighbors come out as first five effective, credible and accurate communication media in receiving information on selected winter vegetable cultivation having rank order of effectiveness, credibility and accuracy of communication media index