USE OF DIFFERENT MEDIA BY THE FARMERS AS AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SOURCES

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of use of different media as agricultural information sources in Nilphamari district and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the respondents and their use of different media as agricultural information sources. The study was conducted in five villages of Kamarpukur union of Saidpur upazila namely, Bangalipur, Lakkhanpur, Kamarpukur, Sonakhali and Botlagari. Data were collected from randomly selected 100 farmers by using a pre-tested interview schedule during the period from September I 0 to October l 0, 2007. Highest proportion ( 44 percent) of the farmers had low use of different media as agricultural information sources compared to 34 and 22 percent having medium use and high use of different media as agricultural information sources respectively. Among eight selected characteristic. Education, organizational participation, innovativeness, knowledge on agriculture had significant positive relationship with their use of different media as agricultural information sources. Besides, the farmers indicated 6 problems regarding the use of different media as agricultural information sources. Out of these, three problems in descending order of Problem Confrontation Index (PCl) were (i) "Unavailability of newspapers related to agriculture", (ii) "High price of batteries for Radio" and (iii) "Lack of cooperation from SAAO".