ATTITUDE OF THE SUB ASSISTANT AGRICULTURE OFFICERS TOWARDS OF ICTS IN EXTENSION SERVICES

Abstract

The major purpose of this study is to determine SAAOs' attitude towards use of ICTs in extension services. Data were collected from the SAAOs of Rangpur and Dinajpur district during 15 February to 20 March 2018. The sample size of the study was 93. For collecting data structured interview schedule were used. Eight selected characteristics of the SAAOs' namely: age, education, family size, working experience, annual income, ICT training received, use of ICTs in agricultural extension services and frequency of use of ICTs were the selected characteristics of the SAAOs, while the attitude of the SAAOs' towards use of ICTs in extension services was the focus issue. Different standard statistical techniques were used to measure the selected characteristics and Likert scale was used to measure the focus issue. Nine statements (4 positive and 5 negative) on various aspects of use of ICT enablers in agricultural activities were used for the attitude scale. The positive and negative statements were arranged alternatively in the schedule in order to achieve the real picture of attitude of SAAOs. There were five options to response a statement, namely 'strongly agree', 'agree', 'undecided', *disagree' and 'strongly disagree' with a corresponding score of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively for the positive statements and the scoring was reversed for the negative statements. The majority (72.0 percent) of the SAAOs had favorable attitude towards use of TCTs in extension services compared to 15.9 percent had unfavorable attitude and 12.1 percent had neutral attitude towards use of ICTs in extension services. Correlation analyses indicated the relationships of five characteristics with SAAOs' attitude towards use of ICTs in agricultural extension services were found positively significant namely education, annual income, ICT training received, use of ICTs in agricultural extension services and frequency of ICT use. Two characteristics were found negatively significant namely age and working experience. One non-significant relationship was found for family size. So, it may be concluded that SAAOs have positive attitude towards use of ICT enablers in extension services. Government and other development non-government agencies should emphasize ICTs during policy making and development of extension service systems.