EFFECTIVENESS OF ICT ENABLERS IN AGRICULTURE ACTIVITIES IN DINAJPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of effectiveness of ICT enablers used by the farmers in agricultural activities. Data were collected from the farmers of Chirirbandar Upazila of Dinajpur district during 15 September to 20 October, 2017. The sample size of the study was 95 farmers directly or indirectly involved with Agriculture Information and Communication Centers (AICCs) of DAE and it was drawn from a population of 475 using random sampling technique. For collecting data structured interview schedule were used. The effectiveness of ICT enablers was the focus issue of this study and it was measured by computing a composite effectiveness score based on each of the four dimensions, are: (i) frequency of use, (ii) importance of using in agriculture, (iii) ease to use and (v) maintenance and operational cost. Each of the dimensions was measured against ten ICT enablers. Each of the four dimensions was put against a 4 point rating scale. A number of characteristics of the farmers were selected as the factors for explaining effectiveness of ICT enablers and was measured by standard techniques. Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationships between the focus issue and the selected characteristics. It was found that 84.2 percent of the farmers perceived that the ICT enablers was medium effective, followed by 10.5 percent of farmers perceived as “low effective” and 5.3 percent of farmers perceived as “high effective”. The respondents had high effectiveness is in importance of using ICT enablers dimension, followed by maintenance and operational cost, ease to use and frequency of use. Farmers' characteristics such as education, annual family income, farming experience, ICT training received, perception regarding ICTs had significant positive relationship with the effectiveness of ICT enablers; while age, family size and use of ICTs had no significant relationship with effectiveness of ICT enablers at five percent level of significance.There is an ample scope of increasing effectiveness of ICT enablers in the study area and farmers faced high maintenance and operational cost in using ICT enablers and they feel difficult to use the enablers thus they might use the enablers in a less frequency.