PREFERENCE OF ICT TOOLS BY THE FARMERS IN RECEIVING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the preference of ICT tools by the farmers for field crop cultivation. The study was conducted in five out of 17 villages of Dhamair union of Birol upazila under Dinajpur district. An updated list of 1007 farmers was collected from the local NGOs. From this list 103 farmers were selected at randomly as sample for this study. Data were collected during 15 September to 14 October 2018 by using an interview schedule. Each of the selected nine characteristics of the farmers namely age, education, family size, farming experience, annual income, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, attitude towards ICT tools and innovativeness constituted the causal factors, while preference of ICT tools was the focus issue variable. The focus issue was determined by extent of contact with ICT tools and usefulness of ICT tools in receiving agricultural information. On the other hand, ten ICT tools were considered to determine the preference of ICT tools for field crop cultivation. Rank order for each of the ICT tools was computed by using preference of information and communication tools index (PICTI). Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to explore the relationship between the focus issue and selected characteristics of the farmers. The highest proportion (61.17 percent) of respondents had medium preference of information and communication tools while 20.38 percent had high and only 18.45 percent had low preference. In contrast, mobile phone was mentioned by majority of respondents (PICTI=482) as the most preferred ICT tool in receiving agricultural information, and computer or laptop occupied the last position in the ranking of the least preferred ICT tools (PICTI=105). Out of nine independent variables; education, annual income, cosmopoliteness and innovativeness showed significant positive relationship while age and farming experience of the farmers showed significant but negative relationship with the dependent variable. The rest of the characteristics viz. family size, organizational participation and attitude of the farmers did not show any relationship with their preference of ICT tools.