USE OF COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BY THE WOMEN BENEFICIARIES OF BRAC IN INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to determine the use of communication channel by the women beneficiaries of BRAC in respect of vegetable cultivation, livestock production and fish culture and to explore its relationships with their selected characteristics. Data were collected through personal interviewing by using interview schedule from a sample of 83 women beneficiaries selected by multi-stage random sampling procedure from three unions of sadar upazila under Dinajpur district during 15 March to 16 April 2014. The use of communication channel was determined on three dimensions viz. contact, interaction and application and finally the overall use of communication channel by the women beneficiaries was determined. Overall use of communication channel could range from 15 to 74, against the possible score of 0 to 90. The highest proportion (39.8 percent) of the women had medium use of information channel compared to 37.3 percent had high use and 22.9 percent had low use. The findings revealed that more than three-fourths (77.1 percent) of the farmers had medium to high use of information channel in receiving agriculture, livestock and fisheries related information. Among the ten selected characteristics of the farmers five like educational qualification, daily time use, training received, attitude towards NGOs and participation in income generating activities showed significant positive relationship with their use of communication channel while their age, family size, annual income and credit received had no relationships.