Vol. 11, Special Issue 11 (2022)

Author(s):
Kungumaselvan T and Ravi Kumar Theodore

Abstract:
The present study conducted to elucidate the constraints faced by rice growers in accessing agricultural information through smartphone. The study was conducted during May and June 2022. Thanjavur district was purposively selected for the study based on the maximum area under rice crop. Two blocks having maximum area under the crop were purposively selected. Orathanadu and Ammapettai blocks were selected from Thanjavur district. From each block, three villages having highest area were selected based on purposive sampling. From each block 30 respondents were selected using Proportionate Random Sampling method which constitutes the sample size of 60. The responses of the respondents were subjected to frequency and percentage analysis. The constrains were grouped into two categories viz., hardware constraints and software constraints. The suggestion was grouped in to three categories viz., hardware strategies, software strategies, and training needs. Most of the respondents reported that less knowledge and skill in using smartphone (3.82), high cost for repair and maintenance of smartphones (3.57), and high cost of data tariffs (3.45) were the major hardware related constraints, andless awareness on agriculture related mobile apps/web portals (3.73), and unavailability of updated information (3.57) were the major software related constraints. The major suggestion provided by the farmers were provision of assistance by the government to purchase high end smartphone, creating farmer friendly data packs, regular updating of information and adding voice recognition facility in mobile apps, developing the knowledge of farmers on downloading and operating different apps and portals related to agriculture through method demonstration and trainings.