Vol. 12, Special Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
Tribhuwan Singh Rajpurohit, Dr. Ishaq Mohammed Khan, Sita Ram Bijarnia and Pushpa Kumawat

Abstract:
In recent years, Smartphone’s have emerged as a pivotal tool for ICT, witnessing significant growth in our country. Agricultural productivity has been greatly influenced by the role of information and communication. Farmers require information across various stages of agricultural activities, such as sowing, harvesting, animal care, and more. The government of India has initiated several programs to support the agriculture sector through mass media, including radios, televisions, prints, and mobile applications. This study was conducted in Jaipur district, Rajasthan, with two blocks, Govindgarh and Bassi, selected as they represented the highest and lowest produce arrivals in the market. From these blocks, four villages each were randomly chosen, totaling eight villages for the study. In these villages, 10 farmers from each were selected randomly, resulting in a sample of 80 farmers. Most Smartphone-using farmers in Govindgarh and Bassi blocks were adults with secondary-level education and low annual income (less than Rs. 238,333). They belonged to the other backward caste category and were primarily engaged in agriculture. These farmers had significant land holdings, regularly used Kisan Mela, had limited personal cosmopolitan contacts, preferred input dealers as their primary localite information source, had substantial localite contacts, regularly used TV as a mass media source, had low mass media exposure, considered Smartphone’s more valuable than other information sources, and exhibited medium levels of innovativeness."