Action taken on received agricultural information using mobile phones by the farmers in Lakhnaur block of Madhubani district, Bihar

Abstract

Mobile telephony has hasty growth as compared to fixed line telephony and the recent introduction of mobile-based agriculture information services are prospective to provide solutions to the existing information asymmetry in agriculture sector.A study was conducted inMadhubani district of Bihar to find out action taken on agriculture information received by mobile using farmers. The study sample comprised of 100 farmers selected randomly from Lakhnaur Block of Madhubani district in Bihar. This paper through focus in-depth interviews with farmers, has tried to find out action taken on received agricultural information by mobile phone like coordinating information, market information, financial information and agriculture consultation information. The study findings indicate that majority of respondents (29%) received financial information. Action taken on received agriculture information results show that majority of respondents (36%) had contacted for seeds planting and livestock coordinate meeting, hired transport for agriculture products to market (38%), gained loan from local businessmen (49%) and contacted local farmers for advice on how to deal affected crops (40%). The primary data in this study were attempting to undertake a micro level analysis of collected data from the farmer with the help of structured schedule through personal interview methods.