Abstract
Information is one of the vital factors of production while ICT to provide efficient and effective information. Thus, the study was undertaken mainly to determine farmersâ extent of access to ICT based media in receiving agricultural information. Besides, important factors associated with farmersâ extent of access to ICT based media were also explored. The study was conducted at Fulbaria upazila (sub-district) under Mymensingh district in Bangladesh. Eighty (80) farmers were interviewed using structured questionnaire to collect the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis were used to interpret the trend and tendencies of collected data. The findings of the study revealed that the majority (81.2 percent) of the respondents had low access to ICT while only 3.8 percent had medium access and 15.0 percent of them having no access to ICT based media. The step-wise multiple regression results explored that availability of ICTs, knowledge on ICT and training received on ICTs were identified as influential factors in case of increasing the extent of farmersâ access to ICT based media. Lack of operational knowledge of computer, poor level of education, lack of training facilities on ICT, insufficient numbers of ICT centre, poor knowledge on the availability of ICT based facilities, lack of personal interest were identified as the major constraints faced by the farmers to access to ICTs based media.
Highlights
IntroductionIn recent time agricultural extension in the country provides critical access to the knowledge, information and technology that farmers importantly needed to improve the productivity and improve the quality of their lives and livelihoods [4]
Bangladesh is mainly an agro-based country and agriculture is crucial to the livelihoods of millions of Bangladeshi
It is revealed from the study that majority of the farmers had low access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) based media
Summary
In recent time agricultural extension in the country provides critical access to the knowledge, information and technology that farmers importantly needed to improve the productivity and improve the quality of their lives and livelihoods [4] It is proved by the findings of other researchers that access, efficiency and affordability of agricultural information are the major barriers in the battle to uplift agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers [5]. ICT based media is defined by the scientist as an umbrella term that includes computer hardware and software, digital broadcast and telecommunication technologies as well as digital information depositories either online or offline, and contemporary social networking aspects, read/write interfaces on the web besides file sharing systems online [7] It includes wide range of elements like TV, radio, cell phones and policies and laws that govern the widespread use of these media. Considering these realities the present study was undertaken to assess the level of access of the farmers to ICT based media for receiving agricultural information and to explore the factors responsible to affect farmers’ access to ICT based media
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