Mobile based agro-advisory services in livestock management by tribal of Meghalaya

Abstract

Meghalaya, state of North-East India, predominantly depend on animal husbandry and agriculture for their livelihood. This study covers the queries of agro-advisory lab registered farmers regarding the various aspects of animal husbandry management including poultry and fishery management for a period of 2.5 years i.e., from June 2013 to December 2015. Farmers were more interested to get information regarding livestock/poultry health management (35.95%) followed by training on animal husbandry (17.66%), schemes on pig/poultry (11.15%), source of piglets/chicks (10.70%), breeding management (10.44%), fishery management including source of fingerlings (3.03%) and housing management (1.87%). The programme has gained high popularity among the tribal farmers of Meghalaya and a sufficient numbers of farmers have been found to be benefitted through the agro- advisory service in the livestock as well as poultry and fishery sectors since number of queries raised by the farmers were found to be increased with the time. It increased from 178 numbers (15.88%) during 2013 to 529 (47.19%) in 2015. Impact assessment revealed that 19.72% of these farmers have been benefitted in animal husbandry from the agro-advisory service. Hence, Mobile Based Agro-Advisory service should be supported by the state department to uplift such types of programmes which will be helpful in improving livelihoods and socio-economic status of the rural tribal farmers in the state in a rapid way.