RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FARMERS’ PROFILES WITH THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS USE OF KISAN CALL CENTRE

Abstract

The challenges before Indian agriculture are immense. This sector needs to grow at a faster rate than in the past to allow foe higher per capita income and consumption. The limitation in Transfer of Technology(TOT) model continues to remain a challenge for the public and private extension systems. With the availability of telephone and internet, it is now possible to bridge this gap to quite a large extent by using an appropriate mix of technologies. The Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India has launched KCC scheme on 21st January, 2004 with a view to leverage the extensive telecom infrastructure in the country to deliver extension services to the farming community. The purpose of these call centre is to respond to issues raised by the farmer, instantly in the local language. Ex –post – facto research design was used in this investigation. The study was conducted in Odisha. Odisha state was purposively selected and Odisha state is having 30 districts, the Cuttack district was selected purposively, out of 15 revenue blocks in Cuttack district, two blocks namely Salepur and Nischintakoili were selected purposively Selection of villages was made on the basis of number of farmers using the services of KCC regularly. 4 villages and 120 respondents were selected randomly. The study revealed that education, land holding, annual income, innovativeness, social participation, source of information, scientific orientation and risk orientation were highly influencing the attitude of respondents towards the use of Kisan Call Centre and extension contact influenced the attitude of respondents towards the use of Kisan Call Centre. It also revealed that more aged farmers developed negative attitude towards use of Kisan Call Centre and occupation and family size are not influencing the attitude of the respondents.