Use of Information and Communication Technology and Product Promotion

Abstract

E-agriculture, i.e., Information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture enriches the agriculture and brings rural development. Due to this upbringing of information and communication technology, agricultural production has increased and also enhancing the market which indicates a complete change of makeover. Indian farming is revolutionized and all farmers including small landholders are benefited through the use of ICT in agriculture. ICT helps a lot to increase the demand for new perspectives in agricultural field. The present study was basically conducted in Jorhat district of Assam during the time of 2018 and data was collected from 40 farmers through a well structured questionnaire. The main mathematical or statistical tools that have been used in this study are percentages, Likert Scale and measurement of central tendency. The present study tries to analyse the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers which consider or use the information and communication technology in agriculture. This study also focuses on the farmer’s attitude towards using ICT in agriculture and also the frequency of using ICT in agriculture. In this study, it is obtained that there are highest 37.50 percent of farmers are small farmers with a land holding of 1-2 ha and highest 40 percent of farmers have 16 to 20 years of farming experience. From the analysis, it is also noticed that majority(4.68) of farmers strongly agree with the statement that ICT helps in community based planning by providing timely information regarding agricultural field which is followed by the concept of ICTs helpful for reducing the distance in Digital Divide or Technological gap(4.63). With some statements the farmers are strongly disagree or disagree such as ICT helps to exchange the opinion, knowledge, experience and also the assets(2.94) and by improving rural livelihoods ICT fill up the social segregation gap(2.15). Again it is observed that to gaining knowledge and information all 40 farmers are using mobile phones as ICT very frequently.