Utilization of Social Media by Input Dealers for Information Needs in Agriculture

Abstract

The study was carried out with an objective to assess the utilization of social media as an information source in agriculture by the input dealers. The study was conducted with randomly selected 80 respondents from Malda district. The study shows that extension services in agriculture was still the most preferred information sources for agricultural input dealers followed by social media. The increasing trend of using social media for agricultural information was very much encouraging. The study shows that social media platform such as WhatsApp was most preferred by the input dealers followed by YouTube and Facebook. Further, the study shows that the information searched on social media were highest on latest technologies available in agriculture followed by information on education and training and variety of seeds. The input dealers were considerable active in sharing of agricultural information in social media and considerable percentage of input dealers were having trust on social media for agricultural information need.