Utilization Pattern of TNAU Banana Expert System among Nendren Banana Growers in Kanyakumari District

Abstract

Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for transmission of localized information and services has increased towards making farming socially, economically and environmentally sustainable by Digital Agriculture. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has initiated a lot of efforts in digitizing agricultural information to reach the stakeholders. A few expert systems were developed to help farmers and specialists to diagnose plant diseases. The TNAU Banana expert system is one such mobile app, where a farmer can get all solution and information on banana cultivation in just one touch.  An experiment was conducted with 40 banana farmers of Kanyakumari district who form the respondents for the study. This paper analyses on Knowledge gain with the support of the TNAU Banana Expert system, which showed significant positive change. The number of technologies adopted above the average adoption level after demonstration was eleven. It was adopted by only 12.5% of farmers before using the App, while it was 62.5% after the demonstration. The overall increase in Knowledge gain over the existing level was 53.05%.