Evaluating the Impact of Mobile Disseminated Agricultural Services on Farmers' Attitudes in Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Mobile phone plays a vital role to share the various information related to agricultural activities. The method of communication is very easy and understandable for the farming community and helps them to disseminate the information in timely manner and they directly keep in touch with the marketing agencies. Especially the mobile phone is used for to get aware about the marketing prices and weather forecast for agricultural operations. The research was conducted in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. The respondents were 120 farmers selected by using the random sampling technique and collected information by using the interview schedule. The major findings of the study revealed that majority of the farmers 43.33 per cent had favourable attitude about agricultural services disseminated through mobile phone. And the relationship of profile characteristics with attitude revealed that out of ten characteristics, five characteristics namely - educational status, mass media exposure, extension agency contact economic motivation and Innovativeness were found to have positive and significantly correlated with the attitude of farmers towards the agricultural services disseminated through mobile phone.