Impediments Faced by Farmers Apropos ICT-based Agro-met Advisory Services

Abstract

Information related to weather becomes very crucial to farmer attributed to its highly variable nature. ICT based Agro-met advisory services hold the capacity to reduce the vulnerability of farmers to extreme weather and climatic fluctuations by providing need based timely information to farmers. Although there exist a number of ICT based initiatives to provide the farmers with needed information, several constraints pose threat in bridging this information gap. This study was conducted during the year 2021 in Darrang District of Assam to study the impediments faced by farmers in effective use of agro-met advisory services provided by various stakeholders. Data to study constraints were collected from 100 beneficiaries of agro-met advisory services using semi-structured schedule. To rank the constraints indicated by the respondents, Garret ranking technique was used. Result of the study reveals that inability to update ICT expertise regularly, lack of updated information and lack of skills to use the ICT were some of the major constraints as indicated by the beneficiary farmers. The study concluded there is a need to provide training to enhance skills in using ICT tools. Location specific updated information should be made accessible to farmers via various ICT based platforms.