Constraints in accessing agricultural information through ICT services

Abstract

The present era is of Information and Communication Technologies. The extension workers, farmers and other stakeholders are using ICT tools for transferring agricultural and allied fields. Information and Communication Technologies are to meet the location specific information needs of the farmers. The information and communication networks are expanding very fast. In spite of continuous efforts of various functionaries, there are still areas where improvement is needed to be able to take advantage of the benefits of ICT. The study was conducted in Junagadh, Rajkot and Amreli districts of Saurashtra region of Gujarat state. Total twenty-four villages from six talukas were selected randomly and ten farmers from each village were selected as respondents making sample of total 240 farmers. The most important constraints faced by farmers were: Inadequate literacy skills to use ICTs, High cost of some ICT gadgets and services, Lack of technical knowledge to operate the ICT tools, Difficulty in understanding the language of ICT gadgets, Lack of interest in using modern tools of ICT.