Feasibility of agricultural advisory services through SMS to the farmers of Pratapgarh district

Abstract

Farmer Portal is a part of the ICT tools employed by the most of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s of India. In the district about 2269073 farmers got the text SMSs from July 2017 to June 2018 through the farmer portal of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pratapgarh. The usual messages are timely information/ advices communicating as per the need of the situation. The study was conducted in district Pratapgarh in year 2017 – 18, where Krishi Vigyan Kendra is involved in transfer of technology through farmer’s portal. From the study it was observed that maximum SMS send regarding Plant protection techniques which was got rank I, followed by Crop production (II), Sanitation message (III), Integrated nutrient management (IV), Weather information (V) etc. It was also observed that 60.83 per cent SMS related to plant protection perceived as ‘very much useful’ (60.83%), followed by crop production (59.17 %) of farmers perceived as SMSs were ‘most useful’ for improving the agriculture knowledge. Majority (57.50 %) of farmers perceived as SMSs were very much useful for integrated weed management. This study has shown that a majority of the farmers perceived information on pest and disease control as most important and least important message is agricultural implement. They also felt that accessing information through mobile phone is easy and convenient.