Utilization pattern of information sources for weather forecast among farmers of Chhattisgarh plains

Abstract

There is a large deficit of information and knowledge in this vulnerable region which impedes decision making and assessment of climate related risks. The information on changing climatic conditions and its impact on agriculture and allied activities must be made available to those farmers that are far from weather stations. This study was conducted to determine utilization pattern of information sources for weather forecast among 240 farmers of Chhattisgarh Plains during 2016. The respondents were asked about the mass media sources utilized by them and it was found that almost half of respondents were having low level of use of mass media sources. Majority (55.83%) of the respondents were having low level of utilization of information sources for collecting weather information followed by 33.75 per cent of them had reported medium level of utilization. It revealed that friends/relatives/etc., newspaper, mobile and national TV channel were most credible sources of information to collect weather related information with credibility index of 76.54, 69.24, 65.48 and 60.54 per cent, respectively. National TV channel, friends/relatives/etc., newspaper and regional TV channel were most frequently used information sources for gathering weather related information with the extent of 61.46, 52.50, 49.17 and 28.13 per cent, respectively. The utility of information related to weather forecast were 39.30, 35.55 and 31.80 per cent for national TV channel, friends/relatives/etc. and news paper, respectively. It can conclusively say that friends/relatives/etc. and newspaper were more credible among the respondents. More than half of them were using those sources for gathering information but most of the respondents were not applying it in their actual practice due to irrelevancy of weather related information. Therefore, relevant and timely weather forecast is needed to build trust among the respondents so that they can change their cultivation practices according to changing climatic condition.