Agricultural information dissemination and utilization among settler farmers a case study of Facebook in Palakkad district of Kerala

Abstract

Kerala supports and promotes agriculture and allied sectors. People engaged in agriculture have started to increase recently. The study of information access and utilization pattern among farmers in Kerala, especially the farmers in Palakkad district, supports the argument. The study successfully found an equal number of novice farmers as veteran farmers from the study area. The prime aim of the study was to understand the information access and utilization pattern among these novice and veteran farmers. It has found that there is much difference in the usage pattern of modern media to access agriculture and related information. newlineMoreover, novice farmers are highly willing to take innovative steps in their farming by utilizing the information gathered from new media. The use of Facebook as a medium to access information is customary among novice farmers. The evidence from the research brings out the possibility of using new and old media for agriculture information access which will help popularize farming among the masses. Thus, disseminating accurate agriculture information by the government will help the farmers to ease their access to market, credit and other supporting information newline