USE OF INFORMATION MEDIA IN RECEIVING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION BY THE FARMERS OF HAOR AREA

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the extent of use of information in receiving agricultural information by the farmers of haor area and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the respondents and their use of selected information media in receiving agricultural information. The study was conducted in six villages under three union of Tahirpur upazila. The total number of the information media user farmers in those six villages was 1250. About 10 percent of the farmers were selected as samples following simple random sampling method. In all 125 farmers were selected as sample for the present study. A reserve list of the 25 farmers was also prepared from the sample. Data were obtained from 100 selected respondents out of 125 from the six villages (Duthma, Uzan Tahirpur, Dhakshin Shripur, Anwarpur, Vati Tahirpur, Joynagar) during 13 June to 10 July 2014. Appropriate scales were developed in order to measure the concern variable. Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationships between the concerned dependent and independent variables of the study. Highest proportion (74%) of the farmers had medium use of information media compared to 14% and 12%having low use and high use of different information media as a sources of agricultural information respectively. The findings also revealed that result demonstration had the highest effectiveness as the information media for receiving agricultural information. Among the types of information, the farmers received agricultural information about cereal crops to the highest extent. The individual media had highest effectiveness as perceived by the respondents. Among eleven selected characteristics education, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, Agricultural training, innovativeness, knowledge on agriculture had significant positive relationship with their use of different information media as agricultural information sources. On the other hand age, family size, family education, farm size and annual income of the farmers were not related significantly with their use of information media for getting agricultural information.