IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) USE AS PERCEIVED BY THE FARMERS OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The prime objective of the study was to find out the impact of ICTs use as perceived by the farmers of Bangladesh. Appropriate scale was developed to measure the impact effectively. Seven items of ICTs was taken as TV agricultural program, Radio agricultural program, Telecommunication, Poster, Newspaper, Multimedia, and Internet. Attempt was also made to explore the relationship between the impact ofICTs use by the farmerswith their selected characteristics. The characteristics were age, education, farm size, annual income, social participation, use of ICTs materials, farming experience, cosmopoliteness, agricultural knowledge and innovativeness. Data were collected from 1 02 farmers which were randomly selected from Itbaria union of Patuakhali Shadar Upazila under Patuakhali district. About four percent had no impact where 16.6 percent had very low impact, 34.4 percent had low impact and 44.l percent had medium impact of ICTs use. Significant relationship was found with farmers' education, farm size, annual income, use of ICTs materials, cosmopoliteness, contact with mass media, agricultural knowledge and innovativeness. No relationship was found with farmers' age, social participation and farming experience.