Dilip Kumar1, K.K. Shrivastava3, P. Shrivastava3, and R.K. Shori4
1. Ph. D. Scholar, Deptt. of Agril. Extension, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.).
2. Professor, Deptt. of Agril. Extension, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.).
3. SMS, KVK, Chhattarpur, JNKVV, Jabalpur (M.P.)
4. P.G. Student, Deptt. of Agril. Extension, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur (C.G.).
Abstract : The people normally accept new idea, practices, and innovations after several exposures with different media and information sources. The fast changing agricultural technology demands for more information to be transmitted to our increasing volume of clientele. Butt (2002) professed that emphasis should be laid upon the most modern agricultural techniques which is possible by dissemination of agricultural information among the farmers. Mass media including both the electronic as well as print media if effectively utilised can be very important instrument in provision of agricultural information. A research was undertaken to study the farmer’s attitude towards use of information sources relevant to agricultural extension. Hundred farmers were randomly chosen from nine villages of Aarang and Dharsiwa blocks of Raipur district of Chhattisgarh, and personally interviewed with the help of structured interview schedule to collect the primary data. Linkert type attitude scale as suggested by Ray and Mondal (2011) was used to measure the attitude of the farmers towards use of information sources. The results of the study revealed that most of the farmers were in the age group of 34 to 56 years old, educated upto primary school, belonged to schedule caste with medium sized joint family and had no membership in any rural social organisation indicating very poor social participation. They had small sized land holdings and more than half of them (57.00%) had other sources of irrigation i.e. other then tube well, pond, well, canal etc. Majority of them had agriculture and labour as their primary occupation with just below half of them recording their annual income in between Rs. 35,001 to Rs. 60,000/-. Nearly fifty percent of the farmers interviewed sold their agricultural produce in the nearby mandies i.e. agricultural produce market. More than seventy per cent of them had medium overall use of information sources. As regards scientific orientation it was observed that majority of them had medium scientific orientation and moderately favourable attitude towards use of information sources. The variables education, size of land holding, sources of irrigation, annual income, marketing, contact with extension personnel, sources of information, use of information and scientific orientation were found positively and significantly correlated with attitude towards use of information sources. Whereas the variables education, sources of irrigation, contact with extension personnel, sources of information and scientific orientation was found to contribute positively and significantly towards attitude regarding use of information sources and all the fifteen variables jointly explained the variation in attitude towards use of information sources to the extent of 94.00 per cent.
Keywords : Attitude, Mass information, ICT, Scientific Orientation, Scio personal, Socio economic Characteristics
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