Role of Information and Communication Technology in Sustainable Agricultural Production-A case study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Paper Details
Role of Information and Communication Technology in Sustainable Agricultural Production-A case study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Abstract
Focus of the current study is to assess the farmers’ perception regarding the use of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture extension system. The existing extension and communication strategies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province have many limitations with rest of the Provinces in Pakistan. There is a dire need to use modern ICT tools for technology transfer in agriculture extension for agricultural development in the Province. A sample size of 400 was selected randomly in three selected districts i.e Mansehra, Swabi and Karak. Five point Likert scale was mostly used to obtain responses of respondents, data analyzed through SPSS ver.20 and presented in frequencies, percentages, and in mostly scores/ranks were obtained. It was observed that majority of the respondents were having primary, middle and Matric education i.e. 23%, 23% and 33% respectively. Findings of the study also depicts that exposure to mass media was medium (68%). Results also showed that farmers still believed on the conventional methods for communication like direct contact (19%) were mostly used by the extension department in the study area. Moreover, findings indicate that various services like weather related information, marketing of agricultural commodities can be made easy with the use of mobile phone. Similarly findings suggest that training and access to free internet facilities be ensured to all educated farmers at the field level. It is recommended that such facilities be established in the form of a small center comprising a computer laboratory, training hall with video conferencing facility at every Farm Services Center concerned.
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