Nature of variations in managing information by fish farmers: A case study from West Tripura District, India

The present study was undertaken to analyze the information management behaviour of fish farmers in West Tripura, Tripura. An ex-post-facto research design was followed for the study and West Tripura district was purposively selected based on the prevalence of fish farmers in the district. A sample of 80 fish farmers were selected randomly from the eight selected villages from four blocks of the district. A structured interview schedule was used to collect the information through personal interview. The results showed that majority of the respondents belonged to medium category (62.50%) of information management behaviour, followed by low (21.25%) and high (16.25%) categories. A positive and significant relationship was observed between information management behaviour of fish farmers with independent variables i.e., education, annual income, experience in fisheries, extension contact, achievement motivation, economic motivation, information source exposure, credibility of information source and training exposure.

Majority of the fish farmers had medium level (62.50%) of information management behaviour followed by 21.25 percent and 16.25 percent of the respondents who had low and high level of information management behaviour.

70 per cent of the respondents sought information from individual contact through friends and neighbours; Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK); College of Fisheries (COF), CAU (I); Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)and from FEOs.

98.75 per cent of the respondents had the habit of evaluating information through discussion with neighbours/friends and through the acceptability of the information based on their past experience.

Education, annual income, experience, extension contact, achievement motivation, economic motivation, information source exposure, credibility of information source and training exposure had positive and significant relationship with Information management behaviour.