Effectiveness of mobile-based advisory service in uptake of agricultural information: A case study

The use of mobile phones for communication has increased rapidly in recent years and is now the most popular communication tool among all ICTs. Recent statistics show that 62.9 per cent of the population worldwide has a mobile phone. There are 4.68 billion people using the internet. Today, mobile phones are the most widespread information and communication technology (ICT) in developing countries. Smartphones can be used to create, store, access, and share information anytime, anywhere. A post-facto research design was followed in the present study. Basulisera and Binta villages in the Dwarahat block of the Almora district were purposively selected for the study as the farmers in these areas follow the Rice-Wheat cropping sequence. Under the project, training was provided to the farmers on identifying crop diseases. Farmers were told to identify the symptoms of the diseases and report them to the institute. Advisories were regularly sent through the mKisan SMS portal for awareness creation and responded to the farmers’ queries. Television, radio and video were the most suitable for awareness creation and technology transfer. Mobile phones were most suitable for collecting and disseminating advisory and market information. Through the telephonic survey and field visits, the study also gathered insights of farmers towards the service based on the timeliness of the service, quality of the information received, the utility of the information, satisfaction level, and comprehensibility of the information disseminated. Production data collected from the farmers of selected villages showed the productivity of three varieties of rice grown in the area, viz. Lal Dhan, VL Dhan-85 and VL Dhan 62 had increased by 10 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. The first indicator of the project's success was the level of satisfaction (82%) and awareness created among the users on the potential use of ICTs by the project (60%).