Construction and validation of a scale for the measurement of attitude of the farmers towards mobile phone-based agro-advisories (MBAs) on cotton crop

Among the various ICT tools, majority of the Indian farmers own mobile phones. The availability and accessibility of mobile phones among the farmers is higher than any other ICT tool. Mobile phones have the advantages of having many additional services in addition to the standard voice function such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the internet, gaming, bluetooth, infrared camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and videos. It is used for two way communication, helps to disseminate information, improve farmers’ knowledge, increases participation and share knowledge with others. The objective of the present study was to know the attitude of farmers towards mobile phone-based agro-advisories (MBAs) on cotton crop. Due to the non-availability of a proper scale to measure the attitude of the farmers towards MBA on cotton crop, it was thought necessary to construct a scale for the purpose of the study. Keeping this in view, an attempt was made to develop a scale. For this purpose method of summated rating scale developed by Likert (1932) was used. Fifteen statements were selected from 25 statements for which t-values were worked out whose values were highest ie with t-values more than 1.75 with equal number of both positive and negative statements.