Information need assessment of farmers for ICT enabled extension

The study was undertaken to assess the information needs of the farmers on information and communication technology (ICT) enabled extension. It was conducted in Sultanpet block in Tiruppur district and Pollachi block in Coimbatore district. The data were collected from 60 respondents by using the well structured interview schedule. Farmers needed information on crop varieties, weather forecast, plant protection and market trends. They were interested to get information from all parallel sources like television, radio, newspaper and magazines. Majority of the farmers (83.33%) needed information on pest and disease management in agriculture, followed by 75 per cent on market and prices and 51.67 per cent on weather forecast. 71.67 per cent of the respondents were aware of ICTs in agriculture. Majority (91.66%) of the respondents got information through mobile phones. The major purpose of using the ICT tools was communication (95%) followed by agricultural information (11.66%) especially for marketing of the produce, plant protection measures and weather information. Majority of the respondents preferred mobile phones (65%) for accessing the information because it was cheaper and portable. Nearly one third of the respondents (36.66%) revealed that they needed training to use the ICT tools. Majority (88.34%) of the respondents opined that ICT improved their farming as it was a quick approach to get the information.