Information Needs of the Farmers in Madhya Pradesh: A Study

The study aims to assess the agricultural information needs of the farmers. The methodology used is questionnaire based survey. The farmers need different types of information at different stages of their farming. The types of agricultural information required by the farmers have been grouped under four broad categories like: technical information, market information, social information and legal information. The findings of the investigation reveal that majority of the farmers require technical information regarding weather forecast, disease/pest control, soil management, and cropping system. Under market information most of the farmers require information regarding current market price, future market price and credit sources. Among the different types of social information required by the farmers, risk management in agriculture, disaster relief and agriculture programmer in mass media are in most demand. The major demands of legal information by the farmers are related to loan procedures, agricultural insurance, farming contract agreements and citizen rights.