Sources of information of farmers on modern agricultural technology in Punjab: Their status and effectiveness

Punjab holds place of pride among the Indian States for its outstanding achievements in agricultural development. The state has witnessed tremendous increase in the agricultural production during the Green Revolution period, mainly due to healthy mix of institutional and technological factors. The agricultural extension, which has developed strong research-extension-farmer linkages, also considered to be an important instrument in the process of diffusion and adoption of new farm technology. Punjab state despite having a smaller geographical area contributes a significant share to national income from agriculture. The study explored the role of sources of information of agricultural technology viz, T.V., radio, newspaper, extension workers, input dealers and progressive farmers, which played an important role in spreading the knowledge of modern technology in Punjab. The study is based on the data of National Sample Survey Organization which took up the special study on Indian farmers and conducted the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of farmers during 2003 in the rural areas as part of the NSS 59th round. ‘Access to modern technology for farming was one of the components of SAS. The studys revealed that the progressive farmers, input dealers and the radio are the main sources of information of modern technology in Punjab state. They provide all type of information to the farmers and played an important role in effective adoption of new technology among the farmers. The relative performance of extension worker is comparatively lower in Punjab with respect to access to the number of farmers and modeling the mind of the farmers in adoption and trying recommended practices in the State.