Impact of kisan mobile advisory services (KMAS): A study in barwani district of madhya pradesh

The Kisan Mobile Advisory Service KMAS has been playing a vital role in spreading desired information among farming community since more than a decade. The KMAS has potential to deal with lack of effectiveness in information delivery system for farmers. Hence, to make such a prospective service more responsive, it is necess ary to assess its impact on actual clientele i.e. the farmers. Considering the above perspective, the present study was conducted in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh. A sample of 140 beneficiaries of KMAS programme of KVK, Barwani served as respondents of the study. The data were collected through personal interviews of respondents with the help of a structured interview schedule. Findings of the study indicate that among the parameters chosen for impact assessment of KMAS, the beneficiaries gave first preference to applicability of message followed by subject matter of SMS, received message when needed, understandability of message, horizontal spread and cost effectiveness of messages provided under KMAS programme. As far as overall impact of the KMAS programme is concerned, more than half of the respondents considered medium level impact of KMAS followed by high and low level impact.