Farmers’ Perception on Use of Mobile phones for Agricultural Information

Extension reforms are underway and integration of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are rapidly transforming agricultural extension. The ICT-enabled extension systems are acting as a key agent for changing the agrarian situation and farmers’ lives by improving access to information and sharing knowledge. Thus, present study analysed the perceived ease of use of ICTs as perceived by a sample of farmers of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. About 35 per cent farmers felt that it was easy to use ICTs while 38 and 27 per cent perceived them as medium and highly difficult, respectively. Perceived ease in use index was found to be around 44 per cent, which indicates that ICTs as a system is not that easy to use. Capacity building of farmers in use of ICTs is the need of the hour to tap their benefits.