Animal feeding technologies viz a viz information seeking behaviour of field veterinarians in Punjab

Field veterinarians are widely recognised as important agents for knowledge transfer for livestock farmers. Retention of knowledge after its primary gain through course work is a difficult task unless the veterinarians keep on acquiring and refreshing the primary knowledge through information sources. In order to ensure the effective transfer of information to field veterinarians, assessment of preference and effectiveness of different media is of utmost importance. 102 field veterinarians were randomly chosen among veterinary officers of Animal Husbandry Department of Punjab. The study locale was the veterinary hospitals of Punjab. Information seeking behaviour of field veterinarians about AFTs was assessed on the basis of purpose, availability, frequency of consultancy, reason for preference, constraints and effectiveness of different information sources like print media, TV, radio, computer data base and internet (mobile and computer). It was concluded that main purpose of using internet and print media was to acquire knowledge on AFTs followed by to seek information about various day to day problems. The sequence of ranking of availability of information sources was internet, print, TV, computer database and radio whereas frequency of usage was highest for internet followed by print media, computer database, TV and radio. Reason for preference to internet was ease of availability. Main constraint in usage of internet to seek information on AFTs was reliability of information and for print media was shortage of time. On the whole internet followed by print media was perceived to be the most effective source of information to seek knowledge on AFTs.