A Study on Communication Behaviour of Televiewing Farmers in Hilly District Reasi of Jammu and Kashmir, India

In hilly areas of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir where farmers live in less accessible and isolated villages, dissemination of information is very difficult. In rural development nothing is more important than the effective and timely communication of farm information to the farmers. The better the communication, the earlier will be the development of a community. Under such circumstances television could be hopefully considered to cater the needs of farm televiewers to a great extent. The study was conducted in Reasi District of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which was selected purposively. Out of 12 C.D. Blocks only 4 C.D. Blocks namely Reasi, Katra, Pouni and Thuroo were selected randomly. A sample of 20 per cent villages was selected randomly from selected Gram Panchayats. A sample of 20 per cent Gram Panchayats from each selected block was selected randomly. A sample of 20 per cent villages was selected randomly from selected Gram Panchayats. A sample of 20 per cent (150) farmers was selected randomly from selected villages. Hence, a total of 150 respondents were finally selected for recording their responses for study purpose. Communication behaviour has been operationalised as information input, information processing and information output behaviour of the televiewing farmers in the study. An index was developed for studying the communication behaviour of televiewing respondents, wherein information input was studied in terms of sources of information, processing of information was studied in terms of evaluation, storage and transfer of information and information output was studied in terms of dissemination of information by the respondents. It was found that the majority of respondents were using Extension Personnel of KVK, Extension Personnel of Departments of Agriculture, television, progressive farmers, relatives and friends and radio as arranged rank wise 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively as the main sources of information referred as the information input behaviour of the respondents. A large number of farmers used to evaluate (processing) the information by discussing with elder family members, progressive farmers, neighbourers and on the basis of their past experiences as arranged rankwise 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Majority of farmers stored the information by memorization and writing in general notebooks as arranged rankwise 1 and 2 respectively. A large number of farmers transformed the information by rearranging the important information as per their needs and rearranging the information in local dialect as arranged rankwise 1 and 2 respectively. Majority of respondents disseminated the information (information output) to their family members, neighbourers, friends and relatives as arranged rank wise 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. It was found that 18.66 per cent farmers had low communication behaviour towards farm education programmes of television while 58.00 per cent farmers had medium communication behaviour towards farm education programmes of television and 23.33 per cent farmers had high communication behaviour towards farm education programmes of television. Television was considered as one of the most effective communication medium for the farm information. Thus, more and more villages should be covered under television so that they could get the benefits of agricultural technology.