Model of Communication Behaviour of Farmers

Communication is identified as the oldest continued activity of human beings since birth, which continues until death. More precisely, communication is the basic need of human beings and the web of society, which makes the survival, growth, progress and development of man possible; it holds the society intact and progressive. Models are symbolic representations of structures, objects or operations. It is a useful theoretical construct that is frequently used for explanatory purposes and may also be useful in explicating the working of a system. It can be used to show the size, shape or relationship of various parts or components of an object or process. The status of a scientific discipline is measured by how much mathematical logic it uses and how much of a generalisable theoretical framework it embodies. The use of mathematical logic has been growing by leaps and bounds in extension research. However, as far as the status of generalising principles are concerned, it lags far behind. The construction and testing of models by itself is the scientific activity, especially in behavioural/social sciences. An attempt has been made to fit an appropriate model for communication behaviour of farmers. Three hundred farmers were selected randomly from purposively selected district Banka of Bihar state, India. Data were collected with the help of structured schedule specially constructed for the purpose of this study. This study revealed that the Cobb-Douglas (Exponential) model was considered as the best fit model for communication behaviour. Variables like socio-economic education, annual income, interpersonal interaction and knowledge of communication technique were found to be significant in predicting the communication behaviour of farmers. Except education, all the variables like socio-economic status, annual income, interpersonal interaction and knowledge of communication technique had positive contribution in the prediction of communication behaviour.