Impact of mobile phone based extension services in crop management by farmers of jodhpur district of Rajasthan

New agricultural technologies are generated by research institutes, universities, private companies, and the farmers themselves. The role of research and advisory services are to give highly accurate, specific and unbiased technical and management information, and advice in direct response to the needs of their clients. Due to poor linkages between research and advisory services, the adoption of new agricultural technologies by farmers is often very slow and research is not focusing on the actual needs of farmers. As social networking (WhatsApp) continues to grow and attract more users, it is important to research the possible and perceived opportunities, benefits, and risks of using this technology. Hence, keeping this in mind proposed the on-going study with 200 farmers (WhatsApp beneficiaries) of Jodhpur district. WhatsApp was able to increase the knowledge of the farmers on agriculture production technology and was 76.00 per cent farmers were athigh to medium level of knowledge regarding social media based technical information.