Information Seeking Behaviour of Farmers in Niphad Taluka of Nashik District, Maharashtra

In the present paper, an attempt has been made to identify the information seeking behaviour of farmers of Niphad taluka of Nashik district. Niphad taluka is the most fertile taluka in Nashik district. The major crops which are grown in Niphad taluka are grapes, onion, pomegranate, cotton, sugarcane, wheat, maize, groundnut etc. Efforts were made to study the socio-economic status of farmers, channels of information used by farmers, their information needs and major problems encountered by the farmers while accessing the information. The data were collected by using structured questionnaire. The findings revealed that 71 (49.33%) farmers daily seek agricultural information. It is also found out that the most preferred information sources used by farmers are friends and gram sevaks, followed by newspapers. Kisan_Vani was the most regularly radio programme listened by farmers. 55% farmers were also familiar with mobile apps. The popular mobile apps used by the farmers were Kisan Suvidha, Shetkari Makis, mKisan, Crop Insurance etc. The 3-point Likert scale was used to get weighted values.