Evaluation of mobile based agro-advisory services - A case of e-kapas and reliance information services

Abstract

A study was conducted in Telangana state to ascertain the knowledge gain and benefits attained by the farmersthrough Mobile Based Agro-Advisory Services (MBAS). Ex-post facto research design was used in the presentinvestigation. Randomsamplingmethod was used to select the respondents. The study constituted of 60 respondents of cotton farmers and 90 respondents of oilseeds farmers. It was observed from the study that, both cotton and oilseeds farmers were middle aged, educated up to primary school, small farm holders, with medium level of information acquisition, information management and listening behaviours. Cotton farmers were having high-risk orientation whereas, oilseeds farmers were having low-risk orientation. Based on the study, it was concluded that cotton and oilseedsfarmers possessed favourable attitude towards mobile based agro-advisory services (MBAS) and with medium level of knowledge on recommended cultivation practices. Oilseed farmers had low adoption and cotton farmers had medium level of adoption of recommended cultivation practices as a result of mobile based agro-advisory services. Majority of the farmers had positive followed by neutral and negative opinion on the timeliness of the messages, relevance, audio quality, message treatment, content adequacy and content usefulness.