Impact of Information and Communication Technology on agriculture in Odisha

Abstract

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, contributing to food security and rural newlinedevelopment but facing challenges such as climate change, limited access to resources, and low newlineproductivity. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a transformative tool to newlineaddress these challenges issues. Taking this into account, the present study was undertaken on Impact of newlineInformation and Communication Technology on agriculture in Odisha . The study was conducted in two newlinedistricts i.e. Khordha (coastal) and Bargarh (interior). Two blocks from Khordha district namely Balipatna newlineand Balianta and two blocks from Bargarh district namely Bijepur and Padampur were selected newlinepurposively. Two villages from each block totaling eight villages were selected randomly for study. newlineTwenty-five respondents from each village comprising a total of 200 respondents were selected using newlinesimple random sampling. Data were collected through personal interview and focus group discussion newlinemethod. Nature and extent of use of ICT by farmers was measured using modified scale of Ansari and newlinePandey (2013). Impact of ICT on social, economic and technological changes of farmers was measured newlineusing modified scale of Jhamtani and Rao (2014).Constraints faced by farmers in use of ICT were newlinemeasured using Henry Garrett s ranking technique. The analysis of data was carried out by using newlinefrequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, quartile deviation, Pearson s correlation, multiple linear newlineregression, Microsoft excel, SPSS and R software. Findings revealed that majority (30%) of the farmers newlinehad completed primary education, 23.50% had completed higher secondary education, 23% had newlinecompleted secondary education and 17% of farmers were graduated followed by functional literate newline(6.5%). Majority of farmers reported that applications were most available (26.44%); gadgets were newlinemost accessible (29.27%) and most frequently used (29.15%) ICT tools. Farmers experienced highest newlineextent of social change under leadership dimension (38.50%), technolog