EFFECTIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION CENTER (AICC) FOR DISSEMINATING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to: i. determine the effectiveness of Agricultural Information and Communication Center (AICC) for disseminating agricultural information as perceived by the farmers ii. explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the AICC member farmers to their perceived effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information, and iii. determine the problems faced by the AICC members for disseminating agricultural information. Member farmers of nine selected AICCs by taking one from each of nine Upazillas of Faridpur district of Dhaka division constituted the population of the study. A total of 90 farmers were finally selected by using simple random sampling which constituted the sample of the study. Data were collected from the farmers during 1 st to 31 rd January 2021 by using a pre-tested interview schedule. Seven selected characteristics of the farmers were considered as the independent variables. Overwhelming majority (80%) of the respondent farmers perceived medium effectiveness of AICC, while 7.8% of them perceived low and 12.2% of them perceived high effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information. On the basis of Standardized Effectiveness Index (SEI) “usability of information” ranked first followed by “solving farming problems”, “getting farming information”, “usefulness of farming information”, “clarity of information”, “completeness of information”, “understandability of information”, “developing farming condition”, “getting weather information for better agriculture”, “getting information to improve knowledge on balanced use of natural resources”, “getting agricultural input price information” and “getting agricultural product selling price”. Use of ICT (X 7 ), ICT using experience (X ) and ICT using confidence (X ) of the farmers had significant positive contribution to their perceived effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information. Each of these three (3) variables had indirect effect on effectiveness of AICC for disseminating agricultural information through other two (2) variables. Two-third (66.7%) of the farmers faced moderate problem in getting services from AICC, while 27.8%% and 5.5% farmers faced low and severe problem respectively in getting services from AICC. Based on descending order of Standardized Problem Faced Index (SPFI), limited availability of ICT tools and technology in AICC ranked first problem followed by “technical problems of different ICT based media in AICC”, “low bandwidth speed of internet in AICC”, “lack of training facilities on ICT among farmers”, “lack of operational knowledge of computer”, “lack of management of AICC activities”, “lack of adequate skill among service providers in AICC”, “low awareness among rural farmers about AICC”, “shyness/scared of using ICT” and “cost of using ICT services from AICC”. Supervising authority of AICC, such as Agriculture Information Service (AIS) with the help of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and other advisory service providing organizations should take necessary action to enhance the activities of AICC by increasing their advisory services, necessary supports and minimizing farmers problems for disseminating agricultural information.

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