USE OF CELL PHONE IN RECEIVING AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION BY THE FARMERS

Abstract

Cell phone is an easy, fast and convenient device for communication. The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of use of Cell Phone in receiving agricultural information and to explore the relationship between the selected characteristics of the farmers in using Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information. Data were obtained from 97 Cell Phone user farmers in selected village named Chorjamalpur of Boyra union under Singair upazila of Manikganj through face-to-face interview. Appropriate scales were developed in order to measure the concerned variables. Pearson Product Moment Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationship between each of the selected characteristics of the farmers with their use of Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information. The finding shows that 89.7 percent of the respondents had no use to low use of Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information and 10.3 percent of the respondents had medium use to high use of Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information. The finding clearly indicates the ignorance of the respondents about the use of Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information. Among 11 selected characteristics of the farmers, eight characteristics namely, education, land possession, effective farm size, annual family income, agricultural training exposure, organizational participation, innovativeness, cosmopoliteness showed significant and positive relationship with their use of Cell Phone. Problem confrontation of the farmers in using Cell Phone showed significant negative relationship with their use of Cell Phone for receiving agricultural information. But age of the farmers and farming experience of the farmers showed non significant relationship with the use of Cell Phone by the farmers.