A STUDY ON AGRICULTURAL AWARENESS AMONG THE RURAL

AREA YOUNGSTERS IN MAHARASTRA

PROJECT REPORT

Submitt ed to the University of Madras in Parti al Fulfi llment of the requirements for the
award of degree of BACHELOR of BUSINESS ADMINISTRARTION (BBA)

By

BHARAT KUMAR.S 411801876

DINESH KUMAR.V 411801884

RAJESH KANNA 411801926

S Under the Guidance of

DR.K.MOUNTBATON JEBASINGH , M.A.,B.ed., Ph.d.,S.E.T

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

AGURCHAND MANMULL JAIN COLLEGE, SHIFT - ll MEENAMBAKKAM

CHENNAI – 114

MARCH - 2021

1
 INTRODUCTION:

The present age has been rightly called as an Information Age. Information has
become the most important element for progress in society. According to Kemp
“information has been described as the fifth need of man ranking after air, water,
food and shelter”. Everyone needs information about everything even in his day to
day life.
In agriculture environment, relevant and timely information helps farmers
community to take right decision to sustained growth of agriculture activity. Use
of information in agriculture sector is enhancing farming productivity in a number
of ways. Providing information on weather trends, best practice in farming, timely
access to market information helps farmer make correct decisions about what crops
to plants and where to sell their product and buy inputs.
India is an agriculture based country with farming and related activities
constituting to a huge chunk of the GDP and employment. According to Malhan &
Rao (2007), the Indian agriculture sector provides employment to about 65% of the
labour force, accounts for 27% of the GDP and contributes 21% of total exports

2
and provides raw material to several industries. Therefore information is a
powerful tool in addressing the agricultural needs and if it is used properly it could
be change nations economic.

Background of the Study. The study is carried out in Yeola tahasil (sub-district)
is located to the east of Nasik district of Maharashtra State of India. A brief
description of the demographic information of the state, district and tahasil (sub-
district) provides the background and context of the study.

Maharashtra:

Maharashtra is the third largest state regarding the geographical area and second
largest state in respect of population in India. The state is famous for Industrial
sector and Mumbai, its capital which is also known as financial capital of India. It
is located in the northern centre part of India, surrounded by the Arabian sea in the
west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli to the northwest,
Madhya Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh to the south, and Goa to the southwest. The unique feature of the state is a
series of crowning plateau which is lying between the Arabian Sea and the
Sahayadri range, Konkan is narrow coastal lowland and Satpura hills along the
northern border and Bhamragad-Chiroli-Gaikhuri ranges on the eastern border.
Maharashtra state is comprise 35 districts which are grouped into six divisions for
administrative purpose. As per the 2011 census, Maharashtra has a population of
112,372,972 registering a population density of 365 per sq. kms. Out of the total
population males constitute 58.3 millions and females constitute 54.0 millions.
Nasik District-
It is fourth largest and industrialized district in the Maharashtra. It has holy cities
of the Hindu tradition. As per census 2011 Nasik had population of 6,109,052 of
which male and female were 3,164,261 and 2,944,791 respectively. Agriculture is
the main occupation of the people in the district with about 74 % of the population
depending on it. It also accounts for the major share of their economic activity.
Nashik is the famous for the production of grapes. Nasik is a Asia’s leading market
for onions and tomatoes.
Yeola: Yeola tahasil the drought prone area of the Nashik district located at the
South-Eastern part of District. It is one of the parts of Deccan plateau. According
 to census 2001, the population of the Yeola urban and rural area is 235000; out of
the total population 192000 are living in the rural area and 43000 living in urban
area. Agricultural is the main occupation of majority of the people and the main
crop are wheat, onion, cotton, maize, and vegetables. Moreover it is known for the
birth place of the revolutionary leader Tatya Tope.

Keeping the above facts in the view, a survey was conducted on rural farmer
information needs and which sourced widely used by the farmer for satisfying of
their information needs.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The major objectives of the study are

1. To find the information needs of the rural farmers.

2. To find the nature and types of information required by the farmers.
3. To find the source of information used by the farmers.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

The information need of the rural areas have been analyzed by different types of
studies. Beside, gender wise (male or female) information needs of farmers
community was also carried by different investigator. These studies show that the
needs of the farmers are different according to the state of developments of the
concerned rural areas. Information need are also vary from village to village, for
e.g. farmers of the wheat production area are required the information about market
rate, transport facilities etc. Some studies are found. Saravan R. et al (2008) carried
the study on information pattern and information need of the tribal farmers in
Arunachal Pradesh indicate that most of the farmers need information on various
topics such as pest management, disease management. Tologbonse D, et al. (2008)
carried the study of information need of rice farmers community in Niger state
disclosed that majority of farmers (89.9%) need information about the crop
production. Meitei & Devi (2009) conducted the study of farmer’s community in
Manipur (India) to find the information need of the rural farmer’s community in
Manipur state. This study shows that majority of farmers did not access to
information for their activities. Further they emphasis that ICT based agricultural
information support systems should be develop. Byamugisha et al. (2009)
conducted study on information seeking and use of urban farmers in Uganda found
that the information needs of the urban farmers in study area seemed to be as
varied as the farming activities and also appeared to vary from one urban farmer to
another. Achugbue & Anie (2011) carried the study in Delta State, Nigeria on
Rural Female farmer’s information need and importance of ICT in delivering
information needs of female farmers. Babu et al. (2011) carried the study on
farmers’ information needs and search behaviors in Tamil Nadu found that the
major constraints to information access for the farmers is poor availability, poor
reliability, lack of awareness of information sources available among farmers and
untimely provision of information. Akanda & Roknuzzaman Md (2012) surveyed
agricultural information literacy of 160 farmers in the northern region of
Bangladesh. The survey shows that farmers need information for various purposes
of agricultural activities, and they use different sources and media for access to
such information.

METHODOLOGY:

The survey method was used to conduct the study and questionnaire was used as a
data collection tool for the fulfilling the objectives of the study. The stratified
random sampling technique was used for the spot selection of farmers. the data
collected through questionnaire, observation and informal interviews was
thoroughly organized and tabulated using simple statistical method, tables and
percentage. The table and graphs were generated using MS-Excel-2007. The
questionnaire was prepared in Marathi language for respondents could easily
understand the items mentioned in questionnaire. Total 180 questionnaires were
distributed randomly to the farmers. The investigators collected only 175
questionnaires from the respondents. This constitutes 97 % of the i.e. 175/180 of
the total response. It is important to note that some of the respondents could neither
read nor write even in Marathi language which is chief language of the state.

SCOPE & LIMITATION:

The scope of the present study is limited to the farmers of Yeola tahsil and whose
main occupation is agricultural. The study was involving only male farmer’s
community and therefore it is not projectable of the entire population of the region
Further the information collected was based on a small numbers (n=175) of
farmers. Hence the result cannot apply to the entire population of the tahasil and all
farmers of the Maharashtra State.

DATA ANALYSIS:

Table 1

Sr. No Item Response Percentage

1 Language Know
Marathi 175 100.00
Hindi 53 30.29
English 23 13.15
2 Age in Years
20-30 18 10.29
31-40 59 33.72
41-50 63 36.00
50 & above 35 20.00

3 Education Status
Illiterate 33 18.81
Secondary Education 103 58.86
Graduation & P.G. 18 10.28
Other 22 12.57

Table 1 shows that the all respondents are knowing Marathi language because it is
native language while 30.29% are knowing Hindi Language whereas 23
respondents are knowing English Language. The highest percentage ( 36.00)
belonging the age group 41-50 years followed by the age groups of 31-40
( 33.72%). Under educational status, maximum numbers of persons i.e. (58.86%)
are attained up to the higher secondary school, 12.57% are pass out diplomas,
polytechnic, while 10.28 % are graduate and only 18.81% person are found
illiterate in the study.

Use of Mobile Phones by Farmers:

Table No 2

Sr. No. Age No of Respondents Percentage

1 Yes 138 78.84

2 No 37 21.14
 The result shows that the majority of the farmers (78.84%) are using mobile phone
for communication and other purpose. It is good sign that most of the farmers of
the rural area are now use or familiar with the mobile device.

Information Needs by Farmer:

Table 3

Sr Type of Response No. of Response Percentage

No
1 Daily 71 40.58

2 Sometimes 83 47.43

3 Never 22 0.12

As for the distribution of respondents with respect of information need is

concerned, majority (40.58%) of the farmers need daily information, while
(47.43%) farmers need information sometimes. Only 0.12 % farmers are stated that
they do not need information for agriculture activities.
The above results are more or less similar to those of Metitei and Devi (2009), who
concluded from a study in Manipur state, India that most of the farmers seek daily
information (46.17%) followed by sometimes (38.18%)

Areas of Information Needs of the Farmers:

Table 4

Sr No Item Frequency Percentage

1 New crop production 124 70.86

2 Seeds availability 130 74.29

3 Insecticide availability 109 62.29

4 Water Management 60 34.28

5 Fertilizer availability 113 64.58

6 Weather Information 41 23.43

7 New Agriculture equipments. 31 17.72

(Percentage is more than 100 because multiple choice questions.)

The investigator asked to the respondent the areas of information which require for
day to day activity. As evident from above table, majority of the farmers need
information on availability of seeds (74.29%) crop production (70.86%) and
insecticide availability (62.29%) followed by fertilizer availability (64.58%).
Others areas that were mentioned by farmers include water management (34.28%),
weather information (23.43%) and agricultural equipments (17.72%)
The results to some extent agrees with the finding of Metitei and Devi (2009) and
Achugube &Anie (2011) that male and female farmers required information on
crop production, seeds & fertilizers availability.
Figure 1.

Areas of Information Need of the

140 Farmers

120

100
Percenatge

80

60

40

20

Frequency
Information Needs of the Farmers regarding the farming activities.

Table 5

Sr
Item Frequency Percentage
No
1 Market information of Agricultural production 136 77.72

2 Bank Credit Information 83 47.43

3 Transport Facilities 94 53.72

4 Government Scheme 115 65.72

5 Animal Husbandry 32 18.28

6 Crop Insurance 63 36.00

7 Irrigation 34 19.43

8 Medicinal Plants 15 8.58

9 Milk Production 51 29.15

(Percentage is more than 100 because multiple choice questions)

Table 5 reveals that 77.72% farmers require market information of

agriculture production and 65.72 % farmers need information about Government
Scheme such as subsidies, import & export policy of agriculture production.
Further, 47.83 % farmers need information about Bank credit facilities. Others
areas that were mentioned by farmers include transport facilities (53.72%), water
management (34.28%), weather information (23.43%) and agricultural equipments
(17.72%)

Source of Information used by Farmers:

Table : 6

Sr
. Item Frequency Percentage
No
 1 Newspaper 109 62.29

2 Magazines 31 17.72

3 T.V. 73 41.72

4 Radio 17 9.71

5 Public Library 7 4.00

6 Other farmers or colleague farmers 117 66.86

7 Agricultural Exhibition 42 24.00

8 Government Office 100 57.15

Percentage is more than 100 because multiple choice questions.

Table 6 shows that majority of the farmer’s rely on their colleague for obtaining
the information while second important channel of information is the newspaper
62.29% followed by Government office 57.15% for accessing the information to
the daily farming activity.

There are parallels between the results of previous studies, such as those by Metitei
and Devi (2009), Babu et. al (2011) and Akanda & Roknizzamanu (2012) this
investigation shows the main source for acquiring information of the farmers is
colleague farmer & newspapers.

Figure.2

140
Source of Information used by
120
Farmers
100
80
60
40
20
0

Frequency
Percenatge
Discussion
The investigator found that most of the farmers of the rural areas in the state
are require information relating to their agriculture activity. Newspapers , fellow
farmers and government offices were the major sources of information to farmers
in general and a few farmers also sought information from others sources like
television, magazines, agricultural exhibition etc. It was found that 80% farmers
have mobiles phone and most the farmers reported that they were used mobile
phones for some agricultural activity. Governments offices and market agencies
have started to send daily information through the SMS to the farmers regarding
the price of commodity, weathers forecasts, fertilizers, general news item etc. It
was seems mobiles phones have started making impact on the agricultural activity
in rural areas. The finding further revealed that majority (41.72%) of the farmers
used television for listening agricultural news because it is widely accessible to
rural areas. Newspapers are considered the most important communication
channels in rural areas because it has easily available and publish in local
language. Many newspapers published in Marathi language have been published
weekly supplement on farm mechanization, crop protection and disease ,
horticulture, animal husbandry, food processing, expert advice and new
innovations in agriculture etc. Agrowon a daily newspaper published in Marathi
languages provides the comprehensive information on the agricultural activity.
Many farmers subscribed this newspaper for obtaining information.
Since the area is drought prone area and average rainfall occurs only 45 to 52 cms
yearly but investigator found that the there is less awareness about water
management techniques among the farmers. Only 34.28% farmers required the
information about water management techniques. Government of India has taken
many initiatives for adoption and absorption of information technologies for
agriculture information communication. Both the central and state government are
now working towards the development of ICT infrastructure in all the rural areas in
Maharashtra so as to help the rural farmers’ access agricultural information for
optimal farm production. However it is found that local offices of the governments
in rural area are not well equipped with up to date of information and
communication gadgets, such as computers & communication facilities, internet
facilities, local area and wide area networks, telephones lines in rural areas. Most
 of the farmers are not familiar with the ICT based tools such as computer, internet
application.
CONCULSIONS:

This study has provided a first look at the potential of information in affecting the
agricultural sector as a whole. The study has reported there is growing awareness
importance of information and its use among the farming community. Farmers
must be able to get information delivered to them at a time and place of their
choosing and it will be beneficial to farmer’s to realize productivity gains from the
adoption of new farming practices and actions to mitigate crop losses. K Sarada
has rightly emphasis back in 1999 that there is need of the hour to set up the
Community Information Centers (CIS) as nodal point for all information services
for the benefit of society.

REFERENCE:

1. L.Shanta Meitei and Th. Purnima Devi. Farmers information Needs in Rural
Manipur: an assessment. Annals of Library and information studies, 2009, 56(2),
35-40
2. Tologbonse D; Fashola O. & Obadiah M., Policy Issues in Meeting Rice Farmers
Agricultural Information Needs in Niger State, Journal of Agricultural Extension,
2008 , 12(2), 84-94.
3. Saravan R, Raja P & Tayeng Sheela; Information input pattern and information need of
Tribal Farmers in Arnuchal Pradesh, Indian Journal of Extension Education, 2009, 45
(1&2), 51-54
4. Suresh Chandra Babu et. al (2011) Farmers’ information needs and
search behaviors: Case study in Tamil Nadu, India, Retrieve from
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/126226
5. Akanda A.K.M. & Roknuzzaman Md. (2012), Agricultural Information Literacy of
Farmers in the Northern Region of Bangladesh, Retrieve from
www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/IKM/article/download/.../2663
6. Information Seeking and Use among Urban Farmers in Kampala District, Uganda
Byamugisha Ikoja-Odongo Nasinyama Lwasa, Retrieved from,
www.cabi.org/GARA/ShowPDF.aspx?PAN=20083298139
7. Malhan I V & Rao Shivarama (2007) Agricultural Knowledge Transfer in India: a
Study of Prevailing Communication Channels; Library Philosophy and Practice
200, Retrieved from available at
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~malhan/rao.htm
8. Census 2011, Retrieved from
http://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/maharashtra.html

Further Readings
1. Dr. Arvind Kumar Sharma. Information Needs and Sharing Pattern among Rural
Women: A Study. IASLIC Bulletin, 2007 52(3), 156-167
2. O. J. Okwu and B. I. Umoru, A study of women farmers’ agricultural information
needs and accessibility: A case study of Apa Local Government Area of Benue
State, Nigeria, African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 4 (12), pp. 1404-
1409, December, 2009 (Available online at
http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR)
3. Saima Sadaf, Asif Javed & Muhammad Luqman, Preferences of Rural Women for
Agricultural Information Sources: A Case Study of District Faisalabad–Pakistan, Journal
of Agriculture & Social Sciences Available at http://www.fspublishers.org
4. Mittal Surabhi & Tripathi Gaurav Role of Mobile Phone Technology in Improving
Small Farm Productivity, Journal of Agriculture & Social Sciences, 2009, 22
( Conference Number), 451-459
5. Elizabeth, Sabo. Agricultural information needs of women farmers in Mubi region,
Adamawa State; Journal of Tropical Agriculture, 2007 45 (1-2) 69–71
6. K Sarada; Community Information Services: Nature & Relevance, DESlDOC Bulletin of
Information Technology, 1999, 19 (1), 45-47.
7. Hossin, Arman & Islam, Shariful. Information Needs of Rural Women: A study of Three
Villages of Bangladesh; Library Philosophy and Practice 2012 available at
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~hossin/shariful.htm
8. Achigbue Edwin I & Anie Sylvester O, ICTs and Information Needs of Rural
Female Farmers in Delta State, Nigeria; Library Philosophy and Practice 2011
available at http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/achugbue-anie.htm