Use of Social Media by Farmers of Uttarakhand
Sandeep Kaur *
MS Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Shoolini University, Bajhol, Solan, HP, India.
Neha Sharma
Department of Agricultural Communication, College of Agriculture, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.
Gayatri Pipaliya
Department of Agricultural Communication, College of Agriculture, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.
V. L. V. Kameswari
Department of Agricultural Communication, College of Agriculture, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the Indian economy and can benefit tremendously from the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). ICTs can be especially important in bringing changes to socio-economic conditions of small and marginal farmers. A study was conducted in using Accidental sampling method with a sample size of 99 in Udham Singh Nagar District of Uttarakhand to find the characteristics of the farmers and to assess the use of ICTs by the farmers. The finding of the study revealed that majority of the farmers belonged to middle age group, practiced farming as their main occupation and maximum number of farmers were educated upto graduation level. Majority of them owned smart phones and had internet connectivity on their mobile phone. Samsung mobile phones were used by maximum number of the farmers. It was also found that majority of the farmers used WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube frequently and mainly for entertainment purpose. However, majority of them were not using email, agricultural websites/ portals, agricultural apps and Twitter.
Keywords: ICT, social media, farmers, extent of use, purpose of use.