Perception of Farmers towards M-Kisan Initiative
Hemlata Saini
Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat-388110, India.
Boppana Jagadeeswari *
PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500030, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
India is an agrarian country and risk and uncertainties are omnipresent in the field of agriculture. The farmer’s exposure to risk and uncertainty is often provoked by lack of information about required inputs and crop management practices etc. This information gap has adverse impact on production as well as the income of farmers. As use of ICT has strongly influenced every socio-economic aspect to become the most significant motivation of the socio-economic development and poverty reduction, Government of India launched m-Kisan portal to deliver updated information to the farmers through SMS. It is an initiative by the Indian government to provide agricultural services and information to farmers through mobile phones. The mKisan platform allows farmers to receive updates on agricultural practices, weather forecasts, market prices, pest control, and other farming-related advice via SMS, voice messages, and mobile apps. The present study tries to identify the utility perception of the m-kisan users. Data were collected from 120 respondents, from four villages of three different talukas of Bhavnagar district through personal interview schedule during 2022 and then after data were compiled, tabulated and analysed to get proper answer for the specific objectives of the study. Slightly more than half (51.67%) of the respondents had medium utility perception.
Keywords: m-Kisan, utility, perception, farmers, ICT