Extent of Utilization of Mass media Sources by Farmer Field School (FFS)and non-FFS Farmers of Groundnut

摘要

Mass media plays an important role in transferring modem agricultural technologies to farming community. The present study was conducted during 2012-13 in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh to assess the extent of utilization of mass media sources byFarmer Field School (FFS) farmers and non-FFS farmers of groundnut to get the agricultural information. Ex-post-facto research design was used in the present study. 120 FFS and 120 non-FFS farmers were selected randomly for the study from the selected villages where FFS was organized. The data were collected with the help of suitable developed schedule by personal interview method. Collected data were analyzed, tabulated using mean and standard deviation and results were interpreted to analyze the significant difference between FFS and non-FFS farmers. There was significant difference in mass media exposure of FFS and non-FFS farmers of groundnut. Majority (85.83%) of the FFS farmers had medium to high mass media exposure, whereas in case of non-FFS farmers majority (84.17%) of farmers were found to be having medium to low mass media exposure. Television was the most utilized source for receiving agricultural information by the majority of the FFS farmers followed by agricultural exhibitions, newspaper, farm magazines, radio and internet. Still there is great scope to improve medium mass media exposure category to high mass media exposure category by organizing more number of farmer field schools to groundnut farmers.