Utilization pattern of information available in TNAU Agri-tech portal by extension functionaries

Abstract

Conventional method of technology transfer resulted in a slow and untimely dissemination of agriculturalinformation among farmers and stakeholders. The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) designed an exclusive farmtechnology portal to overcome these constraints. The study is proposed to find the reach of TNAU Agritech Portal (http://agritech.tnau.ac.in) among the extension officials. The study was conducted among 60 extension officials from all the 12blocks in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India. Utilization pattern of information available in TNAU Agritech Portalamong the extension agents were collected through a well-structured and pre-tested interview schedule. Nearly three-fifth(57%) of the respondents were regularly using the portal to give advice to farmers and to enhance their knowledge in theirspecific fields and were in the category of medium utilization index. The degree of effectiveness of the TNAU Agritechportal was assessed through user’s perception and more than three- fifth of the respondents (62%) have medium level ofperception. More than three-fifth (64%) of the respondents felt that social networking tools and mobile applications areneeded to share the useful information to make the TNAU Agritech portal effective. The practical implication of the studyis leveraging Agricultural technological portals with more ICT tools like development of subject wise mobile apps, linkagethrough social networking, alerts through SMS, multimedia advisory tool etc., to enhance the wider utilization.