Agricultural Information Literacy among the Farmers: A Case Study of Ambala District, India

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the agricultural information literacy among the farmers in Ambala district of Haryana state. Survey method with convenience sampling has been used in this study and by using a self-structured questionnaire, data were collected from 75 farmers of two selected villages in Ambala district. The demographic profile indicates the male dominancy on agriculture field , and a high rate of literate population. Their primary source of income was found agriculture (77.34%) and main crops grown by the farmers were rice (100%), wheat (98.67%), and sugarcane (48%).Farmers need information mainly on Modern Cultivation System(M=5.00) and New Crop Production Material(M=4.97). Agriculture, education, health and agriculture economy are the key areas on which farmers information needs were focused. Newspapers were found as the major source of information to get the required information on various aspects. Inadequate price of crop production(M=4.84), lack of electricity in rural areas (M=4.83), and low level of information literacy (M=4.75) were found as the major hurdles in information searching by the farmers.