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Harnessing advantages of Information and Communication Technology (hereafter to be mentioned as ICTs) for changing the face of agriculture, in terms of production and productivity and farmers’ wellbeing; calls for a separate set of knowledge, skill, ability and higher (if possible fullest) extent of use by the farming communities. There are physical, economic, logistic, perceptual as well as behavioural problem, experienced by the farmers in harnessing the advantages of ICTs. In this context the present study has been conducted in Khurda district of Odisha with the broad objective to enumerate the level of knowledge, skill and extent of use and perception of different ICTs among farmers those are actively engaged in agriculture and having access to at least one ICT. In the present study, being an original empirical research work, data were collected from 120 farmers of two Blocks of Khurda district of Odisha by pretested structured interview schedule. Blocks were selected randomly and respondents were selected by following the criteria of being engaged in agriculture actively as well as using at least one ICT tool. Statistical tools like, percentage, ranking, index value calculation, ranking, correlation, regression and step wise regression were used for fruitful analysis of collected data. The results of the study revealed that socio-economic orientation of the respondents was centring on semi-medium to poor level. The study also revealed that radio was ranked first by the respondents for getting market information while TV was ranked second. The study also revealed that respondents were having high perception about appropriateness of different ICTS, usefulness of different ICTs and also, they have perceived high level of constraints in using different ICTs. The study also revealed that independent variables like, age, education, family education, social participation, cosmopoliteness, land holding, visit outside own village, level of knowledge of devices, knowledge of service providers, extent of use of devices and extent of use of ICTs for different purposes had significant and positive correlation with many of the dependent variables like, level of knowledge of devices, level of knowledge of service providers, extent of use of devices, extent of use for different  purposes, appropriateness and usefulness. Further, results of multiple regression showed that, education, visit outside own village, level of knowledge of devices and extent of use of ICTs for different purposes had significant and positive association with the extent of use of ICT devices. Results of step-wise regression showed that, level of knowledge of devices, education, level of knowledge about service providers and extent of use of ICTs for different purposes had significant and positive association with the extents of use of ICT devices by the respondents and the model explained 68% of the total variance (Adjusted r2).

The present study has been conducted in three blocks of Nadia district with the specific objectives to ascertain the preferences of the trainees about different broad areas of training imparted by Gayeshpur Krishi Vigyan Kendra (hereafter to be mentioned as KVK); to ascertain the extent of training attended by trainee; and to study the extent of training received by KVK trainees on different aspects of farming. Data related with different aspects of research like, extent of attending training; preference of respondents for different aspects of training, extent of training received on different aspects etc. have been collected from 120 respondents of two study blocks by administering structured interview schedule. Data so collected were analyzed by use of appropriate statistical tools as discussed in methodological section. The results of the study showed that majority of the respondents attended training program in once in a three-month followed by once in six months and twice in a month respectively. The study also depicted that respondents had differential preferences for different aspects of training as well as they have received differential levels of training on different aspects of training imparted through KVK. The study can be concluded that respondents attended training program moderately to the tune of once in three months and once in six months; they were found to have semi-medium level of preferences about different aspects of training; primarily they have received medium level of training on seed science, crop production, plant protection and animal husbandry. In case of horticulture, it was found that majority of the respondents received high level of training followed by sei-medium level.

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