Effectiveness of mKRISHI® Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil (PAWS) in dissemination of agricultural information in north-western Himalayan region

Abstract

The effectiveness of an extension system referred to its ability to meet the farmer needs in providing the new technology which suits to their conditions and results in better production. Recently the demand for information on agricultural practices and technology among the farmers is increasing day by day but fulfilment of these demands exclusively by public agricultural extension system is limited. To address this challenge, information communication technology (ICT) has the immense role in supplementing the extension system. Among the ICT tools, mobile phone, because of its affordability, accessibility, minimum skill requirement, widespread network etc., has emerged as important tool for information and knowledge dissemination to the smallholder and marginal farmers. But it is necessary to study how effective they are in achieving the respective objectives.The present investigation was conducted to study the effectiveness of mKRISHI® PAWS (Personalised Advisory on Water and Soil) in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state. An ex-post facto research design was used for this study. Total 136 messages were sent to the respondents. The data was collected from 240 beneficiary farmers of the north-western Himalayan region. The effectiveness of the mKRISHI® PAWS in technology advisory and delivery services were measured by developing an effectiveness index for the purpose. Results showed that 93.8% of farmers perceive that quality of information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was excellent and 83.75% of the farmers felt that the information regarding the latest NRM technologies in soil and water conservation was appropriate to their condition. The study revealed that the extension services delivered by mKRISHI® PAWS were found to be highly effective by majority of the farmers. 34.58% farmers perceived that the mKRISHI® PAWS was very highly effective as a mean of getting their information needs.

Improved agronomic practices and high yielding rice varieties maintain soil health and enhance yield and energy use efficiency under shifting cultivation landscapes of easternHimalayas

“…The observed increase in SOC concentrations and stock in soil may be due to integrated application of inorganic nutrients and organic manure (Sahariah et al, 2020; Sundaram et al, 2012), and reduction in soil erosion due to line sowing of rice across the slope (Choudhury et al, 2018; Singh et al, 2019). Line sowing of rice across the slope under improved Jhum practice reported to reduce the runoff velocity and soil erosion (Layek et al, 2017), which subsequently reduce the loss of SOC and enhanced the SOC stock (Choudhury et al, 2018; Singh & Singh, 1981). Application of 50% RDN and 5 mg of FYM ha −1 along with cultivation of HYVs also augmented the status of soil organic matter, rice growth, and the quantity of sequestered C (Sahariah et al, 2020; Saikia et al, 2019).…”