Farmers’ Use of the Mobile Phone for Accessing Agricultural Information in Haryana: An Analytical Study

Abstract

A mobile phone is an Internet-connected device used to share and discuss user-generated content, including opinion, audio, video, and multimedia. This has changed the way farmers engage and communicate across the country, even in rural areas. The purpose of this study is to examine Haryana farmers’ use of mobile phones to get agricultural information. This study was conducted in the six districts of North Haryana, i.e., Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal, and Panipat. Data were collected from a sample size of 300 respondents, including 50 farmers from two tehsils (subdistrict) of each district, through a structured questionnaire and an interview plan. According to the results of this study, most of the farmers have been using mobile phones for over 3 years, and all of them can read and write Hindi to collect and communicate information about agriculture, such as post-harvest, weeding, thinning, and storage. Farmers most commonly use the agricultural information platform, i.e., private agricultural solutions helplines, government agriculture officers/extension agents making calls/short messaging service (SMS), IFFCO Kisan Sanchar, private agricultural companies/pesticide dealers/staff making calls/SMS, and government agriculture department helplines. Kisan Suvidha Agriculture Mobile App, WhatsApp, and YouTube are commonly used by most farmers who believe these network technologies are most effective to increase their knowledge and understanding of modern agricultural technology, although the majority of farmers do and also had language difficulties and challenges in the mobile network.

Voice Intelligence Based Wake Word Detection of Regional Dialects using 1D Convolutional Neural Network

“…Kisan Yojana provides information regarding various government schemes and policies in the agricultural sector [23]. Kumar [14] has mentioned difficulties faced by farmers in using these applications. While using these apps, farmers had to either type in the queries or they had to communicate with the device which had the standard speech to deliver the solution.…”

“…While using these apps, farmers had to either type in the queries or they had to communicate with the device which had the standard speech to deliver the solution. [21] [14] And based on the statistics provided in the research paper around 65% of blockade are related to language since most of these apps use standard speech to deliver the solution. [23] And with respect to Field experts, human error may occur, or they may lack the expertise in providing the right solution to the farmers issues.…”

“…[20] Out of 58%, only around 15 to 20% of farmers are ready to shift to online platform. This gap may affect the agriculture sector in the coming years [14]. India is a country with 120 major languages with 1600 dialects.…”