Utilisation of Mobile Telephony as an EAS (Extension and Advisory Services ) Tool - A Study among Livestock based Women Self-Help Groups

Abstract

Dairying provides self-employment opportunities to rural women in India. However, due to the lack of unique approaches to meet the information needs of women dairy farmers, dairying was not found profitable. Mobile phones as one of the communication channels can address the information and knowledge gap of rural women farmers. In this regard, a study was carried out about the mobile utility pattern of women farmers in livestock-based Womeh Self-Help Groups, their accessibility and affordability to mobile phones. The mobile utility pattern indicated that most of the respondents own mobile or had access through their family members and were using mobile for more than five years. SMS (Short Message Service) was the mostly used feature and were in the habit of checking SMS daily. Voice SMS was preferred over text SMS and evening time was the most preferred time for receiving SMS. Accessibility to mobile phone was observed by all the rural women in the study area, however, only a few were aware that scientific information can be received through mobiles. Most of them felt that it was good to pay for mobile extension advisory services which may improve the productivity of their farms an encouraging phenomenon towards the utilisation of digital tools for extension and advisory services.

Keywords

• Mobile Phones; Livestock; Accessibility; Affordability; Women; Self-Help Group; Andhra Pradesh