PERCEIVED USEFULNESS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
(ICTs) USE IN AGRO-FARMING SYSTEM IN BANGLADESH
M.I. Mahmood,
M.M Alam* and M.J. Azad
*Corresponding author; E-mail: mmahbubul_22@yahoo.com
Abstract
Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have now been considered as one of the
important tools for improving
agricultural production which allow to quick access to time sensitive farming
information and thus lead to improve rural livelihoods, food security and
national economy. The main purpose of this study was to determine the
extent of perceived usefulness of ICTs use in agro-farming system. Attempts
were also made to determine the factors, both ICT-related and personal
characteristics, that influence farmers’ perceived usefulness of ICTs use in
agro-farming system. The study was conducted in three villages of Sadar Upazila
of Lalmonirhat district in Bangladesh. Data were collected from 90 farmers by
using a structured interview schedule during the period from 8 February to 10 March,
2017. Pearson Product-moment Correlation Co-efficient was used to explore the
relationship among the variables. The highest proportion (61.61%) of the
respondents perceived ICTs as highly useful compared to one-third (34.5%) of them
perceived as moderately useful and only 4.4% of them perceived as less useful for
their agro-farming system. Concerning the hypothesized relationships, level of
education, ICT self-efficacy and ICT use experience were found to be positive
and significantly associated while farm size, ICT ownership, extent of ICT use
and constraint of using ICT were found to be non-significant with perceived
usefulness of ICTs use in agro-farming system.
Key words: Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs), agriculture, agro-farming system.
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