MOBILE PHONE: AN INSTRUMENT OF DISSEMINATING REQUISITE AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION FOR THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY

Md. Mahedi Hasan

Abstract: Bangladesh is densely an over populated country where a large number of people (more than 60 percent) are still living their livelihood directly or indirectly through the agro based jobs. The environment is very much favorable for agriculture. The contribution of agricultural sector to GDP is 20.60% In this regard, if the initiatives are been taken to provide the right farmers with the right information by the right way at the right time within the least cost, the success will be definite. Decision making is a very crucial part in every activity to be performed in an excellent manner. Any system applied for getting information and knowledge for making decisions in any industry should deliver accurate, complete, concise information in time or on time. The information provided by the system must be in user-friendly form, easy to access, cost-effective and well protected from unauthorized accesses. And to ensure all these there is no alternative other than telecommunication and networking technologies. Different collaboration and communication tools are available to share information throughout the world to ensure improved decision making. And those tools are also playing an important role to disseminate agricultural information. Mobile phone is one of the most popular electronic media among the natives of this country for news and information. Mobile phones significantly reduce communication and information costs for the rural poor in developing countries. This not only provides new opportunities for rural farmers to obtain access to information on agricultural technologies, but also to use ICTs (Information and communication technologies) in agricultural extension systems. Since 2007, there has been a proliferation of mobile phone based applications and services in the agricultural sector, providing information on market prices, weather, transport and agricultural techniques via voice, short message service (SMS) and internet. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the contribution of mobile phones on the dissemination of agricultural information for the farmers for their agricultural enrichment with emphasis on analyzing quantitative data gathered in a survey using a structured questionnaire that was generated on the basis of my theoretical study. Findings indicate a positive curve towards the dependency on and contribution of mobile phones.

Keywords: Agricultural Information, Mobile Phones in Bangladesh, Agricultural Information Service (AIS), Technology Adoption, E-agriculture

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0404091