Impact of Different Digital Formats on Knowledge Gain and Symbolic Adoption of Sugarcane Growers

Abstract

The digital formats enabled extension systems are acting as a key agent for changing newlineagrarian situation and farmer s lives by improving access to information and sharing newlineknowledge. Digital formats based agricultural extension brings incredible opportunities and newlinehas the potential of enabling the empowerment of farming communities. The present study newlinewas conducted in Athani taluk of Belagavi District in Karnataka state. Before-After without newlinecontrol group experimental design was used to determine the effectiveness of different digital newlineformats in terms of knowledge gain and symbolic adoption of sugarcane cultivation practices newlineamong farmers. Different digital formats, namely Mobile App, Video and WhatsApp Message newlineon Sugarcane cultivation practices were developed and tested for their effectiveness. These newlineformats acted as treatments for the study. Based on the highest area under sugarcane newlinecultivation three villages from Athani taluk of Belagavi district were randomly selected for newlinethe study. From each village, 50 Sugarcane growers were selected for each treatment on the newlinebasis of random sampling. Thus, the total sample size is 150. The effectiveness was studied in newlineterms of knowledge gain and symbolic adoption for different digital formats by conducting newlinepre test and post test. Video was found to be most effective in imparting knowledge and newlinesymbolic adoption when compared to the other formats. All the formats were effective in newlineimparting knowledge and symbolic adoption with considerable variation in their newlineeffectiveness. Video is the strong ICT platform available today which should be best newlineexploited by developing short educational videos by the concerned agencies and sharing them newlinewith sugarcane farmers. This gives an advantage for the farmers to learn about the technology newlineindividually and also save it for future use.