Several Information Technology Enabled Systems (ITES) are available to support farmers for their day-to-day farming activities. This study focusses on the assessment of knowledge and use of selected ITES among the farmers of Kerala, for which 300 computer literate farmers were interviewed. It is revealed that knowledge on web browsing was comparatively better for farmers than other selected ITES such as agricultural portals, agricultural expert system, digitized databases and online trading. Almost 50 per cent of the farmers had utilized the web for agriculture and other purposes while 77 per cent farmers belonged to the low use category in the case of agricultural portals. The use of agricultural expert system, digitized database and online trading was found to be very poor where majority of the farmers fell in the low use category with 91 per cent, 87 per cent and 90 per cent farmers respectively. Thus, it is the responsibility of the agricultural e-extension/e-learning centres and agencies to provide relevant and up to date information to the farmers through web so as to enhance the frequency of web browsing. Further, new need based expert systems and databases for farmers need to be developed, awareness has to be created, and knowledge and skills have to be imparted amongst farmers to enhance the effective use of agricultural expert systems, digitized databases and online trading.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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