Enhancing the role of ICT in disseminating agricultural information to farmers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Agriculture in Bangladesh is blessed with favorable agro-climatic conditions to grow a number of crops, fisheries and animals. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has proved to be significant to enhance agricultural production. Realizing its potential, Bangladesh has currently started using ICT for its agricultural development programs. However, the role of ICT in the field of agricultural information dissemination is yet to be fully realized to receive the potential benefit. Considering the fact, the study has been undertaken with a view to increasing agricultural knowledge delivery by enhancing the ICT use and minimizing the information gap between farmers’ needs and new technologies. The study reviewed the present status of the ICT initiatives in agriculture and the access of ICT among the end users and utilization of agricultural information to the farmers of Bangladesh through ICT tools. The main objective of the study was to explore the magnitude of contribution of ICT in the agricultural production system. The study also focuses on the role of ICT in creating difference on farmer’s agricultural production system and overall income. It also explores the impact of ICT on overall agricultural development. The research questions concentrate on what extent the role of ICT is contributing in disseminating agricultural information services to farmers, what factors need to be considered for enhacing the role of ICTs in agricultural information delivery systems, how the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies can be effeciently applied to help farmers increase their production and how the results of this study can be upscaled in wider area. The whole study presented in this thesis is divided into eight chapters; each chapter incorporates the specific issues of the study area. Chapter one outlines the background of the general context of the research and identifies the various constituents of the problems related to ICT based information dissemination services in agriculture. Chapter two offers the literature review of a number of empirical studies carried out on ICT based initiatives in agriculture all over the country and around the world. The literature review reveals different levels of ICT based initiatives and a strong relation to the production and income in general and development in agriculture in particular has been visualized. Chapter two focuses on present status of agricultural information service delivery systems in Bangladesh with some successful agricultural initiatives worldwide. Chapter four discusses the research design and methodology applied in this study. The chapter highlights how the different types of data were collected, analyzed, and presented. A mixed methods (MM) approach was used for data collection and analyses. The Chapter five presented on the summary and findings of fifteen focus group discussions. The results on different variables like farmers’ production, and income are discussed in the Chapter six with reference to the research questions designed and presented in the study. Description of crops, different technologies are shown in the sub sections following fisheries and livestock. Gender involvement in agricultural operation, the details of the respondents the way they lead their life, the tools they use in their farming, the production they produce and the income they receive associated with crops, fisheries and livestock farming, have been attempted to analyze in the chapter. The economic and the demographic feature of the farmers of the two groups are shown here. A farmer friendly ICT based model has been proposed in the Chapter seven. Recommendation and conclusion of the research results are described in the Chapter eight. This thesis contributes to the field of agricultural information dissemination system of Bangladesh. The study has significantly elicted the strong relationship between the use of ICT through successful initiatives as well as the production and income of the farmers. The proposed model is expected to help farmers adopt technology in an efficient way to get the easy access through agricultural information service delivery which could influence their production in a positive way.The study offers professionals and policymakers involved in agricultural development insights into application and best use of ICT. Most importantly, it highlights the contribution of information and knowledge of the farmers in Bangleadesh, the very important segment of the population who are stakeholders at the centre of food production and well being of the population of the country.