In the present ICT era of communication, social media is playing a pivotal role in reducing the communication gap and sharing the information instantly anywhere in the world. Among various social media, WhatsApp particularly helps in formation of common interest groups for different categories of people for sharing information. The present study was undertaken with this objective, to study the effectiveness of WhatsApp communications on advisory services delivered to the livestock owners, in Andhra Pradesh. A WhatsApp group named “PASU VIGNANA VEDIKA” was created for the study purpose, to provide the livestock related information to the farmers instantly. A total of 95 farmers and 10 Veterinary Officers, using WhatsApp in their smart phones were selected and included in PASU VIGNANA VEDIKA”. After 90 days of study period, the results were collected by personal interview method through structured interview schedule, analyzed and presented in frequencies and percentages. The majority of the livestock farmers had Favourable attitude (61.05%) towards using the WhatsApp group for farming purpose, opined that the information is easy to read (100%), and listen (89%), timely availability (89.47%), out of the queries posted in WhatsApp group majority were regarding health of animals (54.17%) especially skin, mastitis and digestive disorders. Further, most of the farmers used text based messages (56.25%) followed by photos (31.25%) of ailing animals. In view of the vast opportunities through WhatsApp group formation, government policies should be framed in such a way to utilize the full potential of this method of communication for the welfare of farming community.
Rate of adoption in the present study refers to the acceptance and application by a respondent, some or all the innovations recommended in the package of selected dairy innovations. Rate of diffusion is operationalized as the time taken by the dairy farmer to implement the innovation recommended, to the time form which the farmer is aware of the innovation. A total of 360 dairy farmers, who were first to adopt innovations suggested by the State Animal Husbandry Department from three districts of Andhra Pradesh i.e., Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Chittoor districts were selected purposively for the study. A total of nine dairy innovations were suggested for adoption to the dairy farmers in the study area. Based on adoption quotient computed, the farmers were categorized into low, medium and high adopters and item analysis on adoption of dairy innovations was carried out. Item analysis identified that, out of the nine practices recommended, only five practices i.e., package of practices for rearing heifers, pregnant and lactating animals; feeding of area specific mineral mixture, strategies for enhancement of milk yield and quality, marketing strategies to improve milk sales, use of ICT’s in adoption of innovations were adopted by majority of dairy farmers while remaining four practices i.e., cultivation and feeding of Azolla, hydroponic fodder, use of milking machine and formulation and feeding of complete feed blocks had shown almost low to nil adoption by sizeable section of the respondents. The reasons for adoption of the above mentioned five practices is due to dominant role played by them in influencing production levels, minimum input costs and high economic returns where as the remaining four practices involved high input costs, sound operational skills, low economic returns and non-applicability in all situations which might have been the reasons for their adoption to a meager extent.
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