A B S T R A C TA study was conducted to find out the level of access and usage of ICTs among farmers of Meghalaya state of India. A total of 120 farmers were randomly selected for the study during November 2013 to May 2014. The results showed that majority of the farmers owned mobile phones as well as television and radio. The most frequently used ICT was mobile phone. Mobile phones were widely used by the farmers for social communication, contacting middle men for the marketing of produce and contacting experts on real time basis for getting agricultural advisories. Farmers also reported that mobile phones proved to be useful during health emergencies. Information services on availability of inputs, quality of inputs, and pest and disease management of crops were also used by the farmers through ICTs. Major problems in the use of ICTs by the farmers were lack of confidence in operating ICTs, erratic power supply, low network connectivity and lack of awareness of the benefits of ICTs.

The study was conducted on innovative practices namely Intelligent Advisory System for Farmers (IASF) and Enterprise Facilitation Centres (EFCs) in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya with an attempt to identify the innovative agricultural extension practices in the state which are more effective and reachable to the grassroots level. Simple random sampling method was followed in selecting forty farmers from each of the two selected innovative practices launched in Meghalaya. Data was collected using a structured interview schedule. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage were used for the study. The results showed that out of total respondents selected for the study 80% farmers perceived that IASF had increased their knowledge of agricultural practices, 20% farmers reported cost and time saving and 27% percent farmers reported influence in their decision making ability through ‘Mobile Crop Doctor’. Similarly, it was found that 60% farmers received capacity building support from EFCs, 33% farmers reported influence in their decision making ability and 27% famers had a better access to credit with the help of EFCs. However, these practices had been introduced recently in the state and are in its nascent stage, therefore more awareness on the benefits of using ICTs should be given to farmers along with better training and capacity building to encourage and enable them to utilise the benefits of ICTs and improve their farming practices.

The varied agro-climatic condition of Meghalaya favours cultivation of different horticultural crops, particularly different fruit crops, and pineapple is the most notable of them. The present study was conducted on 200 tribal pineapple growers of Meghalaya in the North Eastern Himalayan region of India in the year 2017-2018. The article highlighted the technological gap among pineapple growers with special emphasis on the differences in agro-economic, socio-psychological and extension-communication characteristics between the Khasi and the Garo tribes of Meghalaya in the north-eastern Himalayan region of India. The average level of the technological gap of Garo farmers (61.78%) was slightly higher than that of Khasi farmers (57.85%). The Mann-Whitney U test reported that the mean scores of the technological gap for the farmers of West Garo Hills and Ri Bhoi were indicating a significant difference in the technological gap between the farmers of these two tribes. The study suggested the need to understand the differential characteristics of these tribes and to introduce location-specific technologies to minimize the technological gap and increase pineapple production in these tribal areas.