Use of social media for livestock advisory services: The case of WhatsApp in Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The opportunities of information access to livestock owners especially from institutional sources are minimal under Indian context. Social media tools such as WhatsApp have remarkable ability to reduce the transaction cost as well as increase the coverage of extension services. WhatsApp, a hugely popular medium of information exchange can be a cost-effective tool to improve livestock advisory services since skilful use of WhatsApp can overcome limitations of time and geographical barriers faced by these services. The current study explored and experimented with the possibility of using WhatsApp in livestock advisory work. Under the experimental study, WhatsApp emerged as a most preferred choice of referring to a diverse set of livestock-related information. Furthermore, advice through WhatsApp helped farmers in seeking the timely interventions and information support from other relevant sources. Hence, state development departments must promote its use through suitable models among which one discussed in this paper to enhance the scope and coverage of livestock advisory services.

Effectiveness of WhatsApp in Delivering Livestock Advisory Services in Andhra Pradesh

“…Among the total queries received, majority are related to health aspects of the animals like skin, digestive and mastitis followed by feeding and schemes. The miscellaneous queries included farmers success stories, milk fever case, suggestions to improve milk yield, dairy, sheep and poultry farm management [10]. Farmers in the study area were busy with the farming activities round the clock, so they got solutions for the problems related to their animals through WhatsApp and by applying them they saved their time, energy and money in terms of transportation of animals to veterinary hospitals by a vehicle.…”

Diversity of Knowledge-Sharing Behavior to Encourage the Practice of Robusta Coffee Red-Picking (Case Study of Temanggung Robusta Coffee Farmer, Indonesia)

“…Farmers use social media to share knowledge (Thakur and Chander, 2017;Kandagor et al, 2018;. WhatsApp social media is essential and helpful in discussing livestock business issues, increasing networks between farmers and livestock sector actors, and helping farmers get enough information for decision-makers on their livestock business (Thakur and Chander, 2017;. Knowledge-sharing is an effort to increase information networks among farmers and make knowledge available to them.…”