TELEVISION AS DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION SOURCE PERCEIVED BY FARMERS: ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Abstract

Pakistan is agricultural country where majority of the population resides on agriculture. Dimension of agriculture are changing because of extended technology implications. These technologies are disseminated via various means and electronic media stays prominent in this perspective. Among the different electronic media tools TV is most important as it holds tendency to disseminate technology to the millions of people in very short time span. Present study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan to assess the existence of TV as diversified information source followed by the challenges being faced. 120 respondents were selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected from 120 randomly selected respondents and collected data were analysed through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Findings indicated that 58.3% respondents owned TV sets followed by the 10.8% respondents who didn’t had TV but were having access to the TV. Farmers were getting information about the all aspects of agriculture but average mean of all the aspects fall in between the low to medium showing the information gap of medium level as well. Factor such as load shedding, lack of interest, less time and inappropriate timings and broadcasts were responsible for the information gap. It is recommended on the basis of findings that agricultural relevant programs should be broadcasted on TV with appropriate timings and programs should also be launched for the capacity buildings of farmers.