Knowledge Needs and Online Knowledge Seeking Behaviour of Stakeholders in the Indian Rice Sector
Shaik N. Meera, Sonu Kumar, Chitra Shanker, P. Muthuraman, G H Hemantha Kumar, M. P. Rajanna, P.S. Pandey, R.L. Kunkerkar, A.K. Mishra, C. Vara Prasad, Basavaraj C. Viraktamath · Journal of Global Communication · 2014
There is a tremendous potential for agricultural stakeholder to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) through access to online learning resources and repositories. Most of the online sources of agricultural knowledge lack credible, contextualised and local language knowledge that could be readily applicable among the extension professionals and other stakeholders. Hence, there is a need to understand knowledge needs and online knowledge-seeking behaviours of agricultural stakeholders. It is essential to develop and deploy a sound methodology to analyse the online sources of agricultural knowledge for the benefit of extension organisations. This study focuses on the Indian rice sector and comes out with empirical evidences on knowledge needs and online knowledge-seeking behaviour of various stakeholders. The paper also recommends sound strategies for developing online agricultural repositories.