Agricultural Technology and Development Communication Networking Patterns in Differentially Developed Villages of Bangladesh
Shah M. Alamgir Hossain · Journal of Sustainable Agriculture · 1998
Communication of technological information is a vital factor in the change process of the farming community. Development communication networking varies depending on the nature and importance of the technologies and the level of village development. Sociometric information was gathered on three improved farmpracties–high yielding varieties (HYVs)of rice, improved management of vegetable cultivation, use of insecticides–from a progressive and a less progressive village of Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. The information seeking pattern for these farming practices was dominated by official sources in the progressive village, while it was characterised by interpersonal and “within family” interaction pattern in the case of the less progressive village. In determining the explicit dynamism of the web of networking this paper demonstrates that: (a) information flow followed a multistep process, although such steps often reduced to one-step connection, depending on the importance and complexity of the technology, (b) close communication links existed among key-communicators, between key-communicators and communicators, and among communicators, (c) farmers in the less progressive village with a comparatively remote location exlperienced very limited contacts with the government agricultural extension service systems, (d) farmers' network of communication for seeking information to solve farm problems operates in a sustainable basis since it is perpetuated continually for many human generations. Appropriate agricultural extension strategies are discussed.