Mobile Phones - Boon to Rural Social System
Ravinder Kaur Dhaliwal, Vister Joshi · Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal · 2010
Mobile phone emerges as a great tool to enhance the system of transfer of information in agriculture, but its use is limited in certain areas.So, an effort in this paper has been made to enumerate the uses of mobile phones in Social System which is based on Axinn & Thorat's model of rural social system.As in Production, farmers get timely information of weather forecasts, crop advisory.In Marketing and Supply, day to day information of commodity prices, market and other relevant information are available.Mobile learning can educate farmers.In governance, it emerges with a new concept of m-governance.And feedbacks through it can revolute research system.Primary data was also collected to know the opinion and preferences of farmers towards the use of mobile phones in agriculture.Data shows that farmers preferred information on marketing most, as it attained first rank.According to farmers, State Agriculture Universities are the most credible source of information while private agencies are least.Majority of farmers preferred 2-3 messages per day for fulfilling their information needs.They preferred SMS is the best way of providing information as they can read and save it for its future use.And finally, production is the most used area of Rural Social System among the farmers by mobile phones.