Development of a mobile application to control Brucellosis and its effect in Knowledge gain among the commercial dairy farmers of Northern India

Abstract

Quick and timely dissemination of technological information from the agricultural research system to grassroots level and farmers’ reaction in the form of feedback to the research system is one of the most critical inputs in technology transfer. Information and Communication Technology plays an important and crucial role where its potential can be exploited to strengthen the linkage amongst research and extension system. In this context, mobile application was developed on brucellosis prevention in dairy animals and it was tested for its effectiveness in terms of knowledge gain by the commercial dairy farmers (n=60) from six district of Haryana and Punjab states. The study revealed that, the overall mean knowledge gain on Brucellosis in dairy animals through mobile application was effective (p< 0.01) in terms of knowledge gain among the commercial dairy farmers (17.65). Pearson’s correlation analysis of socio-demographic profile with knowledge gainrevealed that knowledge gain through Mobile application on brucellosis was positively and significantly correlated with education, landholding, income, herd size, milk production and experience in dairy farming at 5 % level of significance. It is evident from this study that Information Communication Technologies plays significant role in knowledge gain and empowerment of dairy farmers and hence still more institutional intervention, support and innovation is required in developing such technology transfer mechanisms in developing countries like India.