A Critical Analysis of Digital Agricultural Information Dissemination Systems in Tamil Nadu, India

抄録

Agricultural information dissemination systems play a key role in farmers’ decision-making. Recently, much emphasis has been placed on agricultural modernization facilitated by digitizing agricultural information services in Tamil Nadu’s agricultural sector. Studies point to various facilitating and limiting factors related to the availability, accessibility, and adoption and use of digital agricultural information dissemination systems, including the provision of information related to extension and advisory services, weather-based agricultural advisory services, and market-based agricultural advisory services. The Uzhavan application (app), a key digital agricultural information dissemination system developed by the Tamil Nadu government in 2018, provides comprehensive market prices, subsidy schemes, and weather forecasts. However, it has had poor uptake and utilization, and only 18% of Tamil Nadu farmers have registered on the Uzhavan app. To address this, we examined the evolution and institutional frameworks of agricultural information dissemination systems (extension and advisory services, weather-based, and market-based agricultural advisory services), we analysed facilitating and hindering factors of different digital agricultural information dissemination systems, and we identified challenges facing the farmers in the study area. Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 farmers in the Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu. We also obtained relevant secondary data from the literature for this study. The results showed a lack of ideal institutional design for disseminating digital agricultural information in equitable and affordable ways. Lack of awareness, lack of institutional trust, gender and socioeconomic gaps in access, lack of contextualized content, and costs of access were identified as challenges to accessing digital agricultural information. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to identify and incorporate factors responsible for the equitable and affordable dissemination of digital agricultural information.