Access to and use of agricultural information and technology in a sample of paddy farmers in the Hambantota district of Sri Lanka: a survey

Abstract

This paper explores the access to and use of agricultural knowledge and information in a sample of paddy farmers in the Hambantota district of Sri Lanka and assesses the information receiving and sharing patterns among them, using the data gathered from a sample of 100 randomly selected farmers who participated in a questionnaire-based interview. Accordingly, it was found that the formal information sharing processes were dominant among paddy farmers and more frequently, farmers received and shared information with the Agricultural Instructors as they were the trusted and most accessible information source for farmers. Moreover, the study reveals that the farmer's age and farming experience show a positive relationship with the adoption of new technologies while technology adoption behaviour is not significantly affected by the social and demographic factors relating to the farmers. Against this backdrop, it attempts to make a few recommendations for the improvement of the information access and technology adoption practices among the paddy farmers, particularly, the mobilisation of the Agricultural Instructors as disseminators of new knowledge and technologies. Moreover, the study proposes a mechanism to mobilise the target groups or organisations to access and disseminate new knowledge about paddy production technologies among farming communities by means of social networking.