Effectiveness of Social Media for Dissemination of Yellow Mosaic Disease Management Technology in Soybean under Soybean-Wheat Crop Sequence in Black Soil of Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Effectiveness of Social Media for Dissemination of Yellow Mosaic Disease Management Technology in Soybean under Soybean-Wheat Crop Sequence in Black Soil of Madhya Pradesh

Sarvesh Kumar

Present time is very fast changing in all means of life day by day. People from grass root rural living to the metro urban settings everywhere mobile phones are the part and parcel of life. Most of the premium time of rural youth is passing with watching mobile for their entertainment and other transactional and awareness purposes. The WhatsApp is very integral part of social media being used by the large number of farmers in society. Now farmers are living in digital era and witnessing the transforming worlds with their eyes day by day form digital transactions, direct benefit transfers, online marketing, shopping are prominent examples digital use. We are having still a big space to exploit the ICTs for agricultural and rural development through agricultural technological interventions and transfer of technology. On that ground this study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of social media for dissemination of yellow mosaic disease management technology in soybean crop during 2021-2023. WhatsApp was found important for technology transfer because it allows the real-time communication by enabling quick sharing of data and ideas and builds trust through establishing an immediate connection that can lead to a good response of farmers. The text messages were sent at three stages of crops as pre-sowing stage, after germination and at vegetative growth stage. The pre tested technical information was shared to the registered farmers by KVK Harda time to time and results revealed as the sent messages were easy to read by 82.91% and completely understand by 78.61% farmers who received the advisory under this study. The technical information sent through mobile message was applied by 37.36 % of farmers in their fields for control of white fly to tackle the Yellow Mosaic Virus disease in Soybean crop. The average 76.80 % farmers realized the message was highly needful for them and as an impact of this efforts made by KVK scientists shown the total saving was reaped by adopter farmer as more yield + input saving for soybean cultivation. The total saving was seen of adopter farmers Rs 3.57 Lakh by investing amount of Rs 36000/ as technology cost for sending the kisan mobile advisory messages to the framers from 189 ha cultivated area under Soybean crop in Harda district.