Communication Behaviour of Farmers with the Agricultural Extension Agents Using Cell Phone: A Case of Bangladesh

The cell phone is one of the potential Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agricultural development especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. Thus, this paper deals with the farmers’ communication with the agricultural extension agents using mobile phone. The study was conducted in Mymensingh District in Bangladesh. Data were collected from a sample of 110 farmers while both descriptive and inferential analyses were used. The majority (53.64 percent) of the farmers had low cell phone contact while a good number (44.54 percent) of farmers had no cell phone contact, 1.82 percent had medium contact and no farmers had high cell phone contact with agricultural extension agents. Education, farm size, annual family income, extension contact, knowledge on ICT and cell phone use frequency correlated positively while only ‘age’ is correlated negatively to their cell phone contact with extension agents. Household size and organizational participation did not show any significant relationship. Small numbers of farmers were receiving information on seed, fertilizer, culture practices, pest control and market related through cell phone. Farmers’ communication preferences through cell phone comparatively were Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer (SAAO), Trained Farmers (TF) and Seed and Fertilizer Dealers. Lack of awareness on receiving information through cell phone, apathy to getting agricultural information through cell phone, poor knowledge about cell phone operation were the major problems of farmers’ communication with the agricultural extension agents using mobile phone. Respective authorities should encourage and train both farmers and extension agents to use mobile phone as easy, low cost and popular communication medium.