FARMERS' PROBLEMS IN USING CELLPHONES TO ACCESS AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION

The purpose of this study was to find out what challenges farmers had when using cellphones to get agricultural information. The study was conducted in Charjamalpur village of Bayra union of Manikganj district of Bangladesh during January to February, 2016 using an interview schedule. In order to measure the variables, appropriate scales were constructed. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, range and percentage were used to describe the variables under consideration. The majority of cell phone users were farmers with a secondary education (51.5%), 38.2 percent had a primary education, 2.1 percent had a higher degree, and 8% were illiterate. The majority of the farmers were middle-aged (56.7%), with 26.8% and 16.5 percent of the respondents comprising young and old, respectively. About 14.5 percent of the farmers had low problem compared to 30.9 percent of them having medium problem and 54.6 percent having high problem. Thus, the majority (85.5 percent) of the farmers had faced medium to high problem. The cell phone users faced such major problems as: Lack of Knowledge, High cost of Cell phone, High call rate, Inefficiency of Information Service Provider. In fact, for farmers to use mobile phones effectively for agricultural activities, infrastructure with capacity building approaches should be offered in rural region.