6476

Utilization of selected Information Technology Enabled Systems by
Agricultural Extensionists of Kerala

P.J. Boniface1, A.M. Jose2 and A. Sakeer Husain3

ABSTRACT
Several information technology enabled systems (ITES) are available for providing valuable
information to agricultural extensionists which in turn would help them to assist famers, and increase
crop production. The present study was aimed at assessment of knowledge and extent of use of selected
ITES among agricultural extensionists of Kerala. Data were collected from randomly selected 60
computer literate agricultural officers and 60 computer literate agricultural assistants of Kerala State.
The study revealed that knowledge of agricultural extensionists on web browsing and agricultural portals
was comparatively higher. The knowledge of agricultural expert system and digitized databases was
found to be very low. On the other hand the extent of use of all the selected ITES was found low among
the agricultural extensionists. This points towards the need of sensitizing agricultural extensionists on
the importance and value of ITES.

Keywords: IT in agriculture; web browsing; agricultural portals; agricultural expert systems; digitized
databases; online trading.

Research Article
Journal of Extension Education
Vol. 32 No. 2, 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.26725/JEE.2020.2.32.6476-6484

1
College of Co-operation Banking and Management, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur,

2 AMITY School of Economics, ,AMITY University, Panchgaon, Haryana and 3 Professor and Director, Centre for
e-Learning, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala, India

Received : 29-07-2020; Accepted : 25-09-2020

INTRODUCTION
Information Technology (IT) plays an
important role in agricultural production and
marketing (Thiruniraiselvi, 2009). Recently,
India has made rapid strides in the field of IT
and there is immense scope for its application
in agriculture. It has the potential to address the
concerns of farmers effectively, stationed even
at remote locations. Agricultural extensionists
require timely information to assist farmers
which is provided through various Information
technology enabled systems (ITES). Several

ITES are available nationwide but how far they
have reached the agricultural extensionists is
to be measured.

Among the various ITES, Decision
Support Systems (DSS) / Expert Systems
which function based on artificial intelligence
is a novel ITES which help the agricultural
extensionists to provide timely and vital
information to farmers. Some of the D.S.S.
in Kerala are the KAU Fertulator (Fertilizer
calculator for around 140 crops developed
by Kerala Agricultural University(KAU),

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KAU e-crop doctor (Medicine prescriber for
various crops developed by KAU), Cassava
Expert System (developed by Central
Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI),
Thiruvananthapuram), Oushadham (Online
diagnostic system for pest and disease
management in cassava developed by CTCRI)
and so on. (Husain et al., 2016). Agricultural
portals are another category of ITES becoming
popular. There are some portals in agriculture
suited to farmers of Kerala, includes the
portals maintained by the Department of
Agriculture, Government of Kerala and
the one by Kerala Agricultural University.
Similarly several other IT enabled services are
available for the agricultural extensonists to
facilitate their efforts in total like websites,
databases, m-apps etc. The present study was
undertaken with the objective of examining
the Knowledge and extent of use of selected
Information technology enabled systems
(ITES) among agricultural extensionists of
Kerala.

METHODOLOGY

For the purpose of the study, the
State of Kerala was geographically divided
into three zones viz., North, Central and
South. The study was confined to three
districts selected purposively to represent
each of the zones. As such Malappuram,
Thrissur and Idukki districts representing
north, central and south zones respectively
were selected. Malappuram district became
the first e-literate district in India through
the Akshaya project launched on 2002, and
Thrissur district houses the headquarters of
the State Agricultural University of Kerala

which had developed various IT tools and
services for farmers apart from imparting
trainings to farmers. Similarly, the farmers of
Idukki district were engaged in online trading
especially of pepper and cardamom. These
factors were also considered for the selection
of these three districts, which were expected
to have more focus on different IT enabled
services.

The present study focussed on the
grass root level agricultural extensionists of
the Department of Agriculture, Kerala State,
and includes both agricultural officers and
agricultural assistants of Krishi bhavans (grass
root level agricultural extension unit) of Kerala.
For the selection of agricultural extensionists,
the list of computer literate agricultural
officers and agricultural assistants in the
Krishi bhavans of the three selected districts
were obtained. From this list 60 agricultural
officers and 60 agricultural assistants were
selected at random, constituting a sample of
120.

Five platforms of ITES viz., Web
Browsing, Agricultural Portals, Agricultural
Expert Systems, Digitized databases, and
Online Trading were assessed for their
knowledge and use by the agricultural
extensionists of Kerala. The personal profile of
agricultural extensionists, their social profile,
IT profile, knowledge and extent of use of
ITES were the major items of analysis.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A set of characteristics of agricultural
extensionists such as gender, language
proficiency, age, educational status, and service

Utilization of selected Information Technology Enabled Systems by Agricultural Extensionists of Kerala

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experience were taken into consideration for
understanding their personal profile.

Majority of the respondents (53%)
were males and the rest (47%) were females.
A slight majority was noticed in the number of
male agricultural extensionists over females.
Age wise segmentation of agricultural
extensionists revealed that majority (62.5%)
of agricultural extensionists were middle
aged with an age range of 36-55. The
younger generation whose age group was
less than 36 registered only 37.5 per cent.
This is quite logical that an individual can
attain the job of an agricultural extensionist
only after the age of 17, when he acquires
the minimum educational qualification, and
generally majority get placed after the age
of 25. This is the reason for less number of
young extensionists as compared to middle
aged. None of the extensionists fell in the
old age category, because of the fact that 56
is the retirement age in Kerala government
service.

While examining the language
proficiency of agricultural extensionists,
81.67 per cent of them were able to read,
write and speak English, while 100 per cent
were able to read and write English. In the
case of Malayalam language, 100 per cent
agricultural extensionists were able to read,
write and speak. The respondent agricultural
extensionists were officials of the Kerala State
government, and were either degree holders
or VHSE (Vocational Higher Secondary
Education) Certificate holders, and this is the
reason behind the high proficiency in both the
languages.

Educational qualification of
the agricultural extensionists surveyed
showed that 30 per cent of the agricultural
extensionists were Degree holders (Degree
alone) and 27 per cent postgraduates. This
indicates that majority (57%) of agricultural
extensionists were having Degree. The rest 43
per cent extensionists were VHSE certificate
holders. Majority of the degree holders
were Agricultural Officers, who were in
charge of Krishibhavans (the local agricultural
development units at gramapanchayath level),
while the VHSE Certificate holders were
Agricultural Assistants, who come under the
control of the Agricultural Officer.

Majority of the agricultural
extensionists (45 %) had more than 15 years of
service experience, as agricultural extension
worker, followed by 35 per cent with 5-15
years of experience, and 20 per cent with
less than 5 years of experience. This is in
accordance with their age.

Social variables relevant to agricultural
extensionists such as innovativeness, research
organisation contact, social participation and
mass media exposure were considered for the
study. The results in this regard are presented
in Table 1.

Table 1 reveals that 79 per cent
agricultural extensionists were in the
medium range of innovativeness, while the
rest 21 per cent were highly innovative.
None of the extensionists were found
with low innovativeness, showing a better
innovativeness level of computer literate
agricultural extensionists. Table 1 further
shows that 55 per cent agricultural
extensionists had contact with research

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6479

organization which was in the medium range,
followed by 27 per cent extensionists with
high research organisation contact. Only 18
per cent of them was found with low research
organisation contact. Thus, the better position
of agricultural extensionists with respect to
innovativeness and research organisation
contact could be effectively used for ITES use
in agriculture.

Majority (58%) of the agricultural
extensionists belonged to medium category
of social participation, followed by 33 per
cent with low social participation. Only 9
per cent of extensionists were having high
social participation. This low level social
participation of agricultural extensionists may
be the result of the high work load, perceived
by them, which includes clerical and file works

Table 1.
Social Characteristics of Agricultural Extensionists

Sl.No. Variables Category Number Percentage

1 Innovativeness
Low 0 0
Medium 95 79
High 25 21

2
Research organization
Contact

Low 22 18
Medium 66 55
High 32 27

3 Social Participation
Low 40 33
Medium 69 58
High 11 9

4 Mass Media exposure
Low 15 12.50
Medium 91 75.83
High 14 11.67

Table 2.
IT profile of Agricultural Extensionists

Sl.
No. Variable Category No. Percentage

1 Computer use
Self 112 93
With help 6 5
No use 2 2

2 Mobile phone use
Smartphone 119 99
Ordinary mobile phone 1 1

3 Training in IT
Attended 64 53
Not attended 56 47

Utilization of selected Information Technology Enabled Systems by Agricultural Extensionists of Kerala

6480

in office and field work. Regarding mass media
exposure too, majority of the agricultural
extensionists (75.83%) belonged to the
medium category, followed by an almost equal
share of the respondents in low and high
category (12.5% and 11.67% respectively).
Thus majority of agricultural extensionists fell
in the medium category with respect to all the
social variables under study.

The IT profile of the respondent
extensionists were analysed in terms of their
use of computer, mobile phone use and
trainings attended in IT, and the results are
furnished in Table 2.

It is observed from Table 2, that 93
per cent of the agricultural extensionists used
computer by their own and 5 per cent used
it with the help of others. Non users of the
computer constituted just 2 per cent. Thus
it is clear that an overwhelming majority of
them were users of the computer. This result
was obtained consequent to the purposive
inclusion of computer literate extensionists
in the sampling frame. Majority of them used
computer in offices mainly for operating

SPARK, a software used for uploading their
salary bills. Some of them utilised the help of
their colleagues for doing this.

With respect to the use of mobile
phones, it is seen that almost all (99%)
agricultural extensionists, except one per cent
of them were using smart phones. Thus with
the use of smart phones, various purposes
surpassed the use of computer, and it is
the trend of this era. As regards to trainings
attended in IT, it can be seen that 53 per cent
of the agricultural extensionists had attended
various IT training programmes. Thus the
IT profile of the agricultural extensionists is
found to support the use of various ITES.

Extent of knowledge of agricultural
extensionists on various ITES

The analysis of the knowledge on ITES
was done based on the responses of those
agricultural extensionists who were aware of
each of these ITES in agriculture. Thus the total
respondents in this case varied for different
ITES as follows: web searching/browsing-114;
agricultural portals- 96; agricultural expert
systems-24; digitized databases-26; online

Table 3.
Distribution of Agricultural Extensionists based on Knowledge on Various ITES

Sl.
No. Knowledge

category

Web
Browsing

Agricultural
Portals

Agricultural
Expert System

Digitized
Databases

Online
Trading

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

1. Low 74 65 74 77 22 92 24 92 66 97

2. Medium 25 22 19 20 1 4 1 4 1 1.5

3. High 15 13 3 3 1 4 1 4 1 1.5

Total 114 100 96 100 24 100 26 100 68 100

Utilization of selected Information Technology Enabled Systems by Agricultural Extensionists of Kerala

6482

and digitized databases were not that popular
even amongst agricultural extensionists.
However, since many of the farmers were
involved in online trading, the agricultural
extensionists were also forced to be equipped
with knowledge on it.

Use of various ITES by agricultural
extensionists

The frequency distribution of
agricultural extensionists with regard to extent
of use of selected ITES is furnished in Table 4.

Table 4 shows that 65 per cent
agricultural extensionists were in the low
category with respect to web browsing, while
22 percent in the medium and 13 per cent
in the high categories. Thus the use of web
browsing was found to be low. Even though
the selected agricultural extensionists were
computer literate, and majority of them had
knowledge about web browsing, its use was
restricted by high work load in their office, and
lack of computer in many of their homes.

Similarly, 77 percent agricultural
extensionists belonged to low category with
respect to use of agricultural portals, while
20 per cent in the middle and three per cent
in the high categories. Here also it can be
inferred that the use of agricultural portals
by agricultural extensionists was low. The
same reason mentioned in the case of web
browsing is applicable here also. Among the
selected ITES, the training need of agricultural
extensionists was found high on agricultural
portals (Boniface et.al, 2019a). With respect
to use of the ITES viz., agricultural expert
system, and digitized databases, 92 per cent

agricultural extensionists were in low use
category. Only a very few belonged to medium
and high category (4 each in both the case of
agricultural expert system and digitized data
bases). Thus the use of agricultural expert
system and digitized data bases was found
to be very low. Majority of the agricultural
extensionists possessed low knowledge
regarding these two ITES, and this might
be the major reason behind its very low use.
Rafea (2002) revealed that net production
in agriculture increased by 25% using expert
system which shows the importance of
agricultural expert system.

The use of online trading by the
agricultural extensionists was found to be the
lowest among all the ITES. The very poor use of
online trading was due to the lack of necessity
of its use by the extension functionaries, as
it was mainly related to and used by farmers,
sellers and buyers. Still, there were a very
few agricultural extensionists, who used this
ITES, they may be involved in online trading as
farmers or traders.

Overall, it can be easily inferred that
the use of ITES was low among the agricultural
extensionists. Of the ITES, the use of web
browsing and agricultural portals was found
to be low, while the use of agricultural expert
systems and digitized databases was very low,
and that of online trading was extremely low.
Thus, even though they had knowledge on web
browsing and agricultural portals, the extent
of use did not match with their knowledge.
Besides, it was also observed that 77 per cent
belonged to low use category with respect
to agricultural portals whereas, 65 per cent

Journal of Extension Education

6483

belonged to the low use category in respect
of web browsing. This points to the need of
imparting training to agricultural extensionists
on web browsing and agricultural portals.

Further, the low use of agricultural
expert systems and digitized databases, as
mentioned earlier was mainly due to their low
knowledge. The non-availability of suitable
ITES and the lack of knowledge on the value
of the available ITES in these two categories
also might have contributed to this condition.

CONCLUSION
The study revealed that knowledge
on web browsing was comparatively higher
for agricultural extensionists than other ITES
such as agricultural portals, agricultural expert
system, digitised databases and online trading.
Similarly, the use of different ITES was found
to be low among the respondents. This was
very low in respect of agricultural expert
systems and digitised data bases. Even, the
agricultural portals were seen used at very low
level. ITES, especially the agricultural portals
and agricultural expert systems/decision
support systems are tools that can provide
authentic information, technical support, and
expert guidance to the stakeholders. Now,
we have very good agricultural portals suited
to the state of Kerala like KAU agri info tech
portal (celkau.in), portal of the Kerala State
Department of Agriculture(krishi.info), TNAU
agri tech portal, IRRI’s cereal knowledge bank
etc., and the first two are available in both
English and local language, Malayalam. Still, in
depth knowledge on and use of these portals
by the agricultural extensionists were low.

Similarly agricultural expert systems were
also not seen explored. This is an indication
towards the need for sensitizing and to give
hands on training to agricultural extensionists
on various agricultural portals, so as to satisfy
their information needs, especially in the
context of the immense practical utility and
potential of a quality agricultural information
technology portal. Similar efforts are to be
made to explore the scope and potential
of the use of agricultural expert systems.
The agricultural extensionists are technical
experts in their concerned fields and they may
perceive that the ITES, at present does not
provide much more than what they know and
what they can refer to by other means. Hence
a detailed orientation on various available
ITES and its content and coverage should
be provided to agricultural extensionists for
effective utilisation of these ITES.

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Training needs of farmers and agricultural
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Mishra,S, & Akankasha Deep, V. (2014).
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Journal of Extension Education