Published Paper Details:

In spite of services rendered by several extension agencies, information reach to the farming sector is not up to the expected level. Despite wide range of reform initiatives in agricultural extension in India in the past decades, the coverage of, access to, and quality of information provided to marginalized and poor farmers is uneven. Though transfer of technologies from lab to land has become motto of all research institutes and Government agencies, on an average public extension services reach only 6.8 per cent of farmers. On the other hand due to the non availability of public extension system, farmers have found alternate mode of receiving information through television channels, neighboring progressive farmers and more importantly through social media in recent years. Due to the increasing level of mobile network penetration in rural areas, It makes instant access of information by the farmers through. social media. It has become most convenient in accessing new technologies adopted by famers across the globe. Hence exploring other options of alternate communication delivery mechanisms gains more importance in present scenario. At this moment Social media stands as a prime source for farmers to gain knowledge and sharing views on farm technologies. This paper tries to explain the constraints faced by the farmers in accessing information from public extension agencies and also tries to prove that social media can be utilized effectively as an alternate communication channel. As a result of this analysis, farmers are in regular access to social media to meet their knowledge requirement and YouTube remains most preferred by farmers due to the audio visual communication. This helps in increasing efficiency in reaching farmers and minimize communication gap in farming sector.