Assessing the Effectiveness of different Mobile Apps in Terms of Knowledge Gain and Adoption Level

Abstract

The use of mobile phones has become an integral part of smallholder farmers’ lives in both developed and developing countries. The traditional transfer of technology mechanism had lot of constraints including limited staff, wider coverage and required more cost. The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of different mobile apps in terms of knowledge gain and adoption level of technologies. Kisan Suvidha Mobile App was taken as technology option 1 (TO 1), Farmer Mobile App was taken as technology option 2 (TO 2) and the e-Nam mobile app was taken as technology option 3 (TO 3). The study was conducted in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu state. Radom sampling method was adopted to select the farmers. The yield data, knowledge and adoption level of the farmers were assessed before and after usage of mobile apps in getting agro advisory services in crop cultivation from land preparation to marketing. The farmers gained more knowledge by using Kisan Suvitha app. The farmers who were using Farmer mobile app and e-Nam mobile apps gained medium level of knowledge in crop cultivation method.  Farmers could able to adopt 70 percent of the technologies by following Kisan Suvitha app whereas the farmers followed the Farmer mobile app and e-Nam app adopted the technologies for 64 and 60 percentage respectively. the farmers who followed the Kisan Suvidha app obtained a more yield of 61.1 q/ha. Whereas, the Farmer Mobile App users obtained 57.0 q/ha followed by e-Nam mobile apps users obtained a yield of 55.0 q/ha.