Effectiveness of DAMUs in Farm Planning and Agro-Advisories: Evidence from Birbhum and Malda Districts of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The current research study measured the role of Districts Agro-Meteorological Units (DAMUs) in planning and management of farms by performing an opinion-based assessment on the agro-advisory services in Birbhum and Malda districts. Purposive and random sampling were used to select 80 respondents (40 beneficiaries and 40 non-beneficiaries). The structured interview schedule was used to gather data that were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test. The findings reveal that beneficiaries had significantly higher levels of education, personal media contact, mass media exposure, household status, landholding, cultivated land, and total income compared to non‑beneficiaries, with all these differences being statistically significant (p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in age and farming experience between the two groups.  Beneficiaries perceived DAMU as significantly improving decision‑making, crop intensity, and production, with strong agreement on enhanced irrigation and spray decisions, higher cropping intensity, and lower irrigation costs (p < 0.001). They also reported greater dependency on external agencies and increased disparities among farmers, while views on DAMU’s inability to prevent natural calamities remained similar across groups. Overall, DAMU was seen as a key enabler of on‑farm adaptive choices rather than a signal change in beliefs about climate risks. Beneficiaries showed significantly higher use of DAMU‑linked mobile advisories (text messages and WhatsApp), with 100% frequent use of texts and 80% frequent WhatsApp use, while non‑beneficiaries relied more on state agricultural department. Non‑beneficiaries used other social media, indicating a statistically distinct pattern of advisory‑source preference between two groups.