EMERGING CONTEXTS OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA AND RELEVANCE OF ICTS IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES: A STUDY OF E-SAGU

Structural transformation of Indian agriculture manifested in the increasing number of marginal and small operational holdings call for responsive agricultural extension services. Weak social base, poor economic conditions and fragile holdings make the small and marginal farmers vulnerable to the vagaries of modern agriculture. With the growing role of market in agriculture need for augmenting extension services is perceptible. In this direction, there have been efforts to make use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the agricultural information communication process. It is believed that ICTs enable prompt, appropriate, authentic delivery of agricultural information in both directions i.e. from experts to farmers and vice-versa. The present paper based on the case study of an ICT based initiative named e-Sagu attempts to bring out the social organization of ICTs in agricultural information communication process and analyses the interplay of social and technical processes influencing the functioning of e-Sagu. The paper argues that while ICTs enable the delivery of up-to-date, relevant and appropriate information to the farmers they also limit the role of human factors influencing the performance of successful extension services