Diffusion of Old Information and Communication Technologies in Disseminating Agricultural Knowledge: An Analysis of Farmers’ Income

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of old information and communication technologies (ICTs) in knowledge dissemination and the economic outcome of ICT use by farmers. Based on the National Sample Survey data, the paper examines two issues – the role of ICTs in disseminating agricultural knowledge and whether there is any significant difference between the ICT adopters and non-adopters in terms of their net revenue. Following the theoretical argument by Rogers and Shoemaker and Brown, we hypothesize that the use of ICTs makes a significant difference between the adopters and non-adopters. We estimated our hypothesis through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, where the outcome variable ‘net revenue per acre’ is regressed on the explanatory variable ‘ICT use’. As, the revenue of a farmer is cofounded with other effects other than ICT use, we have controlled ICT use by other variables. The estimated result shows that there is a significant difference between adopters of ICT and non-adopters in terms of their net revenue. The result shows that there is not any significant difference between the adopters and non-adopters of institutional sources. If farmers are using individual sources then the non-adopters have higher returns than the adopters.

Keywords:

• Old ICTs
• Knowledge dissemination
• Net revenue

Acknowledgement

This paper was presented at the 10th GLOBELICS Conference, Hangzhou, China and has been modified based on the comments. I would like to thank my PhD supervisors Professor K.J. Joseph and Dr U.S. Mishra for their comments and suggestions. I also thank Dr Amarendra Das for his valuable comments on the paper. The necessary disclaimer applies.

Notes

The authors divided the consequences of diffusion into three categories: (1) functional versus dysfunctional, (2) direct versus indirect and (3) manifest versus latent. Functional versus dysfunctional depends on whether the effects of an innovation in a social system are desirable or undesirable. Direct versus indirect consequences depend on whether the changes in a social system occur in immediate response to an innovation or as a result of the direct consequences of an innovation. Finally, manifest versus latent consequences depend on whether the changes are recognised and intended by the members of a social system or not (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971, p. 17).

Windfall profits could be measured in social as well as economic terms. An example is the prestige that the innovator of consumer products may obtain by being the first to use a new idea (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971).

‘Direct consequences are those changes in a social system that occur in immediate response to an innovation while indirect consequences are changes in a social system that occur as a result of direct consequences of an innovation.’