Credibility of Different Agricultural Information Sources Utilized by Farm Women of Uttarakhand

Abstract

Credibility of agricultural information sources affects the adoption of new or improved agricultural practices 
by farmers. Credibility refers to perceived trustworthiness accorded to a source by its audience at any given 
time and situation. Therefore, Credible sources of agriculture information play major role in diffusion of 
agriculture innovations. This study was carried out in Nainital district of Uttarakhand state with specific 
objective to explore the relative credibility of information sources as accorded by the farm women of the 
region. A sample of 120 farm women was selected by PPS (Probability proportional to size) sampling 
method. The agriculture information sources were categorized into three broad heads namely personal 
localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media.  It was found that majority (62.5%) of respondents had 
„medium‟ credibility towards agriculture information sources followed by 20 per cent having low credibility 
and only 17.5 per cent had high credibility to different agriculture information sources. It was further found 
that family members, KVK officials and newspaper were considered as the most credible sources of 
agricultural information among personal localite, personal cosmopolite and mass media sources.