Effectiveness of WhatsApp in Delivering Livestock Advisory Services in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

In the present ICT era of communication, social media is playing a pivotal role in reducing the communication gap and sharing the information instantly anywhere in the world. Among various social media, WhatsApp particularly helps in formation of common interest groups for different categories of people for sharing information. The present study was undertaken with this objective, to study the effectiveness of WhatsApp communications on advisory services delivered to the livestock owners, in Andhra Pradesh. A WhatsApp group named “PASU VIGNANA VEDIKA” was created for the study purpose, to provide the livestock related information to the farmers instantly. A total of 95 farmers and 10 Veterinary Officers, using WhatsApp in their smart phones were selected and included in PASU VIGNANA VEDIKA”. After 90 days of study period, the results were collected by personal interview method through structured interview schedule, analyzed and presented in frequencies and percentages. The majority of the livestock farmers had Favourable attitude (61.05%)  towards using the WhatsApp group for farming purpose, opined that the information is easy to read (100%), and listen (89%), timely availability (89.47%), out of the queries posted in WhatsApp group majority were regarding health of animals (54.17%) especially skin, mastitis and digestive disorders. Further, most of the farmers used text based messages (56.25%)  followed by photos (31.25%) of ailing animals. In view of the vast opportunities through WhatsApp group formation, government policies should be framed in such a way to utilize the full potential of this method of communication for the welfare of farming community.