Communication behaviour of tribal farmers - a system analysis

Abstract

The research was conducted in Nedumangad taluk of Trivandrum District to study the communication behaviour of tribal farmers Data were collected from 110 'Kanikkars. from six villages of the taluk based on the method of probability proportionate to size. Farmers were interviewed individually, using the schedule developed for the purpose. Group discussions and participant observations were also made use of for the investigation The study revealed the following; Majority of the tribal farmers had only low level of communication behaviour. The information input of tribal farmers was relatively high. They received information from mass media such as the radio and newspaper and personal localite sources -such as neighbours and relatives. Majority of the farmers communicated information to other farmers of the settlement while personal talk during home visit. Feed back to the mass media was nil. Feed back-to cosmopolite sources was relatively less, while that to personal localite sources was comparatively high. Highest feed back was about the information regarding the sanction of subsidies etc. ’Neighbours and relatives' were the most important sources of information to the tribal farmers followed by radio and newspaper. Tribal leader and Tribal Extension Worker were the next' sources in the order of preference. Age was found to be negatively correlated with communication behaviour. Education, . innovation proneness, attitude towards block extension agency, social participation, information seeking behaviour and cosmopoliteness were positively associated with communication behaviour, whereas fatalism had no correlation. Step wise regression analysis revealed that information seeking behaviour, attitude towards Block extension agency, education and social participation explained 83.00 per cent variation in communication behaviour, while all the independent variables together contributed only to 84.22 per cent of change in communication behaviour. Information seeking behaviour emerged as the most important variable in predicting the communication behaviour by contributing to 74.00 per cent of the variation