Information sharing behavior

Information sharing behavior of the farmers about Agri- portals and services rendered by the Agri-portals refers to the extent to which the users felt that the services provided by Agri- portals should be enjoyed by all the members of the society. The behavior would normally arise once the users were satisfied with the services of Agri-portals and felt their utility. Information sharing behavior was classified as follows:

S. No. Category Score

1. Shared 2

2. Not shared 1

3.6. Tools and techniques of data collection

Tool is the device used to collect the data. There are two sources of data collection-primary and secondary sources. Primary sources

provide first hand information while secondary data are those already recorded for some other purpose but used in research.

Based on the understanding of facts and related reviews, a structured questionnaire was prepared to collect data. A semi- structured interview schedule was also developed to investigate in depth various dimensions of the study. Data collection tools were prepared by giving due consideration to various variables, objectives and respondents. Pre-testing was done on 30 teaching faculty of the College of Agriculture; who were not included in the final sample. Based on pre-testing, the necessary modifications and changes were made in the questionnaire and.

3.6.1 Interview schedule

The respondents were interviewed through structured interview schedule (Annexure I) prepared for the purpose. It was divided into three major sections. The first section consisted of questions regarding general profile of the respondents while the second section dealt with communication and related aspects. The third part consisted of total human resource involved, inputs used and the activities of key stakeholders of the Agri-portals and products developed during the project period. This information was collected through secondary sources.

Data collection

Data collection was done with the help of interview schedule, impact assessment index and opinionnaire from May, 2011 to July, 2011. All the farmer respondents were personally interviewed by the researcher in the study area. Portal managers (IIT, Kanpur and

IIT, Bombay), GBPUAT, scientists and the KVK functionaries were contacted through electronic mails.

Observation

In this study, observation technique was also used to enrich the data and verify the responses. An observation is the classic form of data collection in naturalistic or field research. Observational data is used to describe settings, activities and people; and such data can present this description from the perspective of the participants. Because observation provides knowledge of the context in which events occur, it can lead to deeper understandings that interviews alone. It was also contended that observations may enable the researcher to see things that the participants themselves are not aware of, or that they are unwilling to discuss. Relevant data about respondents‘ house, family type, material possession, annual income etc. were recorded on the basis of non-participatory observation. During this investigation the researcher frequently visited to the sampled villages and made several non-participant observations on various aspects under study. In order to collect some other information secondary sources were used.

3.6.2 Impact Assessment Index

In order to study extent of awareness of Agri-portals, inputs used, activities of key stakeholders, outputs of selected Agri- portals, knowledge and extent of adoption of the advices, opinion of stakeholders, practice change, information sharing behavior of farmers, gratification of the services of Agri-portals and immediacy of feedback by Agri-portals, following procedure was used to develop Impact Assessment Index:

3.6.2.1 Collection of items:

The tool in the present investigation consisted of twelve major areas related to the impact of selected Agri-portals. Each major area consisted of a number of sub-areas, under it. The major areas as well as their sub-areas were selected after thorough consultation with experts. Moreover, various literature, books and journals were also referred to select the areas.

3.6.2.2 Analysis of items:

After a preliminary selection and editing of items, twelve major areas and different sub areas delineated initially which were subjected to item analysis. The items were subjected to judgment by a panel of 20 judges. The judges were requested to go through the items and indicate their significance on a three point continuum as ―Highly relevant‖, ―Relevant‖ and ―Irrelevant‖ with corresponding scores of 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The relevance percentage of more than 75 was used as cutting point while screening and consideration for selection of the major areas and their sub areas.

3.6.2.3 Validity and reliability of the tool Validity of the index

In the present investigation, validity of the index was examined for its content validity. Content validity is the representativeness or sampling adequacy of content, substance, matter and topics of a measuring instrument (American Psychological Association, 1966). In developing ICT knowledge and skills index, the experts as judges were identified as those who had long experience of working with agriculture and ICT resources

and produced materials using ICT applications by themselves. They were asked to judge the sampling adequacy of the contents. Thus, the judgment of the judges was taken into account before using the final index. The final index consisted of eleven major areas of ICT in agriculture, knowledge and skills.

3.6.2.4 Reliability of the index:

Reliability is the accuracy or precision of a measuring instrument (Kerlinger, 2004). The split-half approach can be viewed as variation on the alternate-forms estimate of reliability. The items that comprise a given measure were split in half, and each half is treated as if it were an alternate form for the other, thereby obviating the need to construct two forms of the same measure. As with alternate - forms reliability estimates, scores on the two halves of the measures are correlated. This correlation however is based on measures that are half as long as the original one.

In order to estimate the reliability of a measure twice as long as each (i.e., the length of the original measure), split half correlations are traditionally stepped by the Spearman-Brown formula:

r

n

nr

R

(

1)

1

Rn = Reliability of the test n times

r = Coefficient of reliability obtained between the parts of the divided test

n = in the method of odd-even reliability, n is 2.

In the present study, the correlation between two halves of ICT knowledge and skills was found to be 0.69. Thus, the estimate of the reliability was 0.81 and the index was considered to be highly reliable.

Types of documentation

Diary method was used to document experiences and specific observations during visits to villages. Photographs were along taken for in depth analysis of the study area.

3.7. Hypotheses of the investigation