IMPACT OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTS) ON WHEAT FARMER’S PROFITABILITY IN SOUTH PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The use of information communication technologies (ICTs) is becoming inevitable day by day in agriculture with the advancement in this sector. This  study attempts to find the role of ICTs to increase the profitability of farmers in south Punjab. The multistage sampling design was used to select wheat farmers from two districts of South Punjab Multan and Muzaffargarh. From each district, one tehsil will be selected to access the use of ICTs by farmers. Face-to-face interviews of farmers were conducted on the pre-defined questionnaire and subjected to a regression model by using R software for data analysis and estimation of results. The results showed that the use of ICTs tools has a significant positive relationship with profitability per acre. More educated farmers are using ICTs tools more to get different information. The study also showed that age has a negative relationship with the use of ICTs and education has a positive relationship with the use of ICTs tools. The conventional input cost has a positive relationship with profit per acre showing that farmers using ICTs tools to get different information have less input cost and more profit per acre. Mobile phones, tv, and others like newspapers, Agri websites, and application tools are frequently used ICTs tools as per this study. The study suggested that other ICTs tools such as the use of the mobile application to get a different crops and market-related information also need to scale up among farmers through training and extending extension services.