Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the
utilization of information on rubber farming by
Rubber Smallholders (RSs) and the sample was
389 RSs using stratified random sampling
technique. The level of Utilization of Information
on Rubber Farming (UIRF) was measured by
developed score. The Logistic regression of
analysis was employed in understanding the
relationship between UIRF scores and socioeconomic variables of RSs by the STATA version
19. The most prominent sources of information on
rubber farming were rubber smallholders (71%),
rubber extension officials (11%), social media
(5%) and extension programmes (4%), while
radio (0.5%) and television (0.5%) were the
lowest used sources. Most of the RSs had a low
utilization category (54%), while 13 % had a high
utilization category. The mean UIRF score was 38
% (ranged from 05 % to 71%). The most preferred
information sources by RSs were extension
programmes (90%), RSs (85%), rubber traders
(85%) and social media (70%). The most needed
information by RSs is on rubber market prices
(100%), followed by fertilizer application (92%),
tapping (90 %), management of Tapping Panel
Dryness (90%), disease management (85%) and
sheet rubber making (80%). The perceived issues
of accessing information by RSs highlighted that
inadequate extension personnel (92 %), gets
unreliable information (79 %), poor mechanism of
distribution of Rubber Puwath (79 %) and lack of
social media interventions (88%). RSs’ age, level
of education, rubber land extent, membership of
the Thurusaviya rubber society and full-time
farmer were significantly and positively
correlated to UIRF. Both approaches of ICT
based cyber extension and establishing para
extension service are proposed strategies to
improving the information accessibility of
smallholder rubber sector.
