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Electronic media like radio and television is an important electronic medium which helps to spread information to the farmers. It plays an important role in agriculture development which disseminates latest information regarding farm and technologies. Radio is an audio-medium which is the most cheapest and effective mass medium through which message can be delivered to wide range of listeners which include both literate and illiterate in a very short time. It can even reach where there is no power supply and covers large section of population.

All India Radio broadcast programmes related to community, agriculture, religious, educational, health and family programmes in regional languages for farmers and rural masses through its regional stations under the features of ‘farm and home units’. Television is an audio-visual electronic medium which is popular and effective means of information, education and entertainment. It is ideal medium to convey information to illiterate and literate in urban and rural areas and reached at shortest time. It covers various programmes like entertainment, agriculture, religious, health and family. It gives essential information and knowledge in order to raise agricultural production and rural development through Krishi Darshan programme. Television and radio play as an important communication tool in the field of agriculture which deliver messages to the farmers living in remote areas upgrade their social status, improve knowledge level and helps to bridge the gap between the scientist and the farmers. It helps people to aware of their needs and influences to adopt innovations. It is also considered to be most effective electronic media for transferring scientific knowledge and modern agricultural technology to the farmers. The farmers can easily understand the messages and can follow the instructions and operations that are given through radio and television. However less number of studies has been conducted so far on utilization of messages from radio and television by the Garo community. In this circumstance a research study was undertaken with the following objectives:
Objectives:

1. To study the usefulness perceived by the respondents from radio and television programmes.
2. To know the socio-economic status of farm women and its relation with utilization of information from radio and television.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was carried out in West Garo Hills of Meghalaya. Two blocks were selected through random sampling method i.e Rongram and Gambegre blocks. Four villages were selected randomly from the two blocks i.e Eden Bari and Masumatagre from Rongram block and Ronggatagre and Rongbilbangre from Gambegre block. A total of 100 women respondents were randomly selected for the study and data is collected through personal interview by using pre-tested semi-structured interview schedule. The data collected from the respondents were converted into coded form, tabulated and scored. The data were analyzed by using appropriate statistical methods such as mean, percentage, frequency distribution and Spearman’s rank correlation. All the statistical analysis has been done by using statistical software like SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 16.0 and MS-Excel Spreadsheet.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

From the Table 1 it is observed that use of information by respondents from radio programmes were ‘News in Garo’ which ranked 1st, followed by ‘Mother’s milk is best for baby’ ranked 2nd, ‘Disaster management on earthquake’ ranked 3rd, ‘Government welfare scheme’ ranked 4th, ‘Cash crop cultivation to prevent soil erosion’ ranked 5th, ‘Self employment through floriculture’ ranked 6th, ‘Nutrition – key to development’ ranked 7th, ‘Disaster Management on flood’ ranked 8th, ‘Role of women in Swachh Bharat Mission’ ranked 9th and ‘Soil and land preparation for horticulture crops’ ranked 10th. The probable reason of maximum used of ‘News in Garo’ programme might be that farm women understand it better in getting information on agriculture and rural development because it is in local language. As all the respondents were women they found it useful the mother and child related programmes.
The data in the Table 2 found that use of information by respondents from television programmes were ‘Health and family welfare’ which ranked 1st, followed by ‘Self help group’ ranked 2nd, ‘Health and nutrition’ ranked 3rd, ‘Importance of antenatal check Up’ ranked 4th, ‘Arts & crafts’ ranked 5th, ‘Integrated farming system’ ranked 6th, ‘Skill development’ ranked 7th, ‘Awareness programme on pesticides for paddy cultivation’ ranked 8th, ‘Mango grafting’ ranked 9th and ‘Self reliance’ ranked 10th. The reason for higher percentage of using ‘health and family welfare’ might be that respondents get information related to health services provides by Government which helps them to improve good health for themselves and also for their family. They also found useful ‘self help group’ programmes might be the reason that they also have interest in income generation, solving problems and participation in group activities.

The results of correlation analysis in Table 3 revealed that there is no significant relationship between the farm women’s socio-economic status like age, major occupation, education, marital status, family size, family type, annual income, primary source of income, land holding and possession of mass media equipment with their utilization of radio and television programmes.

Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to their use of information from radio
n=100

Table 2: Distribution of respondents according to their use of information from television

Sl.No.	Television programmes	Very useful	Useful	Somewhat useful	Least useful	Not useful	Mean	Ranking
1	Health and family welfare	45	55	-	-	-	4.45	I
2	Self help group	41	59	-	-	-	4.41	II
3	Health and nutrition	40	60	-	-	-	4.40	III
4	Importance of antenatal check up	38	56	6	-	-	4.32	IV
5	Arts & crafts	33	65	2	-	-	4.31	V
6	Integrated farming system	30	70	-	-	-	4.30	VI
7	Skill development	28	72	-	-	-	4.28	VII
8	Awareness programme on pesticides for paddy cultivation	27	73	-	-	-	4.27	VIII
9	Mango grafting	26	74	-	-	-	4.26	IX
10	Self reliance	25	75	-	-	-	4.25	X
11	The family - women’s programme	28	68	4	-	-	4.24	XI
12	Farmers training on poultry	25	72	3	-	-	4.22	XII
13	Tuber crops	21	79	-	-	-	4.21	XIII
14	Healthy lifestyle	13	87	-	-	-	4.13	XIV
15	Tomato cultivation	11	83	6	-	-	4.05	XV
16	Success story	19	64	17	-	-	4.02	XVI
17	Hatchery	11	70	19	-	-	3.92	XVII
18	Orange cultivation in Garo Hills	-	87	13	-	-	3.87	XVIII
19	Natural disaster management	8	61	25	6	-	3.71	XIX
20	Importance of aloe vera	-	70	30	-	-	3.70	XX
21	Strawberry cultivation	-	71	27	2	-	3.69	XXI
22	Our universe environmental programme	-	70	28	2	-	3.68	XXII
23	Value of medicinal plants	-	46	47	7	-	3.39	XXIII
24	Crime against women	-	50	37	13	-	3.37	XXIV
25	Employment news	-	41	49	10	-	3.31	XXV

Table 3: Relationship between socio-economic status of the farm women with their utilization of information radio and television
n=100

NS = Non-significant

CONCLUSION

In present study it was felt need to assess the usefulness of radio and television programmes by Garo farm women in the study area. It was revealed from the result that majority of the respondents found the programmes useful that are presented in radio and television. Respondents feel that use of information disseminated by radio and television had a positive impact on agricultural productivity and increased their knowledge level. Radio and television are the useful electronic medium for development farm women living in rural areas.

REFERENCES

Akshaya, K. K. S., & Vijayakumar, K. P. (2017). Role of mass media in disseminating agricultural information to farmers of Nedumangad block in Kerala. Int. J. Information Movement, 2(8), 44-51.
Bisht, K., Sah, P., & Raut, A. A. (2014). Radio: An effective tool in the present context to serve the rural farming community. J. Agricultural Biological Environmental Sci., 1, 1-22.
Devadas, M. B., & Saravanan, V. M. (2015). Television and development of rural women. J. Arts Sci. Commerce, 6(4), 49-56.
Lahiri, B. (2016). Agricultural information seeking behaviour of Garo tribal farmers of Meghalaya, India. Eco. Env. & Cons., 22,227-236.

Patel, N., Chouhan, S., Dwivedi, A., & Raghuwanshi, R. (2016). Usefulness of Krishi Darshan programme in tribal community. Adv. Res. J. Soc. Sci., 7(2), 245-248.