Impact of KSAMBS’ Free SMS to Farmers on Agricultural Marketing Prices- A Case Study in Karnataka (India)

This paper analyzes the impact of Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board (KSAMBs’) free SMS (Short Message Service) to farmers on agricultural marketing prices using primary (from 110 farmers) and secondary information (from KSAMB and NIC). From the secondary data, it was found that about 89.26 percent of the registered users (120071 numbers) were farmers. Results from the primary data showed higher share of SMS beneficiaries in the age group of 25 to 40 years (46.36 %). Further around 95.5 percent of the farmers were educated, who had expressed satisfaction about the SMS information received in local and English languages. Most of the medium and large farmers (52 %) had benefited from selling their produce based on the free SMS on price information. It is interesting to note that about 88.18 percent of the beneficiary farmers had shared the price information to other farmers. A majority of the farmers (80 %) opined that disseminated information was simple, timely, understandable and accurate, which helped them in fetching better price. Results of study provide useful insights to the policy makers for enhancing the benefits as well as further improvement of the service delivery.