Farmers' Perspectives on Quality of Agricultural Information Delivery: A Comparison between Public and Private Sources

This paper aims at analyzing farmers' responses on quality of agricultural information services provided by public and private sources. The study is based on primary survey of 461 farmers in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh, India, using a structured questionnaire. Farmers' responses on quality of agricultural information services from public and private sources were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique. Findings of the study indicate that private sector information delivery sources provide significantly better quality information to the farming communities as compared to public sector information delivery systems. The results have far reaching implications for designing successful information and extension delivery models by the public, private or by collaborative efforts of the public and the private sector for better extension services delivery.