Research On Farmers' Agricultural Information Perception Along China Pakistan Economic Corridor

Information is necessary and most important segment for rapid growth and development especially in agricultural sector.Timely,adequate and market-based latest agricultural information are key to increase knowledge of farmers.Multiple stakeholders(agricultural extension,research institution,public private sector,etc.)are involved for providing agricultural information to the farmers.However,farmers have very limited access of information to adopt and poorest livelihood.Whereas,Pakistani farmers and multiple stakeholders have sufficient potential in their fields which needs to enhance their capability by agricultural information perception and exploring the current situation in different zones.On the other side,China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC);flagship project of Belt and Road(BRI)is initiated by joint effort of Chinese President Xi Ji Ping and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan with special focus to improve socio-economic and agricultural development of Pakistani farmers.In this context,firstly,interview-based survey was personally conducted at their farm,home or work place through simple random and cluster sampling techniques during June-December,2017.Whereas,particular exploration and internet sources utilized at the second phase.Afterward,data analyzed in descriptive and inferential statistics manner through SPSS V.25 to find out Karl Pearson correlation and used to test Chi-Square,Phi + Cramer's V and Effect Size;Past Software in which “Vegan Package” V.3.1.1 used to find out the effect size of diversified factors on the income of farmers through(Detrended Correspondence Analysis,DCA)and(Canonical Correspondence Analysis,CCA).It is find that D.G.Khan and Muzaffargarh farmers' situation about agricultural information perception in Pakistan is more worse than Chakwal and Rawalpindi while medium in Sargodha districts respectively due to following points perceived by farmers: a)majority of them are illiterate and have small landholding with low farm productivity and also get average annual income from personal experience;b)they have agricultural source of income only and adopt traditional farming pattern for farm operations;c)farmers have limited awareness in modern information sources(ICTs)and lack of acquaintance with agricultural staff;d)they get very low quality of information in farm products,techniques,forecasts,public policy and agricultural marketing;e)traditional extension methods are used to provide agricultural information and farmers have very limited electronic media such as radio,tvchannels,mobile phone and internet for getting agricultural information in local languages;f)understanding of broadcasts information levels is near to average but its satisfaction level is very low.Additionally,it highlights that there are 8 radio,6 tv programs(in which CPEC Time on Top),5 public and 5 private mobile phone services,4 internet websites,various accounts of YouTube,Facebook and Twitters,sites available for farmers provision of information and problem solving in Punjab.On the results basis,it would be recommended that most practical,timely,adequate,marketbased simplest form of agricultural innovative information should provide to the farmers at their doorstep through stakeholders by establishing friendly environment in modern ways of communication.Scholars and agricultural extension personnel should minimize the difference by joint efforts to improve the situation that lack of cooperation between research wings and field areas.Both State governments and International development organizations should install agriculturally based industries,modernized farming,and create atmosphere for local farmers to contribute their share in special economic zones on the route of belt and road initiative with multilateral cooperation to make the world prosperous.The innovative point of study is its methodology that designed first time to explore,visualize and understand farmers situation along CPEC route with respect to agricultural information perception by Pakistani farmers,which are living in diversified areas of Punjab province.Moreover,it highlights the potential contribution of CPEC for socio-economic and agricultural development.