Factors Inhabiting ICTs usage among Farmers: Comparative Analysis from Pakistan and China

Abstract

The current study aimed to provide comparative analysis between Pakistan and China regarding factors inhabiting ICTs usage by farmers. Population of this study contained two categories. Firstly, the population was comprised of PunjabprovinceofPakistanselected purposively. Secondly, population comprises ofHebeiprovinceofChinaselected purposively as the study province. For this purpose 160 respondents were selected from eight villages of Punjab province inPakistanand 122 respondents were selected from six villages ofHebeiprovince inChina. The results revealed that there is significant influence of socio-economic characteristics like age, education, and income and sources of farmers inPakistanwith compare toChina. In case of Pakistan information and communication technologies used by farming community are in the form of telephone (6.25%), mobile (100%), computer (38.12%), internet (11.88%), TV (80.63%), radio (10.63%) and newspaper (7.5%) while in case of China rural farmers are using telephone (18.03%), mobile (99.18%), computer (29.51%), internet (17.21%), TV (99.18%), radio (9.02%) and newspaper (3.28%) of farmers have no opinion. Keeping in view the results the government ofPakistanshould concentrate on efficient use of computer and internet. Similarly, government ofChinashould also concentrate on best use of computer and internet towards adoption of advanced technologies.