Customers' attitude towards agro based benefits provided by the telecommunication operators in Bangladesh

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to find out attitude of users only towards agro based benefits provided by telecommunication operators in Bangladesh. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy of Bangladesh which provides 63% employment and contributing 18.6% to the national GDP. But unfortunately the farmer's community is one of the most deprived ones in the country and frequent access to information remains one of the crying needs for a long time period. It can enable them to enhance their quality of life. It has been argued that telecommunication operators can come to aid in this respect. Telecommunications operators have already expanded their services and provided specialized agro-based services to the farmers. It also explored the characteristics of the user's and their perception. Data were collected from 120 respondents who were the users of telecommunication operators in Bangladesh. The data were collected through a structured interview schedule. Evidence from interviews suggests that most of the users were young, had little farming experience with small farm size and from small to medium families. These services were treated helpful to overcome their obstacles to information collection but still not efficient like the means they use to collect information traditionally. They want information in various fields of agriculture especially in the area of price, weather information, cultivation technique, disease treatment, fertilizer dose etc. Small farmers found it as a very effective any of information service especially in case of emergency situation and due to its cost effectiveness. But the mechanism need to use this services found sometimes difficult especially for the illiterate farmers. From this research, students other researchers and policy makers will get an insight about the ‘Users attitude towards agro based services provide by the telecommunication operators in Bangladesh.

Key Words: Attitude, Agro, Services, Telecommunication, Bangladesh.