Dissemination of Personalized Agricultural Knowledge for Farmers in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is predominately an agricultural country. To feed her 160 million people from 8.2 million hectares of cultivable land is a tough task. 15, 089,000 families out of total 17,600,804 families are directly or indirectly involve with the agriculture. Every year, almost 0.20 million people are being added to the total population whereas the estimated annual shrinkage of agricultural land is about 0.08 million hectares due to various non-agricultural activities like constructions of houses, roads, etc. In 1971, agriculture was the first contributor to the GDP 71% which is currently 20.60%. In terms of employment, agriculture still remains to the largest source. To continue the sustainable agricultural development, farmers need updated knowledge. Currently they have various sources to get knowledge as like TV, mobile phone, radio, private group and so on. However, 60% farmers are still expecting knowledge from the government agriculture extension officers. But it is quite difficult to disseminate personalize agricultural knowledge for 12,000 extension officers to 16 million farmers around the country. This research will identify the existing gap for getting agricultural knowledge from the most preferable sources and propose the improved service design which can support to disseminate personalize agricultural knowledge for farmers in Bangladesh.