Utility of e-peek pahani mobile app as perceived by the user farmers

The present study was undertaken with objectives to find out the utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile app as perceived by users and to find out the problems faced by the user’s farmer in usages of E-Peek Pahani mobile app and to invite their suggestions for its improvement. A total 120 respondents were selected as sample respondents for the study. Ex- post-facto research design was used for the research study. Data was gathered using a well- structured interview classified and tabulated. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to interpret and draw conclusions. The study reveals a medium level of utility perception among the majority (48.33%), with significant percentages finding the app useful for various agricultural operations. However, challenges such as lack of knowledge on app usage (61.67%), insufficient mobile-app grievance redressal centers (58.33%), and issues with network connectivity (49.17%) and power supply (48.33%) were identified as major impediments. Suggestions for improvement include updating the app for faster operation, organizing hands-on training, providing pictorial usage guides, extending the self-correction facility for crop registration, and mandating the registration of trees on embankments. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to enhance the usability and effectiveness of the E-Peek Pahani app, aiming for greater adoption and satisfaction among farmers.

Illustrations explain the paper; charts are replotted from the paper's own table values.

AI-generated illustration

↗ Enlarge

Barriers to App AdoptionClose ×

AI-generated conceptual illustration (Indian farmers in a rural field with smartphones). It explains the idea and does not show study data.

Open full-size image ↗

Replotted from source data

↗ Enlarge

Percentage: Low (Up to 6) vs Medium (7 to 8) vs High (9 & above)Close ×

Replotted from Table 2 (page 3) of the original paper. Every bar is the paper's own table value.

Open full-size image ↗

Replotted from source data

↗ Enlarge

Percentage: Lack of confidence in... vs Uneven power supply vs Poor network... vs Lack of proper... vs Lack of skill to use...Close ×

Replotted from Table 3 (page 3) of the original paper. Every bar is the paper's own table value.

Open full-size image ↗

Introduction

The feature phone market in India is the second largest in the world, accounting for around 30 percent of the market's overall volume. India had 720 million mobile phone subscribers in 2015, of which 320 million were in rural areas. Additionally, 50 million Smartphone users with internet connection were included in this estimation. This share in rural India would increase to 48 percent by 2020, predicts the Boston Consulting Group research "The Rising Connected Consumer in Rural India." The Indian government recently took some actions that could hasten this outcome. Hon'ble Shri. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, introduced Digital India in 2015 with the goal of empowering people via the promotion of digital literacy and the development of digital infrastructure. The state government has started E-Peek Pahani application in association with Tata Trust, Hon. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at a function held on 28 th June 2018. The Government has issued Government Resolutions and related orders from time to time for the implementation of the project. The farmers themselves can download this app and register their crops in the field. The exact location of the farmer's field is noted properly in the app. The farmers can upload real time photographs of the crops through their mobile phones by using the GPS system. The Google map and geotagging not accepted false information. Talathi is verify the information within two weeks and register information about the status of crop and other related things on 7/12. This app is attached to land records department. The talathi will check the information recorded by the farmers. The relevant information is then be submitted to the government. As a result, the government will get accurate information of the area under various crops. Therefore, what crops are sown on the area? and how much produce can they get? It is possible for the government to make pre-planning decisions in this regard marketing and price policy. As the benefits of E-Peek Pahani application are as follows; the information in the E-Peek Pahani project is very useful for the direct benefit of any scheme payable to the farmers, accurate statistics of area under crop by village, taluka, district and division are easily available. So, this data useful for implementation of various governments agricultural scheme, such as micro-irrigation scheme, PM Kusum scheme. It is useful for crop loan and crop lose management, as the account wise and crop wise area list becomes available, the employment guarantees and education tax payable by the farmer can be fixed. Accountwise crop inspection enable account-wise crop lending, crop insurance or crop loss compensation. Agricultural statistical www.extensionjournal.com data useful for deciding policy regarding MSP, storage agriculture products marketing. Utility perception is operationally defined as, degree of usefulness of E-Peek Pahani perceived by respondents, utility perception refers to the act of perceiving. It is processed by which an individual perceived information of stimuli from our environment and translate psychological awareness. Perception of any individual toward any object or technologies will be influenced by his motivates and education.

Materials and Methods

The present study was conducted during the year 2022-23 in the Parbhani and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district were selected for study. Two talukas viz., Selu, Gangakhed from the Parbhani district. And two talukas viz., Phulambri and Sillod from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district were selected. Eight villages were randomly selected from four talukas. Fifteen users of E-Peek Pahani mobile app were selected randomly from each village. A total of 120 respondents were selected as sample respondents for the study. Ex-post facto research design was used for the research study. Data was gathered using a well-structured interview classified and tabulated. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to interpret and draw conclusions.

Results and Discussion 1. Utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile App as perceived by the users

The data regarding statement wise utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile app perceived by its users is presented in Table 1. Regarding utility of E-Peek Pahani for streamlining registration of information of crop sown on 7/12 extract, majority of respondents (47.5%) expressed that E-Peek Pahani is useful for it. E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' for availing various government facilities and plans related to agriculture expressed by (60.00%) respondents. It was observed that E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' for facilitating agricultural credit policy expressed by (55.83%) respondents. E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' to getting accurate compensation and proper assistance in case of crop damage due to natural calamities expressed by (62.50%) respondents. E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' to getting accurate compensation and proper assistance in case of crop damage due to natural calamities expressed by (62.50%) respondents. For simplifying the process of settlement of crop insurance and crop inspection claims E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' expressed by (57.50%) respondents. In case of marketing of agricultural produce under Price Supper Scheme (PSS) of NAFED, it was revealed that E-Peek Pahani is 'somewhat useful' for marketing of agricultural produce under PSS of NAFED expressed by (65.83%) respondents. It was also found that E-Peek Pahani is 'useful' for availing the benefits of PM Kusum Yojana of Solar Water Pumping expressed by (45.00%) respondents. Majority of the respondents possessed medium level utility perception (48.33%). While 30.83 percent and 20.83 percent of the respondents in high and low utility perception of E-Peek Pahani mobile app.

Sr. No	Statement wise Utility Perception of E-Peek Pahani Mobile App	Useful	—	Somewhat useful	—	Not useful	—
		Frequency	%	Frequency	%	Frequency	%
1	Streamlining registration of information of crop sown on 7/12 extract	57	47.50	53	44.17	10	08.33
2	Availing various government facilities and plans related to agriculture	38	31.67	72	60.00	10	08.33
3	Facilitating agricultural credit policy	39	32.50	67	55.83	14	11.67
4	Getting accurate compensation and proper assistance in case of crop damage due to natural calamities	13	10.83	75	62.50	32	26.67
5	Simplifying the process of settlement of crop insurance and crop inspection claims	22	18.33	69	57.50	29	24.17
6	Marketing of agricultural produce under Price Supper Scheme (PSS) of NAFED	26	21.67	79	65.83	15	12.50
7	Availing the benefits of PM Kusum Yojana of Solar Water Pumping	54	45.00	53	44.17	13	10.83

Table text extracted from the original PDF; superscript letters are shown inline. The original table image is below.

View original table image

↗ Enlarge

Table 1Close ×

Distribution of respondents according to their utility perception of E-Peek Pahani mobile app (N=120)

Open full-size image ↗

Original paper tableSource PDF · page 3 ↗

Overall utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile App as perceived by the user

The present study indicated that majority of the respondents (48.33%) had medium utility perception, followed by high utility perception (30.83%) and low utility perception (20.83%) category. Thus, the overall utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile App was medium as perceived by its user. The data regarding Overall utility of E-Peek Pahani mobile App as perceived by the user. Is presented in Table 2.

Sr. No.	Utility Perception	Frequency	Percentage
1	Low (Up to 6)	25	20.83
2	Medium (7 to 8)	58	48.33
3	High (9 & above)	37	30.83

Table text extracted from the original PDF; superscript letters are shown inline. The original table image is below.

View original table image

↗ Enlarge

Table 2Close ×

Distribution of respondents according to their overall utility perception (N=120)

Open full-size image ↗

Original paper tableSource PDF · page 3 ↗

Problems faced by the user's farmer in usages of E-Peek Pahani mobile app and to invite their suggestions for its improvement

Another important dimension of the study was to identify the factor or problem which were responsible for leading to utility perception of E-Peek Pahani. It is observed that maximum number of users faced problem of lack of proper knowledge about how to use the app (61.67%) followed by problem about lack of mobile-app grievance redressal centers (58.33%), Lack of skill to use the app (51.67%), Poor network connectivity (49.17%), uneven power supply (48.33%), a negative view of using the app (45.00%) and Lack of confidence in handling of E-Peek Pahani mobile app (44.17%).

Suggestions of the respondents about improvement in E-Peek Pahani Mobile App

It was observed that majority of the suggestion given by respondents in order to increase the utility Perception of E-Peek Pahani Mobile App. Majority of the respondents (81.67%) suggested that the need to update E-Peek Pahani mobile app, as it takes lots of time to open even in better internet connectivity. While 63.83 percent of respondents suggested hands-on training on proper utilization of E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be organized. Whereas 60.83 percent respondents suggested that provide a pictorial explanation of utilization of E-Peek Pahani mobile app in the village. While 49.17 percent of the respondents suggested to duration of selfcorrection facility of crop registration in E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be extended. Whereas 42.50 percent of the respondents suggested to mandatory to register the trees on the embankment through E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be done. The findings of the study are in line with the findings of Lad (2014) [3] , Mangal Shinde (2016) [2] and Pawar et al. (2020) [1] .

Figures and tables from the paper

Sr. No.	Constraints	Frequency	Percentage	Rank
1	Lack of confidence in handling of E-Peek Pahani mobile app	53	44.17	VII
2	Uneven power supply	58	48.33	V
3	Poor network connectivity	59	49.17	IV
4	Lack of proper knowledge about how to use the app.	74	61.67	I
5	Lack of skill to use the app	62	51.67	III
6	A negative view of using mobile app.	54	45.00	VI
7	Lack of mobile-app grievance redressal centers	70	58.33	II

Table text extracted from the original PDF; superscript letters are shown inline. The original table image is below.

View original table image

↗ Enlarge

Table 3Close ×

Constraints faced by the user’s farmer in usages of E-Peek Pahani mobile (N=120)

Open full-size image ↗

Original paper tableSource PDF · page 3 ↗

Sr. No.	Suggestions	Frequency	Percentage	Rank
1	Hands-on training on proper utilization of E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be organized	79	65.83	II
2	Duration of self – correction facility of crop registration in E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be extended	59	49.17	IV
3	Need to update E-Peek Pahani mobile app, as it takes lots of time to open even in better internet connectivity	98	81.67	I
4	Provide a pictorial explanation of utilization of E-Peek Pahani mobile app in the village	73	60.83	III
5	It is mandatory to register the trees on the embankment through E-Peek Pahani mobile app should be done	51	42.50	V

Table text extracted from the original PDF; superscript letters are shown inline. The original table image is below.

View original table image

↗ Enlarge

Table 4Close ×

Suggestions for improvement in E-Peek Pahani Mobile App (N=120)

Open full-size image ↗

Original paper tableSource PDF · page 3 ↗

1. Pawar HY, Kapse PS, Puri SG. Utility of AgroTech VNMKV mobile app by the user farmers. International Journal of Current Microbiology & Applied Sciences. 2020;9(4):1280-1285.
2. Mangal Shinde. Utility perception of VNMKV calendar by the readers (Master's Thesis), M.A.U, Parbhani, 2016.
3. Lad AS. Utility perception of mass media by farm women. (Doctorate Dissertation), M.A.U, Parbhani, 2014.
4. Smith J, Johnson A. Assessing the utility of the E-Peek Pahani mobile app: A farmer perspective study. J Agric. Inform. 2022;15(2):45-58.
5. Brown L, Davis M. User satisfaction and utility assessment of the E-Peek Pahani mobile app among farmers in rural areas. Int. J Agric. Technol. 2023;9(1):112-125.
6. Patel R, Singh S. Perceived utility and challenges of using the E-Peek Pahani mobile app: A case study of smallholder farmers in India. J Mobile Appl. Agric. 2023;7(3):78-91.