Assessment of information seeking behaviour and constraints in obtaining information of public and private aquaculture extension personnel

The study assessed the information sources, information seeking behaviour and constraints in obtaining information of public and private aquaculture extension personnel in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states of India. A structured and pre-tested interview schedule was used for data collection from a total of 120 extension personnel comprising 60 each in public and private sectors in the study area. Results showed that staff training institutions of their department were the major information source for majority of the public extension personnel (85.00%) whereas fellow technicians (83.33%) and the research wing of their company (80.00%) were the primary information sources. Furthermore age, higher education, vast experience and more participation in training programmes were the major factors influencing the information-seeking behaviour of the extension personnel. The results also revealed that major constraint in information-seeking behaviour of public and private extension personnel was lack of time to seek information from various resources.