Kotsiri, Sofia (author), Rejesus, Roderick M. (author), Larkin, Sherry (author), Lambert, Dayton M. (author), English, Burton C. (author), Larson, James A. (author), Velandia, Margarita M. (author), Roberts, Roland K. (author), Mishra, Ashok K. (author), and Paudel, Krishna P. (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2013-02-03
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 186 Document Number: D00900
Notes:
Paper presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, Orlando, Florida, February 3-5, 2013. 31 pages.
30 pages., via online journal., In this article we present and discuss two experiments designed to test the effectiveness of the Internet as a tool of agricultural information. Subjects were cotton producers from Thessaly, Greece. Findings suggest that, in the early stages of an innovation diffusion process, the Internet is more effective than social sources (Experiment 1). However, when urgent situations that force quick decisions occur (Experiment 2), the Internet is significantly less effective than face-to-face communication channels. In both cases, farmers who used the Internet spent more time and devoted extra effort. The experiments proved that agronomists remain the most effective information source. Results also illustrate that Internet adoption is not necessarily synonymous with its use.
