Impact of Mass Media on Agricultural Development A case study of Toloikon village, Kara Suu region, Osh oblast, Kyrgyzstan <Research Note>

The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of mass media on agricultural development, what benefits farmers can get from mass media. Addressing of these issues may influence on increase of the level of knowledge among farmers which in turn may lead to efficient agricultural production in the country. The study was conducted in Toloikon village, Kara Suu region of Osh oblast by randomly selecting 84 farmers living and working in the selected village and by using the questionnaire to collect the preliminary data, as well as by conducting the content analysis of 9 print versions of newspapers printed within the same time and disseminated in the target area. The study shows that respondents under 45 years old (29%) prefer television, television news, programs, talk shows and 9% of farmers listen to the radio in order to get agricultural information. 13% of respondents whose age is between 25 and 30 prefer to use internet, referring to the fact that they can get any information related to agriculture in very short time and many variants in comparison with televisions and print media. But other of respondents whose age is between 40 and 55 still believe that print media (books, newspapers and magazines) has positive educational influence and suggest to develop print media as a tool to disseminate agricultural technologies among farmers, so they prefer print media to get agricultural information.