Abstract

The advent of modern Information Technology & Communication (ITC) such as telephony or the Internet holds unprecedented opportunities for rural development. Researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs alike frequently claim that ITC represent one of the most powerful tools in the struggle against poverty. Modern Information Technology & Communication (ITC) and web based marketing of agricultural produce hold great promise for the socio-economic development of rural hinterlands in India. However, if they are to serve the `unserved’ and spawn innovation at grass root level their implementation must be carefully localized.

Most experts agree to it that the Web will have a great impact on the way rural marketing would be conducted in the future, yet there has been little research towards exploring the effectiveness of the provision of agriculture-related and rural marketing information in the electronic form. This effort is made to study few popular agricultural websites in some key areas of information provision maintained by government departments and agencies, private profit-motivated as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and to identify the barriers to communication. The study will be useful for developing better electronic commerce networks and e-commerce trading platforms for rural marketing.

[1] Asst Professor, APPA Institute of Engineering & Technology, Department of MBA – Gulbarga, Karanataka.