Impact of Communication on Livelihood of Tribal Goat Farmers of Kandhamal District in Odisha, India

The present study was conducted to find out the intensity of communication of tribal goat farmers with different stakeholders to improve their livelihood. Kandhamal district of Odisha was purposively selected for the study as this district is highly concentrated with local goats. From randomly selected four blocks of the district, four villages were also selected randomly from each block. Thereafter, seven goat farmers from each village were selected randomly which constitute the sample size of 112 goat farmers for the study. The data for the study was collected personally by the researcher with the help of pre-tested interview schedule. The study employed ex-post facto research design to capture field data. Communication impact a component of overall livelihood impact was measured with the help of 10 validated statements in a five-point Likert type scale with scores on a continuum with 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) for each of the statement. The study revealed that the farmers exposure to mass media, and interactions with professionals of veterinary department has increased due to goat farming. However, their overall communication impact is medium in nature indicating that the important stakeholders including government agencies involved in promotion of goat farming in the tribal areas should put emphasis on improving the communication ability of the famers which will be useful to them to access relevant information for strengthening their livelihood.