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RESEARCH ARTICLEANALYSIS OF INFORMATION NEEDS FOR DEVELOPING A MEDIAPROTOCOL IN SELECTED DISTRICTS OFHARYANA IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY PRACTICES*1 2 3S. Sreehari , H.K. Gulati and A.K. VarmaLala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Hisar*Part of Ph.D thesis submitted by first author to LLRUVAS, HisarABSTRACTThe present study was conducted in Haryana state. Sixty rural women from each Khoka, Sadalpur,Purkhas and Harsana villages were selected randomly for assessing information needs of rural womenregarding animal husbandry practices. On the basis of weighted mean scores and ranks messages having highfive ranks and three sub-messages from each selected messages got higher rank were finally selected for mediapreparation. Selected messages were breeding, balanced feeding, animal diseases and their prevention, farmmanagement and accounting and clean milk production in descending order of mean scores. Under balancedfeeding, feeding management got ranked second with weighted mean score 2.79. Balanced ration and itscomposition ranked third with weighted mean score 2.70. Mineral mixture feeding in animal feed withweighted mean score 2.9 got ranked first. Time of insemination got rank first with weighted mean score 2.15and the sub-message symptoms of heat got rank second with weighted mean score 2.19 among sub-messagesrelated to breeding. Among sub-messages related to animal diseases first three ranks went to foot and mouthdisease (I, 2.69), Wound treatment (II, 2.50) and Tympany/bloat (III, 2.15).INTRODUCTIONWomen in India play a predominant role inagriculture and food provisioning and subsistenceagricultural activities. The 'silent majority' of theworld's poor are women. They face peculiar social,cultural, educational, political and allied problems.Studies have shown that although rural womenproduce up to 80 per cent of food in developingcountries, yet they have title to only a fraction of farmland and access to ten percent of credit and five per1. Veterinary Surgeon , Veterinary Dispensary, Pudukad,Thrissur.2. Professor, Department of Livestock ProductionManagement, College of Veterinary Sciences, Hisar.3. Professor & Head, Department of Livestock ProductionManagement, College of Veterinary Sciences, Hisar.cent of extension advice (Agarwal, 2003). Ruralwomen's access to agricultural extension servicesworldwide is only about 1/20th of that of men, andtechnology is rarely designed specifically to addressthe women's needs. In India, out of 88,000 villageextension workers, only about 10 percent (9,000) arefemale (NRCWA, 2007). No training would bringdesirable changes in the behaviour of farm womenunless it is need and interest based. The media isplaying an important role in passing on meaningfulinformations at faster rate to the large number of farmwomen in our country. It has emerged as one of thepowerful sources of seeking relevant scientificinformation by our farm women, therefore, tappingand utilizing media for transferring the newlygenerated technologies in agriculture and animalJIVA Vol. 10 Issue 1 April 201231