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RESEARCH ARTICLEJ. Ind. Vet. Assoc., Kerala. 10 (1)husbandry among the Indian farm women is crucialand of significant importance. The present study wastherefore conducted to assess the information needsof rural women in Hisar and Sonepat districts ofHaryana for selecting the messages to be included inan internet based media package on animalhusbandry practices for rural women of Haryana.MATERIALS AND METHODSTo assess the information need of ruralwomen regarding animal husbandry practicesfollowing methodological steps were followed.Hisar and Sonepat districts of Haryana state wereselected randomly. There are 9 blocks in Hisardistrict and 7 blocks in Sonipat district. Out of these,two blocks from each district viz., Hisar I andAdampur blocks were selected at random from Hisardistrict while, Ganaur and Sonepat blocks wereselected from Sonepat district, randomly. From eachof the selected blocks a list of all villages of blockconcerned was prepared and from that list one villagefrom each block viz., Khoka village from Hisar Iblock, Sadalpur village from Adampur block,Purkhas village from Ganaur block and Harsanavillage from Sonepat block were selected randomly.60 rural women who involved in dairy activities fromeach village were selected purposively. Theinterview was conducted only from one female offamily who had been actively involved in rearingbuffaloes. In this way, the total sample for this studywas 240 women. Need was operationalized as theneed of the each respondent related to selectedanimal husbandry practices. For assessing the needof the rural women an inventory pertaining to thecritical messages and sub-messages was prepared inconsultation with experts, relevant literature, libraryand package of practices. In this way, total ninemessages were listed. Each message was ascertainedunder three categories i.e. most needed, needed andleast needed with scores 3, 2 and 1 respectively.Weighted mean scores were worked out for each ofthe nine messages and sub-messages separately. Theranks were assigned according to weighted meanscore and fifty per cent of messages having top fiveranks and 3 sub-messages from each selectedmessages got upper rank were finally selected formedia preparation. Frequency and percentageswhere used to study the profile of the respondents.RESULTSInvolvement of rural women clientele inmessage designing and media production is ofparamount importance in media preparation to avoidany loss of communication. Media effectiveness canbe enhanced only when the messages selected are intune with the need and interest of target audience.Therefore, in present study attempts were made toselect the messages and sub-messages according tothe need of the rural women in consultation withexperts and relevant literature of animal husbandry.In this way total nine messages viz., breeding,feeding, management of cattle shed, health care,preservation of green fodder, clean milk production,farm management and accounting, marketing,animal diseases and their prevention were listed(Table 1) and each message was further divided intosub-messages (Table 2). It was revealed that out ofthese five messages i.e., balanced feeding, breeding,animal diseases and their prevention, farmmanagement and accounting and clean milkproduction had above 2.46 weighted mean scoresand ranked I to V respectively. Thus these fivemessages were selected for media preparation,identified as most needed messages by rural women(Table 1).32