Studies On The Status Quo And Haractoristics Of Farmers’Information Behavior In Jiangsu Province

Rural informationization is an important aspect in the development of national economy and social Informationization process. In recent years, as the rural informationization process moves steadily forward, rural informationization infrastructure has been gradually improved. However, new problems have kept on emerging; the focus of rural informationization study has shifted from promoting the level of infrastructure constructions to enhancing the level of both the infrastructure constructions and its application. People start to pay more attention to promoting the level of rural informationization application. As the main body of rural informationization, farmers are considered both participants and beneficiaries. To study farmers’information behavior and to help farmers understand their information needs better can do good to solve these new problems.Jiangsu Province is one of the most developed eastern provinces and its level of rural informationization has been listed in the forefront of the country. It not only takes the lead to conduct broadband installation in every village, but also initially establishes an information service system in rural areas which is mainly for agricultural sector and with other sectors’participation. However, due to the different developing levels in the southern, central and northern Jiangsu, the developments of rural informationization are in different stages accordingly and there have been various features existing in farmers’ information behaviors. This paper first conducts a research on farmers’ information behaviors in Jiangsu province. Then it gives an analysis of the similarities and differences of information behaviors in different rural areas of Jiangsu. Finally, it proposes problems in its rural informationization process and comes up with specific recommendations.The paper first gives an overview on both domestic and oversea studies which focus on the status quo of farmers’ information behavior and information behavior theory model in the field of Information Science. With a reference of the information behavior model in the field of Information Science, it builds a farmers’ information behavior model. The paper consists of four major topics:the behavior of rural residents on realizing and expressing their demand of information, inquiring about information, using information and exchanging information.As the second step,500rural residents were chosen from northern, southern and central areas of Jiangsu Province as subjects of a questionnaire survey to investigate the four topics mentioned above. The results were used to analyze and compare the similarities and differences among rural residents in the three areas. It has been found out after the survey analysis that rural residents in southern Jiangsu Province tend to be more active and dynamic on information behavior while their counterparts in northern area of Jiangsu Province are comparatively more conventional (backwards) and passive. On a whole picture, rural residents in Jiangsu Province require mainly three kinds of information: service for everyday life, news and current affairs, relaxation and entertainment; their channels to gain information centralized on conventional ways, such as television, newspaper, and messages passed from mouth to mouth; most of their information is obtained at home and exchanged with their families, friends and relatives Despite the fact that mobile phones and internet have achieved an increasing status in rural residents’ life as latest medium means which are used more and more widely, efforts are still needed to implement the information service system in rural areas considering the relatively low usage rate of the up-to-date information methods.Finally, suggestions about how to advance the rural informationization in Jiangsu rural areas are put forward based on the survey results, which are concerned with considering the practical information demand of rural residents, paying more attention to planning as a whole, putting more efforts on training and guiding, strengthening the building of informational talents team, and investing more into the establishment of agricultural websites and firms. At the same time, this paper provides supports to government’s decision-making by proposing the pertinent policy combined with the rural residents’ information behavior traits.