The number of Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, translating into a 30 per cent growth, primarily driven by farmers going online to check their e-mail.

The number of active Internet users in rural India will swell to 5.4 million in 2010, a growth of 30 per cent from 3.3 million in 2008, according to a research study jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB).

Active Internet users are those which have gone online in the last 30 days.

The study also reveals that after communications, 67 per cent of rural users access music and video over the Internet.

About 48 per cent of the people claim to have used the Internet for educational research and 42 per cent claim they used it for general information search.

The report further highlights that about 13 per cent of the people use the Internet for knowing more about latest farming techniques and 8 per cent of the people use the Internet to find out more about fertilisers and pesticides.

"This is an important point to note considering the importance of farming in rural India. If there are Internet-related initiatives with farming as a focus, these could certainly trigger Internet literacy to rise faster," the report added.