Factors Influencing the Adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among Oil Palm Settlers in Felda Wilayah Alor Setar, Kedah: A Survey

Abstract

In today's age of modernization, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a part and play a great role in the development of agriculture sector. The ICT revolution has brought significant implication in agricultural development where farmers can directly communicate with traders, government and buyers. However, due to lack of knowledge and information, oil palm settlers are not getting the benefits from these technologies. To further understand this, a study was conducted to find out the adoption, usage level and factor influence the adoption of ICTs among oil palm settlers. This article proposed a conceptual framework that was constructed from two main constructs such as technology and demographic factors. The proposed framework underpinned diffusion of innovation framework that was introduced by Rogers' (2003) which five major attributes: relative advantages, compatibility, simplicity, trialability, and observability. 211 respondents were answering the questionnaire in this study and the measurement of internal consistency shows the Cronbach's alpha result α = 0.933, which considered as accepted reliability value. All constructs show a positive significant coefficient of multiple correlations result, r = 0.87, which means all constructs have strong positive multiple correlations with the ICT adoption except complexity. Results revealed that majority of the respondents were males (84.4%), a high percentage (65.4%) of adoption level and usage level (76.8%). As a conclusion, the proposed conceptual framework may consider as a basic foundation for general ICT adoption overview in the perspective of Malaysia agriculture industry.