A study on adoption of e-commerce practices among the Indian farmers with specific reference to North Gujarat region

Abstract

Across the world, there is a continuation of the impressive growth of retail e-commerce. Since the e-commerce sector in\rcountry like India is rapidly growing, changes can be seen over a year. Many players from country as well as international\reconomy have been attracted towards e-commerce business. In the year 2015, estimated size of retail e-commerce sales in the\rworld is 994.5 US$ billions while same in country like India is only 22 US$ billions which reveals lesser contribution even\rhaving second largest populated economy in the world. In order to enhance the e-commerce market in the country, it is\rnecessary to involve people from different sections of society. One of them is rural India especially farmers who transacts for\rmillions of transactions in agricultural sector. Therefore, it is very imperative to study the factors influencing adoption of ecommerce\rpractices by farmers in India. E-commerce jaints like Alibaba.com, Amazone, Flipkart, Snapdeal and other local\rplayers have started many practices which are useful and beneficial to Indian farmers. In this study, data was collected from\r310 farmers of Mehsana and Banaskantha districts of north region of Gujarat State. Data was analyzed using multiple\rregression technique of data analysis. The results of the study revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, self\refficacy, trust and technical skill and resources highly influence attitude of farmers for adoption of e-commerce practices\rwhich in turn affect intension of farmers towards adoption of e-commerce practices. Among all, technical skill and available\rresources to farmers is prime concern to adoption.