Farmers' perspectives on the adoption of smart farming technology to support food farming in Aceh Province, Indonesia

Abstract

The possible future challenge for food agriculture development led to the transition from conventional to modern agricultural management using smart farming technology (SFT). Some factors detaining the use of SFT for food commodities, specifically in small farmers' communities, are global climate change, low-quality human resources of farmers, and extension workers. Small farmers generally have relatively small land, limited access to capital and farming input, and grow different kinds of commodities according to seasons. This research examined the adoption readiness in using SFT for three food commodities in Aceh Province, Indonesia, namely rice, maize, and potatoes. The sample comprises 70 farmers per commodity and 48 extension workers, obtained through the quota sampling method, culminating in 258 respondents. The readiness measurement for SFT adoption was conducted by introducing various models, images, videos, and RITX applications. The collected data were investigated and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis for two or more categories. The result showed that both farmers and extension workers have a positive perception of the application of SFT. However, in terms of readiness, farmers have a relatively lower readiness level than the extension workers due to their low capacity. This means it is essential to focus on the economic and capacity building of farmers by providing them with appropriate SFT devices to overcome the high investment cost and provide the technical skill for its application to overcome this situation.