Farmers’ Intention to Use Precision Agriculture Technologies: A TAM Approach

— Precision Agriculture technology is an evolving sector concentrated on improvingproductivity and rural development. Therefore, studying the process of technology adoptionis important to recognize possible strategy that could affect the adoption and dissemination ofprecision farming system. This paper reports investigation into the perception and attitudinalcharacteristics of farmers who have idea to adopt these technologies in Batticaloa District inSri Lanka. The primary data were composed of randomly selected farmers from February toApril 2020 using a questionnaire survey. A Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) wasapplied to explain the adoption and use of precision agricultural techniques by the farmers. AStructural Equation Model (SEM) following a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was usedto identify the relationship between factors. According to the effects of the path estimation,the t-value for each is greater than 1.96 and the p-value for each is less than 0.05, all threehypotheses show statistical significance. In a proposed model, the prediction accuracy ofconstructs is signified by the coefficient of determination (R2) value for Attitude TowardsUsage is 0.34, which means that Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use explain34% of the variance in Attitude Towards Usage. While the R2value for Behavioral Intentionis 0.44 meaning that Attitude Towards Usage can explain 44% of the variance in BehavioralIntention towards Precision Agriculture Technologies. The findings suggest that respondentshave positive perceptions of adopting precision agricultural techniques. Perceived usefulnesshas a positive impact on attitude, and attitudes affect behavioral intention