A Model for the Adoption and Acceptance of Mobile Farming Platforms (MFPs) by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe
Fine Masimba, Tranos Zuva · Lecture notes in networks and systems · 2022
The use of mobile technology has continued to rise in Zimbabwe, and farmers now can obtain agricultural information through the use of mobile technology. The potential of mobile phones in agriculture gave birth to mAgriculture, which is the use of mobile technology to provide agricultural information and services. Various technological start-up companies in Zimbabwe have developed mobile farming platforms as a means of increasing overall performance among smallholder farmers. Unfortunately, most of these mobile farming platforms have not achieved their much-anticipated impact on farmers due to low acceptance which can be attributed to the incompleteness of the available technology acceptance models. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by proposing a more comprehensive model that extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) by incorporating two key factors which are attitude and cultural moderators. Structural Equation Modelling was utilized to test the hypothesized conceptual model, in a quantitative study conducted in Zimbabwe. As hypothesized, the findings of this study revealed that the constructs in the model were found to be significant determinants of behavioral intention and usage. The results also showed that cultural values have a moderating effect on user acceptance of mobile farming platforms.