Barriers to the adoption of new technologies in rural areas: The case of unmanned aerial vehicles for precision agriculture in India
Barriers to the adoption of new technologies in rural areas: The case of unmanned aerial vehicles for precision agriculture in India
Technological advances can significantly transform agrarian rural areas by increasing productivity and efficiency while reducing labour intensive processes. For instance, the usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can offer flexibility collecting real-time information of the crops enabling farmers to take timely decisions. However, little is known about the barriers to the adoption of such technologies by rural farmers in emerging economies like India. Building on an extensive literature review, focussed group discussions, and field visits, the barriers impacting the adoption are identified and classified into technical, social, behavioural, operational, economic, and implementation categories. The relevance of each barrier and its importance is evaluated using a hybrid multi-criteria framework built on the theory of Fuzzy Delphi and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process to identify the most crucial barriers to the adoption of UAVs to implement precision agriculture in rural India. The paper suggests new avenues for accelerating technology adoption in rural areas of emerging economies.
Drones, Precision agriculture, Rural areas, Technology adoption, Unmanned aerial vehicles
Puppala, Harish
a549d602-402a-4727-b700-e8ac7c781e8a
Peddinti, Pranav R.T.
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Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan
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Ahuja, Jaya
d7051898-22dc-47d3-9a60-ca7bc942cce2
Kim, Byungmin
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August 2023
Puppala, Harish
a549d602-402a-4727-b700-e8ac7c781e8a
Peddinti, Pranav R.T.
da272a8d-f5ad-4e79-8e88-db3e36b7a2d6
Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan
767d0374-3cc1-4822-adb6-f22b7a1f6531
Ahuja, Jaya
d7051898-22dc-47d3-9a60-ca7bc942cce2
Kim, Byungmin
bde6da97-8f9a-4778-97f0-3aa9b0c828bd
Puppala, Harish, Peddinti, Pranav R.T., Tamvada, Jagannadha Pawan, Ahuja, Jaya and Kim, Byungmin
(2023)
Barriers to the adoption of new technologies in rural areas: The case of unmanned aerial vehicles for precision agriculture in India.
Technology in Society, 74, [102335].
(doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102335).
Abstract
Technological advances can significantly transform agrarian rural areas by increasing productivity and efficiency while reducing labour intensive processes. For instance, the usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can offer flexibility collecting real-time information of the crops enabling farmers to take timely decisions. However, little is known about the barriers to the adoption of such technologies by rural farmers in emerging economies like India. Building on an extensive literature review, focussed group discussions, and field visits, the barriers impacting the adoption are identified and classified into technical, social, behavioural, operational, economic, and implementation categories. The relevance of each barrier and its importance is evaluated using a hybrid multi-criteria framework built on the theory of Fuzzy Delphi and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process to identify the most crucial barriers to the adoption of UAVs to implement precision agriculture in rural India. The paper suggests new avenues for accelerating technology adoption in rural areas of emerging economies.
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drones
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Accepted/In Press date: 23 July 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 July 2023
Published date: August 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We thank the editor Charla Griffy-Brown and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments and feedback. We thank the experts from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and and other government research organisations who have actively participated in the focus group discussions.. We thank the Centre for Drone Technology and the Centre for Geospatial Technology, SRM University AP, for providing the necessary support for this research project
Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants for the Brain Pool Projects ( 2022H1D3A2A01096145 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
Keywords:
Drones, Precision agriculture, Rural areas, Technology adoption, Unmanned aerial vehicles
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 481089
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481089
ISSN: 0160-791X
PURE UUID: a88f6ab9-8524-4100-a527-2fad13b612a1
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Date deposited: 15 Aug 2023 16:46
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:26
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Contributors
Author:
Harish Puppala
Author:
Pranav R.T. Peddinti
Author:
Jaya Ahuja
Author:
Byungmin Kim
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