Awareness and Acceptance of the Internet of Things (IOT) among Agropreneurs

The increasing demand to adopt technological innovations in agriculture to improve productivity to make the sector sustainable calls for the importance of adopting the Internet of Things among agropreneurs. This study explores the awareness and acceptance of IoT technology among agropreneurs within Melaka, Malaysia. The structured questionnaire was administered to a total of 201 agropreneurs registered under FAMA and Yoshii Agro Care Enterprise. In this study, descriptive statistics and regression analyses were used to investigate the relationships among awareness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and actual IoT adoptions. Results showed a high level of awareness of the IoT but a very low adoption rate, with merely 26.4% of the respondents using IoT in farming. Perceived usefulness was proved to be a significant predictor of the adoption of IoT. Awareness itself may not drive adoption according to the results; efforts should focus on perceived usefulness and ease of use for better adoption. Future studies will, therefore, be directed to see how government support and infrastructure may facilitate IoT adoption among agropreneurs.