Factors Influencing Precision Agriculture Tools or Technologies Adoption in Egypt

Abstract

Precision Agriculture Technologies (PATs) are advocated as inevitable agricultural practices to achieve the highest economic value and mitigate the environmental impact of the agriculture.Water scarcity and rapid population growth in Egypt endanger the economic nourishment. Since agriculture consume more than 80% of total water consumption in Egypt; it is important to adopt efficient practices without sacrificing high productivity and minimize environmental degradation. This thesis studies the factors influencing PATs adoption in Egypt. Based on the literature review; there are 5 constructs with 15 independent variables are tested in this study. The constructs are as follows; (1) Socio Demographic Factors; studying effect of farmer age, level of education, years of experience. (2) Agro Ecological Factors; including farm size, land tenure, farm crops. (3) Financial Factors; encompasses farm income, investment cost, perceived economic benefits and perceived environmental benefits. (4) Technological Factors; testing impact computer and smart phone usage, PATs and PI Usage and perceived ease of use. (5) Institutional Factors: investigating effect of farm region and development pressure. Non-probability sampling was used in this study with convenience and snowball techniques to collect data. The data was collected from 32 farms distributed in Lower and Upper Egypt via an online survey published through Social Media Channels. Respondents were the farm owners and farm operators as each one represents one farm only. The analysis was performed using SPSS to discover factors impacting PATs adoption. Results show that perceived environmental benefits and development pressure are statistically significant factors affecting PATs adoption in Egypt.To conclude, this study provides insightful results regarding what influences the Egyptian farmers in PATs adoption and this may provide better understanding for policy makers to better formulate incentive programs and regulation to motivate farmers to adopt more PATs. Moreover, these results can be used by service providers to enhance marketing.