FACTORS INFLUENCING SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION AND ITS IMPACT ON AGRICULTURAL DISTRIBUTION IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Povzetek

This study examined the factors influencing the adoption of social media and consequent impact on agricultural distribution in the regions of mountainous districts Kullu and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, India. Social media has come to light as a revolutionary tool that offers farmers the ability to predict the traditional barriers in the agricultural value chain. This research provides the critical insights into the drivers and barriers of social media adoption by the farmers, where the most influencing factors have been explored to investigate the level of adoption of social media and its impact on farmers and their income growth after using it for a purpose over the years. It employed the primary survey design and data were collected with the support of structured questionnaire using statistical techniques. Results indicate that the farmers adoption rate for social media in these regions has increased in the last three years and seek guidance to adopt it for more agricultural activities. Also, technical literacy, lack of guidance, lack of skills and poor internet access in some regions have been major problems. By using correlation in this study, relationships among number of years of experience using social media, frequency of using social media daily, education level of farmers have been some of the key variables.  Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used in this study to carry out internal statistically significant relationships between the hypotheses and to check behavioral intention (BI) of adoption of social media by the farmers as a marketing tool for their agricultural produce. Perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) demonstrated positive associations on behavior intention (BI) for the farmers of mountainous regions of Himachal Pradesh.