Abstract
Plant tissue culture biotechnology represents a sustainable strategy for climate change adaptation as it enables the propagation of disease‐free plants with specific desired traits. Despite their considerable benefits, the adoption of tissue culture plants (TCPs) remains very low, particularly in developing countries. While previous research on innovation adoption has largely focused on technological, knowledge-based and institutional factors, there is little research on farmer readiness, i.e. how intrinsic characteristics of farmers relate to their perceptions of the impact of an innovation. This study uses the psychological and behavioral insights of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine how traits such as innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk tolerance influence farmers’ adoption of TCPs. Furthermore, it examines how these factors interact with technological characteristics (perceived ease of use) and economic benefits (perceived usefulness). The study draws on an interdisciplinary framework and uses a quantitative survey methodology targeting market-oriented coffee and banana farmers in Uganda. By uncovering these often overlooked motivators, the study extends a new framework that integrates entrepreneurial insights to better understand farmers’ attitudes towards new technologies. This multifaceted approach offer both theoretical contributions to the study of agricultural technology adoption and practical strategies for scaling up sustainable practices in the food sector.
Presenters
Brian SenyangeDoctoral Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Oost-Vlaanderen (nl), Belgium
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Food Production and Sustainability
KEYWORDS
Plant tissue culture, Biotechnology, Innovativeness, Risk-taking, Proactiveness, Technology acceptance model
