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Adopter Categorization of Extension Professionals Vis-A-Vis Agri-Expert Systems and Factors Influencing the Adoption


Affiliations
1 Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram 695 522, India
2 Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
 

This communication focuses on adoption stages of extension professionals in terms of extent of use of expert systems and factors influencing the extent of adoption of such systems by them, with special reference to agri-expert systems 'KAU-Fertulator' and 'e-Crop doctor' developed by Kerala Agricultural University. A survey was conducted among three targeted segments of Kerala extension professionals with a total of 100 respondents who were actively involved in the field of agriculture, to evaluate questions about the adoption stage of respondents in using agri-expert systems and factors influencing the extent of adoption. Results showed that, extension professionals categorization based on the stage of agri-expert system adoption process. Based on the stage of adoption, respondents were categorized into different adopter categories, which led to comparison with Roger's adopter categorization. Also, innovation proneness was positively and significantly related with extent of adoption expert system among all three categories of respondents. Based on the results, it is imperative to boost the adoption of agri-expert systems by streamlining the basic expert system applications for ease of use.

Keywords

Adoption Stages, Agri-Expert System, Extension Professionals.
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  • Waterman, D. A., A Guide to Expert Systems, Pearson Education, Delhi, 2004, p. 419.

  • Plant, R. E. and Stone, N. D., Knowledge-Based Systems in Agriculture, McGraw-Hill, NY, USA, 1991, p. 364.

  • Chetsumon, S., Attitudes of extension agents towards expert systems as decision support tools in Thailand. Ph D thesis, Lincoln University, Thailand, 2005.

  • Rogers, E., Categorizing the adopters of agricultural practices. Rural Sociol., 1958, 23, 345–354.

  • Ortt, J. and Schoormans, J. P. L., The pattern of development and diffusion of breakthrough communication technologies. Eur. J. Innov. Manage., 2004, 7(4), 292.


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  • Adopter Categorization of Extension Professionals Vis-A-Vis Agri-Expert Systems and Factors Influencing the Adoption

Abstract Views: 291  |  PDF Views: 74

Authors

Modem Ravikishore
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram 695 522, India
Purru Supriya
Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India
Allan Thomas
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram 695 522, India

Abstract


This communication focuses on adoption stages of extension professionals in terms of extent of use of expert systems and factors influencing the extent of adoption of such systems by them, with special reference to agri-expert systems 'KAU-Fertulator' and 'e-Crop doctor' developed by Kerala Agricultural University. A survey was conducted among three targeted segments of Kerala extension professionals with a total of 100 respondents who were actively involved in the field of agriculture, to evaluate questions about the adoption stage of respondents in using agri-expert systems and factors influencing the extent of adoption. Results showed that, extension professionals categorization based on the stage of agri-expert system adoption process. Based on the stage of adoption, respondents were categorized into different adopter categories, which led to comparison with Roger's adopter categorization. Also, innovation proneness was positively and significantly related with extent of adoption expert system among all three categories of respondents. Based on the results, it is imperative to boost the adoption of agri-expert systems by streamlining the basic expert system applications for ease of use.

Keywords


Adoption Stages, Agri-Expert System, Extension Professionals.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv112%2Fi11%2F2284-2288