Research Article

Influence of Subjective Norms on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural Risk Management: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

Muhammad Ali1*, Norsida Man2 and Farrah Melissa Muharam2

1Department of Agricultural Extension, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan; 2Department of Agriculture Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.

Received | May 13, 2019; Accepted | July 21, 2019; Published | August 15, 2019

*Correspondence | Muhammad Ali, Department of Agricultural Extension, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan; Email: aliupm115@gmail.com

Citation | Ali, M., N. Man and F.M. Muharam. 2019. Influence of subjective norms on the use of information and communication technologies for agricultural risk management: empirical evidence from Malaysia. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research, 32(3): 555-561.

DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjar/2019/32.3.555.561

Keywords | Subjective norms, ICT, Agricultural risk management, Agricultural Extension, Malaysia

Introduction

Farmers are socially dependent to transfer and receive valuable agricultural information. A farmer sometimes becomes a recipient or even become a source of technology transfer to other farmers. The social ties between farmers influence them to not only adopt technological innovations but also help in collective decisions. According to El Bilali and Allahyari (2018) farmers need to communicate, make agricultural transactions, exchange information and transfer knowledge so various ICTs assist farmers to do quickly and easily. However, due to diversification in technologies and functions, the selection and appropriate use could also be linked with social networks as these formal and informal networks aid farmers to use in an appropriate way. That is why Lehmann et al. (2012) highlighted that social media networks play a prime role in the development sector by uniting network technology with human networks.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is an umbrella term which contains computer software and hardware, telecommunication technologies, broadcasting through digital means along with digital sources of information which may be online or offline (Selwyn, 2002), So, ICTs are package of services, tools, applications, soft wares and hardware which may be used to communicate in a quicker way. ICTs have potential to improve lives of users and are being used in the agriculture and other sectors such as public, private, transport, education are names a few (Haftu, 2019). Farmers also use various ICTs especially mobile phone to remain connected in the world as these digital blessings aid farmers to receive weather forecasts, stay update about market fluctuations, maintain farm data, consult extension service providers, learn and/or share valuable information about pest/disease attack with fellow farmers and make online financial transactions. Importantly, ICTs assist farmers to bridge the gap between farmers and extension agents.

Climate changes also influence farmers to cope with the uncertainties accordingly. In this regard, farmers use various adaptation techniques and some of the important ones are agricultural diversification, advance savings, crop insurance, crop sharing and change of sowing time and variety to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate changes (Alemayehu and Bewket, 2017; Ali et al., 2018b; Mubiru et al., 2018; Aniah et al., 2019). Likewise, ICTs help farmers to handle agricultural risk (s) timely and quickly. In this regard, people in social circle such as fellow farmers and agricultural advisors make every effort to minimize the negative impacts of climate changes.

Climate change impacts are being witnessed by farmers and their fellow farmers (Ali et al., 2019). According to Jellason et al. (2019) developing world has seen the low agriculture yield and food insecurity issue on account of climate changes. So, uncertain events could lead to more hurdles in the agriculture and food sector in the years to come. It is also a bitter fact that social networks of farmers are either not funded or less funded which affect their adoption and adaptation of new technologies for tackling with the climate changes. Di Falco and Sharma-Khushal (2019) hold an opinion that cost-effective measures with timely information provision could positively affect behavioural change among the farmers. Thus, the social networks could help in ensuring motivation of farmers to maximize their production and not to abandon this vocation due to extreme climate events.

A subjective norm is associated with perceived social influence to indulge or not to indulge in a given behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). So, people who are close such as relatives, peer farmers and extension service providers could influence farmers to indulge or not to indulge in agricultural risk management through ICTs. According to Wang (2018), solo actions are usually limited so social and behavioural change is often performed through collective decisions. In this regard, Naylor and Courtney (2014) highlighted that decisions by an individual are hardly taken even with full knowledge of costs, benefits or risks. Some of the researchers have also pointed out the significance of social networks in agriculture and risk management such as Bernier and Meinzen-Dick (2014), Isaac (2012), Matuschke (2008) and Adger et al. (2005). However, Cadger et al. (2016) specified that more information is needed to examine the structure, influences of these networks on the sharing of knowledge mechanism and results of knowledge transfer to the other farmers.

Although a good number of studies have been conducted empirically to examine impacts of social norms in various contexts and dimensions however less attention has been paid in the domain of ICTs usage for agricultural risk management. Therefore, the present study was designed with the objective to assess the influence of subjective norms to use ICTs for agricultural risk management in the context of Malaysia. The results would be helpful for farmers, extension agents, researchers and policy makers to understand the importance of social influence (subjective norms) to mitigate the impacts of climate change through apt agricultural risk management strategies.

Materials and Methods

In order to conduct this study, the farmers were interviewed with the pre-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested on 50 farmers who were not considered in the final statistical analysis. There were 360 farmers selected through multistage cluster sampling technique. The research was conducted in three zones of Malaysia namely East zone, South zone and North zone. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was ensured. The result of the reliability analysis showed that alpha value was above 0.60 for all the statements. Likewise, the validity of the research instrument was confirmed through expert consultation. The subjective norms were measured through 5 point Likert scale items in which 1 reflected as strongly disagree and 5 as strongly agree. Furthermore, the level of subjective norms was measured on three levels namely low (1.00 to 2.33), moderate (2.34 to 3.66) and high (3.67 to 5.00) through data transformation. Plus, the class interval formula was used to see low, moderate and high level. The services of local enumerators were hired to gather the data as the questionnaire was translated from English to Bahasa Melayu language. The team of data collectors was pre-trained. In the training sessions, the enumerators were asked to obtain positive consent of the respondents in advance so that no hurdle should delay the data collection process. Thus, the respondents were briefed about the aims and objectives of the research. The collected data were analysed through statistical software (SPSS, version 21).

Results and Discussion

It is a psychology of an individual to either socially influence others or get influenced by others. The social pressure could arise from fellow farmers, public and private extension services providers, middlemen, and/or opinion leaders. Thus, the subjective norms prevailing in the research area were measured through likert scale items. The digital interventions such as ICTs (old and/or new) play a significant role in the development of the agricultural sector and social interactions could have played a pivotal role without proper capacity and competency building programmes around the globe. However, the results and intensity of peer pressure could vary from area to area and the situations. Thus, farmers in Malaysia were also socially linked to use ICTs for agricultural risk management.

According to the results in Table 1, more than half of the research population (53.9%) strongly agreed that fellow farmers thought that they should take benefit of ICTs for staying connected with other farmers and extension agents. However, only 13.3% of the respondents were uncertain in this regard. So, it reflects that the majority of the respondents (by combining 31.1% and 53.9%) held an opinion that their peers should remain in connection for taking benefits from ICT usage for agricultural risk management. Indeed, ICTs are useful in exchanging valuable agricultural information and answering questions to each other whenever and where ever required. According to Aldosari et al. (2017), digital technologies help farmers to quickly receive information or solution about pest and disease attacks, flood and adverse weather warnings however, farmers could still keep a distance from extension staff on account of the status and educational or other barriers. Importantly, extension agents of public and private sector need to create cordial relations and offer the solution at the door step or through ICTs. That is why Ali et al. (2018a) highlighted that farmers do not get support from extension field staff to use ICTs for agricultural risk management in the context of Malaysia.

Additionally, approximately half of the target population (49.4%) opined that peer farmers who were close to each other should learn about agricultural risk management techniques. Conversely, only negligible number of farmers (0.6% and 1.7%) were disagreed and strongly disagreed on this point. It showed that an overwhelming majority were agreed and strongly agreed to learn about risk management techniques as climate changes are frequent. As floods and land sliding occur more often than not in Malaysia so, learning attitude could be beneficial for the entire farmers. In this regard, not only natural disasters affect farms and farmers but also followed by insect/pest and disease attacks, water shortage, food insecurity and low production. According to Shikuku (2019), social learning increases the adoption of technologies in the context of agriculture. In this perspective, extension agents could a play prime role in imparting knowledge and new skills among farmers to become resilient. Olorunfemi et al. (2019) and Akhtar et al. (2019) stated that the role of extension workers around the globe is crucial and there is a dire need to empower extension agents as they lack a wide range of knowledge about solutions of climate smart agriculture.

There were 48.6% and 37.8% farmers who agreed and strongly agreed that their fellow farmers were interested to help each other whenever they faced any difficulty in the application of risk management strategies. Nevertheless, 11.7% of the farmers were uncertain in this regard. It shows that farmers had realized to help each other to tackle the problems, as agriculture was the main source of their livelihood. Similarly, fellow farmers influenced the behaviour

Table 1: Influence of Subjective norms on ICTs use for agricultural risk management.

The overall mean (3.84) in Table 1 reveals that farmers had mixed opinions regarding the influence of subjective norms such as the pressure of fellow farmers, personal influence and influence of extension service providers. Although, the overall mean is close to four which means agreement on all 13 statements but still more efforts are required to strengthen social networks of farmers and bridge the gap between extension agents and farmers for tackling agricultural risk stem from climate changes.

Table 2: Level of subjective norms among respondents toward ICTs use for agricultural risk management (n=360).

The result in Table 2 demonstrates the level of subjective norms among farmers as respondents about ICTs usage for agricultural risk management. Based on the results, 70.8% (255) farmers had a high level of influence of subjective norms, 28.6% (103) farmers had moderate level whereas, only 0.6% (6) farmers showed a low level of subjective norms influences. In conclusion, the level of the subjective norms was high as shown in the following table. The results are consistent with Yau and Ho (2015). The similar results were found by Bolong et al. (2016), who have examined the impacts of behavioural factors on wireless village services among Malaysian rural community.

Conclusions and Recommendations

In conclusion, the social influence cannot be under estimated and ignored in order to mitigate climate impacts as a risk in the agricultural sector is increasing. Therefore, present research was designed to examine the influence of subjective norms on ICT usage for agricultural risk management by farmers in Malaysia. The findings showed that farmers in social networks realized the importance of ICTs and encouraged each other to take advantage of digital interventions to minimize agricultural risks. The extension workers also influenced the farmers to stay in connects with them and also with fellow farmers through ICTs. The findings further revealed that overall, the level of subjective norms was high among the respondents which is a good sign of social bindings. Nevertheless, extension service providers are needed to put more efforts to socially organize the farmers for the ultimate reduction of agricultural risks and curtail the extreme climate changes.

Author’s Contribution

The findings are from PhD research work of Muhammad Ali. Mr. Ali collected the data, wrote the manuscript and reviewed the literature. Norsida Man supervised the research, helped in data analysis and proofreading of the manuscript. Farrah Melissa Muharram also assisted in proofreading and editing of the manuscipt.

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