Article Preview
Top1. Introduction
Over the years, the use of information systems in the agricultural sector is exposed. However, the continuous effort to further introduce information systems among farmers, traders, buyers, and the government remains challenging, especially the information dissemination and its deployment in farming communities. At this point, the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) aims to collect, store, process, and analyze agricultural data to encourage greater participation of different stakeholders involved in agricultural activities in the community. It also aims to guide stakeholders on the agricultural commodities information relevant in planning, design, development, and assessment of farming activities through the available communication channels and technologies to provide timely, accurate, and relevant information. Likewise, progress collaboration between private and public sectors to further develop agricultural activities strategies and infuse guiding frameworks, which may result in the greater realization of sensible value chain outputs and outcomes.
Beyond the growing benefits of AMIS in agriculture, AMIS also present challenges in developing countries. First, the use of AMIS is limited due to lacking awareness and education of farmers in information systems use. Moreover, AMIS with analytics is unexplored in developing countries, as analytics is still on its infancy stage in the agriculture sector. Recent studies found the low acceptance of AMIS due to the lack of information support and introduction of AMIS from the government, traders, and investors (Liao et al., 2019; Maredia et al., 2018; Say et al., 2018). Second, technology-related factors and individual factors affect farmers' decision to realize the importance and benefits of AMIS to improve agricultural practices in the community. Lastly, few studies attempt to understand the acceptance of AMIS with analytics in developing countries, such as the Philippines. Likewise, most agricultural workers in the Philippines tend to be older males and less educated than the average workers in the industry and other sectors (Mercurio & Hernandez, 2020; Briones, 2018).
This paper aims to investigate the factors that affect user acceptance of AMIS with analytics in the Philippines through a field survey of coffee industry stakeholders consists of farmers, millers, roasters, traders, and others involved in the coffee business. Considering the Technology Acceptance Model, this paper examines the effect of external variables such as the computer self-efficacy and perceived system complexity on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. This is the first evidence of understanding user’s acceptance of AMIS with analytics in coffee farming activities in the Philippines, a developing country perspective. Hence, this study contributes to the AMIS literature in developing countries.