Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses of Agricultural Corporations and their Intention to Adopt Smart Farming Technologies: A Case Study of Corporate Rice Farming

Abstract

To identify what would prompt rice farming corporations to introduce smart farming technologies, we compared their strengths and weaknesses with those of their competitors (i.e., we evaluated their managerial awareness). Using the results of a nationwide survey of agricultural corporations, we analyzed the intention to introduce smart farming technology by decision tree analysis. Under the category of “Measuring crop growth by drones and satellites”, corporations evaluated themselves as excellent in “production and processing technology”, “suppliers, trust of local communities and brand”, and “sales and marketing”, and showed a strong intention to introduce smart farming technologies. Under the category of “Automation and robots in crop cultivation machinery work”, corporations evaluated themselves as less than excellent in “human resource development” and “production/processing technology”, and again showed intention to introduce smart farming technologies. These results suggest that to advance the adoption of smart farming technologies, it is effective to conduct extension activities in consideration of a corporation’s brand, marketing activities, human resource development, and production/processing technologies.