Determinants of agricultural technology adoption: a case study in floricultural sector of Lam Dong province and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Floriculture is an important agricultural sector of Lam Dong province and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The favorable climate conditions of Lam Dong province have led to the strong development of the floriculture sector, while high demand due to lifestyle changes in Ho Chi Minh City promises a potential market for the cut orchid industry. The adoption of modern technology is vitally important for small-scale producers, because it not only improves the quality but also increases the yield of flower production. However, very little research has been conducted on the adoption of technology in the floriculture industry at the farm level. A sample of 228 producers was therefore collected in Lam Dong province and Ho Chi Minh City in 2018 to investigate the current status of, and influential factors for, technology adoption by floriculture producers in the South of Vietnam. Conditional mixed-process probit models were applied to examine decisions on the adoption of technologies associated with greenhouse, irrigation and seedlings in floriculture. The results reveal that farmers have strong preferences in terms of modern floriculture technologies and that demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education and income, as well as farm size, learning process, farmers’ perception of technology and market information are the key determinants of technology adoption in floriculture