Factors influencing postharvest technology acceptance among fruit vegetable farmers in the east coast economic region (ECER), Malaysia

Abstract

Nowadays, despite having many post-harvest technologies being introduced to the farmers in helping to maintain crop shelf life, the percentage of post-harvest losses is still high. Although the phenomenon of new post-harvest technology acceptance has been well appreciated, the increasing characteristics phenomenon of technology rejection is yet to be understood and studied. The objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing post-harvest technology acceptance among fruit vegetables farmers in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER). A structured questionnaire was designed based on combinations of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behaviour. This study has employed a simple random sampling technique in selecting 105 fruit vegetables in ECER to answer the questionnaire. The findings indicate that fruit vegetable farmers in ECER have accepted the post-harvest technology, but they do not use and apply the technology. The factors derived which are perceived usefulness (M = 4.11, SD = 0.622), perceived ease of use (M = 3.84, SD = 0.588) and attitude (M = 3.89, SD = 0.680) have all shown a high mean score. The findings of this study emphasise on the factor that influencing technology acceptance in improving and maintaining the quality of fruits vegetables to reduce the post-harvest losses.