Social Media adoption for agricultural development: Insights from smallholders in central Vietnam

Abstract

The advent of digital social media has revolutionized interpersonal interactions and effectively facilitated the dissemination of information within the agricultural sector. To contribute novel insights into the adoption of social media for agricultural development, the research explores the adoption and influencing factors among smallholders in Central Vietnam. A randomized sample of 442 smallholder households in Quang Tri province were selected and surveyed by using a structured questionnaire. Data analysis encompassed descriptive statistics using SPSS 20.0 and Ordered Logit Regression using Stata to explore the adoption and factors influencing social media adoption among smallholders. Findings indicate widespread adoption, particularly on Facebook and YouTube of smallholders. They utilized social media platforms either simultaneously or separately with limited frequency. Various adoption purposes were found, primarily for accessing agricultural knowledge or technical tutorials from social networks and extension agencies, and seeking agricultural product consumption help. Higher adoption was linked to more digital information access and device ownership, better education, and larger farms. Conversely, older age and crop-focused farming to lower adoption rates (p < 5%). The study highlights the potential for education and extension agencies to use social media, especially Facebook and YouTube for knowledge sharing and product consumption support among smallholder farmers. The study identifies key factors in social media adoption, advising agricultural agencies to target demographics like the elderly, less educated individuals, crop-focused farmers, and those with smaller land holdings. Promoting digital information access and farmer organization participation is essential for boosting social media adoption.