Presenting Adoption Model of Internet of Things (IoT) in Agricultural Sector of Iran

Traditional agriculture is no longer able to provide sustainable, safe, and nutritious food for a planet with a population of more than 9 billion by 2050. This has led researchers to study about modern agriculture and its related factors. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of presenting an adoption model of IoT in the agricultural sector.

Indicators and factors affecting the implementation of IoT in the agricultural sector were extracted in two stages. Using content analysis, researches related to IoT in the agricultural sector was reviewed in the first stage. In the next stage, effective indicators on the adoption of IoT in the agricultural sector were extracted by Delphi technique and a survey of 15 experts whom were purposefully selected using snowball method.

The research findings showed that 63 indicators in the form of 11 categories and 4 dimentions are effective in adoption of IoT in the agricultural sector. Key concepts include environmental, technological, economic, and socio-cultural factors; sub-categories include cost factors, financial incentives, revenue factors, organizational factors, laws and policies, agricultural and ecological factors, technology infrastructure, security factors, IoT capabilities and features, human factors, and cultur-building.

It can be said that in order to adopt IoT in the agricultural sector, changes and reforms in all four main concepts including environmental, technological, economic, and socio-cultural factors seem necessary. In this regard, it is suggested to government to create laws supporting privacy and data ownership as well as to modify and revise the agricultural sector productivity law emphazing on the implementation of IoT technology. Also, providing cooperation between academic agriculture and information technology experts, developing knowledge-based companies in the field of IoT in agricultural sector, and creating an academic field of IoT are recommended.