The use of drone for rice cultivation in Malaysia: Identification of factors influencing its farmers’ acceptance

This study aims to identify factors influencing farmers’ acceptance of the use of drone for rice cultivation in Malaysia. A total of 204 farmers who hired custom operator of drone at rice granaries in Kota Bharu Utara district, Kelantan state of Malaysia were selected as the samples in this study. Face-to-face survey technique was employed to collect data form the sampled farmers. Factor analysis was utilized to examine the scaled responses. The findings of this study have successfully identified 15 factors that have correlation with the farmers’ acceptance of the use of drone in the study area. However, 2 out of 15 factors, namely ‘drone roles’ and ‘drone handling skill’ were highly significant. A rank of these factors was also successfully established from this study. Knowing of these factors is valuable for improving management of the use of drone for rice cultivation that suit to the real-farmers’ environment in efforts of achieving economic and technical satisfactions of the field operation.