Communication and innovation perception play interconnected roles in shaping farmers’ adoption of IoT-based smart farming technologies. This study examines how communication strategies and institutional support influence innovation perception and adoption behavior among smallholder farmers. By positioning communication as a central explanatory mechanism, the analysis explores how information is interpreted, trusted, and translated into sustained technology use. A quantitative approach using PLS-SEM was applied to survey data collected from 200 farmers in West Java, Indonesia. The results indicate that communication exerts a strong direct influence on both innovation perception and adoption, while institutional support affects adoption primarily through its influence on perception. These findings contribute to communication-based innovation theory by highlighting perception as a key mechanism in the smart farming adoption process. From a practical perspective, the study underscores the importance of farmer-centric, peer-amplified, and value-oriented communication strategies supported by coherent institutional frameworks. Adoption policies should integrate communication, capacity building, and financial facilitation to support digital transformation in agriculture.
Sumardjo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.