Agriculture technology adoption in Malaysia : the Extension service's role, rural financing, and the lender's institutional context

Abstract

There has been an increase on the incorporation of technology in the agricultural industry. The present research addresses the effect of the extension services, institutional lender context and rural financing in Malaysia and the degree to which these practices influence the agricultural technological adoption within the country. The country has been promoting microfinance institutions and education in agriculture to support the agricultural development as major revenue is driven from the industry. Thus, the present study was developed to study the relationship between the extension services, institutional lender context and rural financing and agricultural technological adoption in Malaysia. The present study used the novel approach of the ARDL to study the long run and short run relationships between the extension services, institutional lender context and rural financing and agricultural technological adoption of Malaysia. The data for the last 3 decades was used to study the variation and association between the research variables. The ARDL bounds test informed of significant cointegration among the research variables. The estimation indicated that there are direct associations between the extension services, institutional lender context and rural financing and ATA both in the long and short run. The extension services, institutional lender context and rural financing in Malaysia represent significant affluence over the dependency for the adoption for technological advancements in the agricultural industry. This study presents a new vision for Malaysia to develop its agricultural and economic policies.