Unlocking adoption challenges of IoT in Indian Agricultural and Food Supply Chain

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) can play a key role in transforming traditional agricultural sector to smart agricultural domain. However, in developing economies the adoption is in the nascent stage. This paper aims to evaluate the critical factors that impact the adoption decision of IoT technology in the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (AFSC). Based on a comprehensive literature survey and experts’ opinion 24 critical factors were identified. The identified list of factors was categorized into technological, social, economic, and organizational categories. DEMATEL method was applied to determine the cause-effect relationship of these factors. The results underlined five significant causal factors namely lack of interoperability, environmental sustainability, trust, lack of security, and network challenges which influence the IoT adoption. The results provide unique insights in agro-food sector to improve performance by overcoming the identified key challenges. Also, this study provides a roadmap for the implementation of IoT in emerging economies. Further, this paper guides the agri-food managers, IoT service providers, and the Government to formulate new strategies/policies for the effective adoption of IoT in the agri-food sector