The effect of ICT technology adoption in horticulture sector

The performance evaluation of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption has become important for the horticulture sector in South Korea. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in South Korea has promoted the ‘Horticulture ICT convergence project’ for distributing technologies such as smart phone remote control, and an automatic control system in a single-span greenhouse. However, its performance has not quite been evaluated, which causes concerns for continuous ICT diffusion in the agricultural field. Thus, we survey three types of horticulture farms: tomato, cucumber, and strawberry, and perform a multi-level analysis on the effect of ICT adoption. The results show that it led to farms saving working time. In addition, it had positive effects on financial outcomes such as revenue and operating profit. These results offer scope for research and practical insights into the effect of ICT adoption on horticulture, especially for single-span greenhouses.