Information and communication technology in agriculture: awareness, readiness and adoption in the Kingdom of Bahrain

ICT in agriculture

Before the emergence of information technology (IT) and its usage in agricultural development, people primarily depended on traditional farming methods and would also resort to others to provide services. This is referred to as “Traditional Agriculture”.

In the 19th century where the rise of the second industrial revolution was the emergence of Agriculture 2.0. This era was characterized by using machines and chemical inputs instead of human power to increase crop production. In the second half of the 20th century, with the increase in ICT adoption among different sectors, came the third agriculture revolution Agriculture 3.0. The excessive amounts of data collected from various sources and the emergence of technologies such as Big Data, Cloud Computing and AI led to the next agriculture revolution, Agriculture 4.0 (Zhai, Martinez, Beltran, & Martinez, 2020).

Agriculture needs viable usage of innovation and technology to quicken the production and employability of people. There are various sorts of innovations that are made to improve efficiency and productivity in the agricultural sector. Parke (2015) stated that the presentation of innovations and logical strategies (progressions) had greatly affected the cultivating segment in the late decades. According to Milovanović (2014), the capability of ICT in the agriculture segment can be utilized, where ICT is used as a device that contributes directly to the efficiency of farming creation. Furthermore, in 2017, the G20 agriculture ministers’ action plan recommended and focused on empowering ICT in agriculture to boost the efficiency and sustainability of the food sector (Bilali & Allahyari, 2018).

ICT tools in agriculture were introduced long ago in many countries worldwide. They paved the road toward sustainable farming by allowing real-time information communication even in rural areas. In 1991, in Chennai, India, ICT tools emerged to reach farmers in rural areas through a hub and spokes model. The model aimed to enable the bidirectional transfer of data: farmers–to–hub and hub–to–farmers (Swaminathan & Swaminathan, 2018). Some of the innovative ICT in agriculture are autopilot tractors, crop sensors, variable rate technology (VRT) and Swath control technology, monitoring and controlling crop irrigation systems, field documentation, IoT, precision agriculture and big data.

The evolution of ICT from a simple radio program to machine learning and advanced analytics of agriculture data demonstrated the power of ICT to agriculture business processes in many countries. Training and educating people are the keys to change. ICT extension services are significant factors in improving the socioeconomical life of farmers in rural areas. (Ravindra, Sehgal, & Narasimhamurthy, 2020), Stated that ICT, such as TVs and smartphones, have proven essential in providing Karnataka farmers with valuable information about agriculture inputs. In Pakistan, farmers are convinced that using ICT, such as mobile phones and the internet, will provide better information flyover that directly connects them with agriculture extension services providers. The study concluded that educated farmers are more willing to adopt new technologies and recommended training extension services providers on using ICT (Aldosari, Alsharaifi, Ullah, Muddassir, & Noor, 2019).

On the other hand, machines and technology are the primary tools to adopt the change. New global positioning system (GPS) tractors and sprayers machines can precisely drive themselves through the field without drivers. One of the main advantages of using auto-steering machines is reducing human efforts with compromising machinery performance. The machines are controlled by real-time kinematic GPS receivers that enhance lateral accuracy when driving in straight lines to less than five centimeters (Morton et al., 2020). Crop management is considered an exhausting and time-consuming operation to be carried out by farmers physically. It includes various tasks such as crop spraying and croup scouting; however, the advance in sensing technologies made such tasks effortless (Clercq, Vats, & Biel, 2018; Mekala & Viswanathan, 2017). Moreover, smart irrigation systems provide a solution for water use efficiency and increase crop production.

Farm management, food scanner and similar data may be classified as big data, given their volume, velocity and variety. As per Wolfert, Ge, Verdouw, and Bogaardt (2017), big data applications in cultivation are not only about primary production yet assume a significant job in improving the production network's proficiency and easing food security concerns.

The IoT refers to the billions of remote devices connected wirelessly to complex networks and forms intelligent architecture such as smart buildings, smart factories and smart schools. IoT has been introduced in greenhouses to enable smart remote control of the cooling and ventilation of the environment based on data collected from CO2, soil, temp and light sensors (Pallavi et al., 2017). The mixture between IoT and AI has been included in many agriculture tasks such as (farm management systems, crop scouting and livestock monitoring) to enhance business process efficiency, improve crop production and promote environmental protection (Alreshidi, 2019).

Moreover, adopting precision agriculture technologies (PATs) is increasing rapidly, specifically in the US market, where farms are vast, and PATs over the cost will be more profitable. Based on market and markets, the PATs market in the US is expected to double between 2018 and 2023; however, the countries with small farms and fewer ICT-educated farmers tend to have a prolonged adoption rate of PATs (Bucci, Bentivoglio, & Finco, 2019).

Despite the agriculture technologies mentioned earlier, knowledge and usage of ICT in agriculture remain poor in many developing countries. This is because many constraints hinder the advance of the agriculture field, including poor ICT literacy, farmers' ignorance of ICT, lack of awareness of ICT advantages, lack of trustworthiness of information generated by digital tools and the scarcity or even absence of programs to introduce the importance of using ICT in the agricultural field (Ravindra et al., 2020; Subashini & Fernando, 2017).

Agriculture in Kingdom of Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain archipelago comprises 40 islands with an area of about 711.9 square kilometers, located in the middle of the Arabian Gulf close to the eastern coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Agriculture in the Kingdom of Bahrain was an important sector of the economy. Before the development of the oil industry (1932), date palm cultivation dominated agriculture in Bahrain, producing enough for local consumption and export. At least 23 varieties of dates are cultivated, and the palm's leaves, branches, buds and flowers are used extensively (Albilad, 2012). Bahrain has been known since ancient times for fresh water, fruit trees and palm trees distinguished in the production of dates, as it was known in the past as the country of a million palm trees (Albilad, 2012). However, at the beginning of the eighties, Bahrain began to pay attention to cultivating other crops of vegetables, flowers and trees (Shebeb, 2006).

The contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is no more than 0.23%. In 2016 employment in the agriculture sector reached only 1.1 % of the total employment (IGA, 2016). Table 1 provides information on the Kingdom of Bahrain's agricultural productivity and the agrarian sector's contribution to the country's economy's development from 2006 to 2018.

Moreover, the agricultural lands in the Kingdom decreased significantly from 1956 (6,460 ha) to approximately 4,230 ha at the beginning of the eighties. According to the statistics provided by the Supreme Council for the Environment, the per capita area available for agriculture dropped from 0.036 ha in 1924 to 0.006 in 2005. There is a minority of large owners of agricultural lands. Individuals and institutions control about 60% of all arable lands by leasing their plots of land to farmers, generally based on three-year contracts. About 2,400 farmers, 70% of whom do not own the land they cultivate.

On the other hand, many farmers/farm owners shifted or mixed from traditional farming and protected farming (greenhouses), which was introduced in Bahrain in 1976 (Bani, 2020). Few recently implemented hydroponic farming systems, and almost two farms in Bahrain adopted aquaponics farming to solve water scarcity and land shortage. Farming processes are controlled manually whether the farm is soil-based (open land or greenhouses) or nonsoil-based (hydroponics or aquaponics). It is unusual to find a farm that uses ambient air and humidity sensors to control cooling and ventilation devices.

Regarding agricultural resources, the Kingdom of Bahrain lacks water suitable for agriculture and irrigation. There is also a challenge in providing pesticides and fertilizers to suit the farmer's needs. In addition, Bahrain relies heavily on importing all crops to cover local needs (El-Khoury, 2016). The urban planning and development authority estimated the total agriculture area in March 2022 as 2.86% of the country's total land area (UPDA, 2022). Based on the special report (millennium development goals) issued by the Bahraini government in 2015, Bahrain is currently a nonagricultural country and relies mainly on imported crops.

ICT can play a vital role in converting barren land into agricultural land with fertile soil. Although Bahrain's climatic conditions do not comply with many crop production requirements, ICT can minimize this obstacle. Bahrain built a durable infrastructure that makes it possible for ICT to be used and integrated in the agricultural industry. Bahrain's market is becoming more and more reliant on ICT, and its use of cutting-edge tools like cloud computing and the IoT has helped it rise to the top of the world rankings for technological empowerment. Additionally, new finance, training and development programs, coordinating efforts, and agricultural and farming techniques of the modern era were introduced. As an illustration, in 2010 it launched the National Initiative for Agricultural Development (NIAD), a program that aims to improve the Kingdom's food security, support farmers and expand the agricultural industry (NIAD, 2019). For farmers in the Hoorat Aali region, the government has also developed a permanent market called the farmers' market to promote regional produce and showcase the advancements made in Bahrain's agricultural sector.

Research methodology

To achieve the study's objectives and ensure data reliability and coverage of all aspects, quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted. As a primary research method, a questionnaire was developed to investigate the current situation regarding the awareness, readiness, acceptance and adoption of ICT in agriculture. The study population comprised of farmers, farms owners and agricultural businesses. The Kingdom of Bahrain has approximately 2,400 farms and a total agricultural workforce of 9,120 (Zawya, 2021). The sample size was calculated using a confidential level of 95% and an interval of 5 and was estimated to be approximately 300. However, due to the Covid 19 situation and the difficulties in reaching such a segment of individuals or even agriculture businesses and farm owners, only 100 responses were collected. The data was collected online, face-to-face or by telephone. The survey instruments for this study were developed using validated items from prior research.

Four exploratory field visits were conducted to enhance the survey's findings to explore the current situation regarding agriculture behavior, production and how IT is being used to support agriculture on selected farms. Within the research context, the chosen farms are referred to as Farm1, Farm2, Farm3 and Farm4. Different sizes, characteristics and cultures were considered for the selection of farms. In addition, a SWOT-TOWS analysis has been conducted to analyze the readiness of the Kingdom of Bahrain for adopting ICT in agriculture and its strategic direction. It was developed based on secondary data, survey results and interviews.

Demographic profile of respondents

Table 2 shows that most of the respondents have minimal land with a size of fewer than 0.5 ha. Forty per cent of the participants have an estimated whole cultivation land and are adopting traditional farming (75.7%) for planting vegetables (83.8%) and fruits (56.8%). The result is not surprising as the agricultural areas in the Kingdom of Bahrain are limited, and it has decreased by 0.25% since 1971 (Alayam, 2019).

As part of agriculture behavior by respondents, they use between 0 to 25 L of pesticides yearly and almost use fertilizers for more than 76 tons – some of them use fertilizer for 25 tons or less annually, as shown in Table 2.

Digital readiness is about whether people have the skills to use IT and digital literacy tools to help people determine whether the online information they access is trustworthy. Digital readiness is essential in adopting IT in agriculture as it emphasizes the significant gap between the current state of farmers and the ideal farmer 4.0 (Laurens Klerkx, 2019). Therefore, digital readiness for farmers and individuals investing in the agriculture business was explored in terms of using smart devices, social media, online services and the Internet. Table 3 and Figure 1 present information on the digital readiness of farmers and agriculture businesses. The results revealed that 95% are using a smartphone, 97% are using WhatsApp and 78% are using Instagram. Moreover, over 75% of the farmers use online services and can browse the Internet easily. However, only 50% of the respondents know the differences between hardware and software and can use the computer very well, as shown in Table 3.

Results confirmed that mixed generations in the agricultural society live different lifestyles and mindsets in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Most of the community consists of regular farmers who are low-educated and illiterate and are using only WhatsApp for social communications and conducting their services physically (not using online services). Although they use smart devices, some online services and social media, they have yet to adopt sophisticated devices and applications such as crop sensing, smart irrigation systems, IoT, augmented reality and AI. However, some farmers successfully adopt digital technology, which can be called the “Young Smart Farmers” (Sayruamyat & Nadee, 2019). They are a group of farmers who use smart devices and social media intensively in their daily life and adopt some sophisticated ICT in their agriculture to enhance their productivity (Sayruamyat & Nadee, 2019).

The findings revealed a reasonable awareness and low usage of ICT in agriculture among farmers and agriculture businesses in Bahrain. For example, results in Figure 2 show that there is little awareness of ICT use in agriculture as almost (40%) or less are aware of the agriculture technologies such as database, soil sensors, agriculture remote sensors or expressions such as IoT or PA. In addition, most farmers and agriculture business respondents are unaware of the terms; soil sensors, agriculture remote sensing or IoT and big data.

The low awareness of the agriculture ICT has been reflected in the usage of these technologies, as shown in Table 3. The results show that almost less than 40% of the respondents have an internet subscription or feel they need the internet to manage their farm, using remote or soil sensors, special software, or even application to manage their farm. Moreover, they never use special information systems to manage their farm or consider it an important tool to advance their business. However, more than 75% of the respondents are curious about modern farming technologies, often search about them and like to try contemporary technologies to develop their farms, as shown in Table 4.

Subashini and Fernando (2017), state that lack of knowledge in IT and difficulties in using IT are the main obstacles to adopting ICT in agriculture. Table 5 summarizes other challenges farmers and agriculture businesses face in adopting ICT in agriculture. Most of the respondents are facing difficulties in the supportive ICT infrastructure (43.0%), followed by a lack of knowledge and experience in using ICT (39.10%) and a lack of training and support (35.1%). Moreover, there are additional costs for operating and adopting digital technology, i.e. internet charge, mobile network charge etc. These costs were automatically added to the farm management cost. As mentioned earlier, most Bahraini farmers are considered family farming and not business farming entities. Therefore, the perspective to cost management is different. For example, they do not separate household expenses from the expenses in farming. As a result, farmers may refuse to use or adopt technologies since they realize the additional costs they must pay (Sayruamyat & Nadee, 2019). Government policies and regulations in the Kingdom of Bahrain focus on enhancing agricultural productivity. They provide technical and financial support for individuals and farmers, including ICT services, equipment and agricultural loans (Alwatan, 2020). For instance, the installation of wireless sensor networks and the development of smartphone applications by the government are vital and strategic actions for rapid growth and easy access to information for farmers and planters (Barh & Balakrishnan, 2018). Government support is essential for encouraging individuals' involvement in agriculture and adopting ICT for their productivity; however, most farmers and business agriculture need to be aware of government support and efforts to facilitate their business and enhance their productivity.

Regarding the lack of knowledge and training support, the agricultural sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain receives special attention from the competent authorities by preparing specialized courses to develop human cadres working in the farming industry. NIAD, for instance, intensifies training courses and advanced academic programs to attract the most significant number of agriculture enthusiasts (Alwatan, 2020). NIAD also provides many educational and awareness television (TV) programs in addition to Bahrain international garden show, which provides indirect awareness programs targeting farmers, agriculture businesses and investors. Moreover, most higher education institutions offer different agriculture academic programs. For example, the University of Bahrain provides a bachelor-level program in landscaping and plans to establish a college for agriculture to build national agriculture capacity. Arabian Gulf University offers a master's program in the Program of Desert Farming Techniques and Soilless Agriculture. Moreover, Bahrain Institution for Training offers The Pearson Business Technology and Education Council Level 3 Extended Diploma in Agriculture program, which aims to provide learners with the knowledge and basic skills in agriculture to start agricultural entrepreneurship and business in addition to subsistence purposes. The government offers vital efforts in the Kingdom of Bahrain to facilitate the challenges and difficulties in adopting ICT in agriculture and encourage individuals and businesses to take further steps in benefiting from the available agriculture technologies and ICT.

Table 6 finally identifies the respondents' perception of the impact of adopting ICT in agriculture. More than 50% of the respondents see that ICT can help save time and effort and increase production and income. Furthermore, there is a good perception of the effect of ICT in providing necessary information for better decisions and best resource utilization (67.5%). However, respondents disagree on the impact of precision farming on reducing the environmental factors and disasters on their farms (40%), and almost 40% of them perceived no benefits in using ICT in agriculture. The low perception of the positive impact of ICT on enhancing and improving agriculture productivity is due to the lack of knowledge and awareness of the agriculture ICT and the low level of adoption of ICT in agriculture.

Exploratory field visits

The explored field visits were conducted during COVID 19 pandemic and the lockdown in the country; therefore, accessing farms in any area was not easy. However, the permission from NIAD has simplified the access to the selected farms and provided an excellent opportunity to get information from the owners. Around 4 to 6 hours have been spent on each visit. In addition, a short interview was conducted with the farm’s owner during the visit. The visits were analyzed based on the description of the farm and the adoption and awareness of the ICT in agriculture, as shown in Table 7.

Although few field visits were explored, they confirmed the survey's findings (the primary research method). The analysis of the field visits confirmed both low awareness, usage and adoption of ICT in agriculture among the farms' owners and businesses. It shows that while some of the farms' owners are aware of some irrigation and sensors in addition to the advantages of the ICT in enhancing their productivity, other farms' owners lack knowledge of the available ICTs for agriculture and never use them. Some of the explored farms use temperature and humidity sensors to collect data on the plants' situation. However, most of the data and the plants' control are done manually, as shown in Table 7.

SWOT-TOWS analysis for strategic options for adopting ICT in agriculture in Kingdom of Bahrain

SWOT Analysis is a strategic analysis method used to evaluate the “strengths”, “weaknesses”, “opportunities” and “threats” involved in an organization, a plan, a project, a person or a business activity. It is a tool used to measure the internal factors presented as strengths and weaknesses of an organization (along with the external aspects of opportunities and threats that may support or undermine the implementation of new projects (Parra-L´opez et al., 2021). It helps to choose the most matching strategies and strategic options that allow the enterprise to perform its duty and develop concerning the interaction between its internal and external environment.

Adding the relationship between the internal and external factors makes TOWS a much more helpful matrix than a standalone SWOT and an obvious next step. While the SWOT is considered an internal-external analysis, the threat-weakness-opportunity-strength is the other way around and is derived from the SWOT as an external-internal analysis tool. The TOWS matrix is used to develop strategic options for new projects, and it is generated considering the following strategies (Parra-L´opez et al., 2021):

SWOT and TOWS methods were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of ICT adoption in the agricultural sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The analysis will help to identify the strategic directions for adopting ICT in agriculture for farmers and business agriculture in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The analysis moreover helps cover all aspects related to the agriculture sector in Bahrain, which will improve the adoption process. It is derived from field visits (Table 7), observations and the statistical data provided through the literature, as shown in Tables 8 and 9.

The SWOT analysis revealed that agriculture in the Kingdom of Bahrain awaits a promising future, as there are many opportunities for developing agriculture. The emerging agriculture IT and advanced infrastructure can directly contribute to agricultural productivity and indirectly empower farmers to make informed, quality decisions that will positively impact the way agriculture and allied activities are conducted. However, the weakness or challenges, such as low ICT literacy among Bahraini farmers and lack of reliable data, create barriers to exploiting such opportunities, specifically those related to ICT.

Therefore, TOWS analysis was conducted to set a relationship between the internal and external elements and provide the best ways to assess, create, compare and finally decide upon the strategic strategies to utilize inner strengths to make optimum use of the external opportunities available to the agriculture sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In other words, farmers and agriculture businesses must utilize their strengths to cash in on potential opportunities. For instance, by cooperating with financial intuitions such as the Bahrain Development Bank (BDB), they can take advantage of the available and emergent IT and expand their usage of modern agriculture practices. Moreover, they have to detect various alternatives to look past the weaknesses and take control of the opportunities in the course. For example, investing in ICTs education for farmers and agriculture-related technologies will produce a new generation of agriculture technology experts.