An Analysis of Drone Adoption within Qatar's Agricultural Sector

This report investigates the adoption of drone technology in Qatar's agriculture sector, focusing on the factors that influence farmers and farming organizations' decisions to embrace this technology. The study explores the application of drones in precision agriculture, including data collection for disease mitigation, fertilization, irrigation, and mapping. It examines the current state of drone adoption in Qatar, considering the country's increasing population and the need for enhanced food production. The research utilizes the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model to analyze the motivations and challenges related to drone adoption. The report discusses the constructs of the UTAUT2 model, such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit, and formulates hypotheses based on these constructs. The methodology includes interviews with farmers, agricultural organizations, and experts to gather data. The findings and discussion section analyzes the data to determine the key factors influencing the adoption behavior of agricultural entities, aiming to provide recommendations for the successful integration of drone technology in Qatar's agricultural sector.

ADOPTION OF DRONES IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN QATAR
Abstract
The reliable and effective analysis of agricultural data is essential for making the agricultural
sector thrive. In general, this paper looks at Qatar as a country in which drones technology
adoption is starting to increase. Due to the more diverse and agricultural needs and demand,
precision agriculture is required. Drone images are used to collect sufficient data that can
mitigate plant diseases, enable fertilization, irrigation and mapping. Nonetheless, drone adoption
in agriculture considers these factors necessary for adoption. The paper gives recommendations
that consider these factors to the successful adoption of technology.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, technology plays an important role in various fields, including industry, medicine,
transportation, and agriculture, and it also has different uses because of its positive economic and
social impacts. The idea of using autonomous drones has been under research by Qatar as the
Qatari government believes that modern technologies play an important role in various
development projects and within different economic environments. Because it has proven its
ability to provide humans with a variety of assistance and its positive influence in human society,
the government of Qatar has started recently to do research regarding adopting drones. It is
estimated the commercial drones in Qatar will increase to more than double by 2022, as well as
is projected the demand will be driven by both government and private sectors (Gautam and
Sarka, 2019).
Qatar provides a great importance to the agricultural sector as the sector entrusted with achieving
food sufficiency, especially after the blockade, and the state has been keen to provide various
forms of support for this vital sector in order to reach the highest possible rate of self-sufficiency.
Moreover, according to the World Population Prospect, the Qatari population has increased day
by day, with 72 births every day, and 94 net migrations per day (World Population Prospect,
2020). This means the agricultural consumption will also increase. Accordingly, and in order to
feed the richer population, the food or agriculture production needs to increase as well. Due to all
these reasons, as well as the challenges of the agriculture sector such as climate, water irrigation
and soil, this paper investigates the factors affecting the adoption of drones in the field of
agriculture in Qatar. Previous research focused on the adoption of drones from different
perspectives such as; surveying, construction, warehousing and inventory and delivery .
Moreover, the adoption of drones in the agriculture sector in Qatar has been discussed regarding
the usefulness of the technology. However, no research to date investigated the adoption of
drones in the agriculture sector in Qatar from a technology adoption perspective. For that this
paper ad dresses this gap. Therefore; this paper will discuss the research question: what are the
motivation factors that make farmers or farming organizations adopt drone technology in the
agriculture sector in Qatar. To measure the success of adopting drone technology needs to go

through different processes. One of these essential processes is based on studying the
information, and technology adoption theories.
2. Literature review
According to Dr Ann L Kenimer, Tamuq interim dean, the adoption of drones in Qatar is
expanding and many agriculture sectors are moving towards drone technology Aguliar, 2016).
Puri, Nayyar, and Raja, (2017) reported that the uses of the drone in agriculture sectors in Qatar
are growing quickly due to their potential to deliver effective and reliable services. Similarly,
Giones and Brem, (2017), Reinecke and Prinsloo (2017), Saha, et al. (2018) and Rossiter
(2018), supported adoption of drone technology in Qatar because many agricultural sectors
around the world have adopted the drone technology for its usefulness. Patel (2016) and
Magistretti, and Dell’Era (2019) examined that drones could help farmers to deal with the
numerous challenges and eliminate guesswork and decrease uncertainty which provides effective
results and outcomes.
On contrary, Kinuthia and Mabaya (2014) highlighted there is a lack of proper agriculture
means and it is a poor technological adoption sector. De Clercq, Vats, and Biel (2018) discussed
the uses of drones in agriculture are limited due to such high cost and lack of awareness that
prevents people in Qatar from adopting the technology. Larger effectiveness is a major factor
leading drone adoption in Qatar where farmers can perform complex tasks easily (Lindsay, 2014)
and (Rathore, and Kumar, 2015). In a similar manner, Gilli and Gilli (2016) argue drones are not
common technology used in the agriculture sector as it requires complete communication and
setup that increase cost or expenses for farmers due to which it is not adopted by many farmers.
Mahajan and Bharat, (2016) conducted a survey and reported that 60% of the participants
agreed that the presence of drones in the agriculture industry can help to analyze soil and fields
easily and drones are capable to scan the ground and spray the desired amount of liquid easily.
Finn and Donovan (2016), and Nonami (2016) determined that the major motivation behind the
adoption of the drone in agriculture is to enhance performance and manage issues faced by

farmers. However, there are various challenges and drawbacks of drone technology such as
requiring larger experience, cover less area, need to gather government clearance, which may
make agriculture organizations reject adopting drones in the agriculture sector.
Summary of the literature
The review of various publications describe that most companies adopt drone technology in
agriculture due to many benefits it brings to people. However, some researchers argued that
agriculture is a poor technological adoption sector, and the use of drones is not a common
technology that is used in the agriculture sector as it needs a high level of communication and
has some challenges.
3. Theory:
One useful way that assets any organisation to acceptance and adoption of new technologies
is the analysing of theories and models related to accepting technology. Verdegem and De
Marez (2018) state, “All stakeholders involved in launching new developments are
desperately seeking for accurate insights into adoption determinants as a basis for more
effective introduction and targeting strategies”. It was hypothesized that the perceived
usefulness and benefit value and behavioural intention or actual use behaviour of an
individual consumer of using unmanned aircraft (drones) in the agriculture sector in Qatar
can positively influence and be associated with the acceptance of using it. To prove this
hypothesis, the following question required to answer:
- What are the motivating Factors that determine the influence of the behavioural
intention or actual use behaviour of an individual consumer of adopting drone technology
in the agriculture sector.
3.1 Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT 2)
The UTATUT2 is an information technology acceptance model that was developed by
Venkatesh, Thong and Xu in 2012. The UTAUT2 model is appropriate for drone adoption in the

agriculture industry in Qatar because it could provide insights on the factors affecting the
adoption of drone technology in the agriculture sector in Qatar, which in turn can help the
farmers and farming organisations to better implement strategies that will increase the adoption.
This is because they help to underline the advantages as well as the challenges and risks.
According to Venkatesh et al (2012), through consists of seven main constructs (performance
expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC),
hedonic motivation (HM), the price value (PV), and the namely habit (NH)), this model could
determines the behavioural intention to accept and use a new technology or system.
Figure 1: UTAUT 2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012)
· Performance Expectancy (PE): it refers to the belief that the use of a chosen technology
will be advantageous or improve the performance of the individual utilizing that particular
technology (Haba, 2018). As mentioned in the literature, agriculture is a poor technological

adoption sector( Kinuthia & Mabaya, 2014). So, using drone applications could have the
potential to help improve the job's efficiency and the user’s performance.
Hypothesis 1: Performance expectancy will positively influence the behavioural intention
towards adopting drone technology in the agriculture sector in Qatar.
· Effort Expectancy (EE): it refers to the degree of effort, ease or complexity, of
implementing that requires in order to use the technology (Arman & Hartati, 2015). This
explains the expectation of effort that Qatar should deliver to implement and integrate drone
applications in their operations.
Hypothesis 2: Effort expectancy positively can have significant influence on behavioural
intention of farmers or/and farming organisations to accept the use of drone technology in the
agriculture sector in Qatar.
· Social Influence (SI): highlights the potential importance of others' opinion concerning
adoption or rejection of a new technology. This covers to what extent the Qatari government
can matter and impact by other’s opinions in their decision to adopt drone technology.
Hypothesis 3: Social influence can achieve a positive effect on the behavioural intention of
farmers to adopt, and the actual use of drone technology.
· Facilitating Conditions (FC): represents the individuals’ comprehension and perception
towards the existing support resources and systems that could sustain the use of the new
technology. This determines the readiness of available technical infrastructure and Qatari
environment to assist in operational activities and implementation the acceptance and or
usage of drones.

Hypothesis 4: Facilitating conditions influence the farmer behaviour of adopting drones in the
agriculture sector in Qatar.
· Hedonic Motivation (HM): it describes the predictor for behavioural intentions by
describing the satisfaction and pleasure of an individual who uses the technology
experiences. This element describes if the Qatari agriculture sector put in consideration the
perceived enjoyment of a person when taking the adoption and using the drones applications
decision.
Hypothesis 5: Hedonic Motivation did not achieve a significant effect on the farmers or farming
organisations behaviour of adopting drones in the agriculture sector in Qatar.
· Price Value (PV): determine how the cost of the new technology can affect the decision of
adopting and using it. It covers the strong and important effect the cost can play on a
consumer’s decision of adopting and using the new technologies or rejecting them. This
factor explains if the cost of drones does play a role in motivating the Qatari agriculture
sector to adopt the drone by determining the cost-efficiency of using it for the agriculture
sector.
Hypothesis 6: The Price Value and cost-efficient play a role for farming organisations/farmers
to accept or reject drone technology.
· Namely Habit (NH): refers to the effect of habit on accepting the technology, this because
the intentional behaviour habit will influence the adoption of technology use in the future.
Through this element we can determine if the adoption of drones can reform standard
behaviours and habits or the processes of usage the drones can replace the ingrained habit in
the agriculture industry.

Hypothesis 7: A drone technology able to change repetitive and standardized behaviours of
farmers, and some agriculture processes could be replaced by drones.
· Age, gender and experience:
According to UTAUT 2, age, gender or the experience can affect the relations between certain
factors mentioned above and the behaviour intention or actual use of an individual.
4. Research methodology
The section below discusses various concepts of research methodology such as data collection
and data analysis methods.
4.1 Data collection:
Interviews with farmers, agricultural organizations and agriculture experts in Qatar.
We aim to interview local farmers and agricultural organizations, such as Arab Qatari
Agricultural Production Company, The Ministry of Environment and the Municipal Agriculture
and Fisheries Affairs, and expert professors from Qatar University’s agriculture department. The
interview questions focus on the UTAUT model 7 constructs. The research looked into how they
were employed to help farmers improve their surveillance and production of crops and what
environmental factors helped make it successful.
5. Discussion and Results:
In this section, real data from the interview are used to analyse and determine what actually
the motivation factors that influences farmers and farming companies in their decision to
adopt drone technology. Below is an explanation of the findings and discussion of how the

UTAUT2 model has been used to analyse the adoption behaviour of agriculture companies;
or a farmer who can be considered as individual consumers of drone technology.
· Performance Expectancy (PE):
The UTAUT2 model covers the usefulness of drone technology by providing significant valuable
advantages and lots of benefits for the agriculture industry. Based on the interviews, those
valuable benefits of are listed below:
Efficiency: the main aim of adopting drones in agriculture is the seeks to diversify palm
production and encourage local food production, especially after the blockade.
As the natural germination process takes time, using autonomous drones for automatic
Pollination because can replicate the process with efficiency, speed and save time.
Safety: all of the respondents agree that the use of drone technology not only accelerates the
processes of, but also plays a significant role in the control and early detection and treatment
of serious pests.
Accuracy: Drones can provide accuracy of the data by collecting data analysis and
visualization. Not only do drones gather information more efficiently than human inspectors,
the digital data enables workers to make better data-driven decisions (Mullins, Stankiewicz
& Gupta, 2017).
Environment responsibility: Qatar is a desert environment and pollination is essential for
the reproduction of plants as some birds and insects carry and transfer the pollen grains from
the anther of one flower to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil of another. However,
according to the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) report, the number of insects such as
butterflies and bees around the world is dwindling, with more than 40 percent of species
currently threatened with extinction (IPBES Secretariat, 2018). Therefore, to counter this
threat, the use of such drones is required.
Effort Expectancy (EE):

Despite the many pros of drones use, the assault on privacy is significant for society,
particularly in a traditionally conservative region such as on the Gulf. Drones represent a real
security risk, which may constitute a violation of privacy and a breach of security (Galliott,
2012).
In order to use this technology, the Qatar National Aviation Authority clarified some steps
for obtaining a license for self-flying drones. This process will take a long time and effort
until the moment the license is actually obtained. Moreover, some flights need exceptional
inquiries in order to get permission such as to fly above highways, which take even more
time to process and mostly not accepted.
All these can make working with drones very slow and inefficient.
· Social Influence (SI):
The opinions, experiences and approaches that developed in consumers’ minds to adopting
technologies of farming systems can positively affect the efficacy of adopting similar
approaches (Mottaleb, Rahut, Ali, & Gerard, 2016).
Qatar can get in touch with other gulf countries who were able to give more information
about the opportunities of the technology. For example, the Sultanate of Oman has
implemented the use of drones in the agriculture industry for their positive economic and
social impacts (Oman News Agency, 2018).
· Facilitating Conditions (FC):
Because of the early stage of adoption drones in the agriculture sector in Qatar; therefore the
support measures that facilitate the implementation or usage of drones is low. Accordingly,
Qatar can participate the employees in useful courses and training programs that guide
beginners in the use of drones and processing of data.

· Hedonic Motivation (HM):
Using hedonic motivation will not influence Qatari farming or farming organisations behavioural
intention very much. This is because enjoyment can be perceived differently for everyone, as
well as the use of drones depending on the weather conditions, not operating in rainy or
windy conditions.
· Price Value (PV):
As most respondents have declare:
“The cost of using drone technology is higher than using other traditional agriculture means;
however, it is able to deliver good performances.”
It is a fact that drones equipment costs a lot of money, however, benefits should be weighed
against costs before taking a decision. The adoption of drones could improve agricultural
operational efficiency and production in Qatar as drones aid in achieving food, economic,
social and environmental benefits.
The use of drones can reduce the number of immigrant workers as it has a system called Back
Home which allows it to return back on its own. This means no need to use thousands of
workers and pay monthly salaries for them.
· Namely Habit (NH):
Adopting drone technology will not change the habits and manner of how work in the agriculture
field. This is because the same job that individuals did will be made now but with only
different tools. However, this will make the job more efficient as data will be collected and
analysed automatically which is different from traditional techniques..

· Age, gender and experience:
It should be noted that the findings of the interviews show that the age and the experience of a
farming company may not directly influence the decision of adoption of drone technology.
Furthermore, if the person who takes the decision in adopting the technology is young, he/she
will be more open toward adopting new technology. Nevertheless, it has been found that more
mature companies could take the decision of investing more easily in drone technology as they
have more financial space. One other thing that it has been found, older agriculture surveyors
have more knowledge and information regarding the newest technologies.
Conclusion:
Agriculture is poor on technology adoption, which needs to change. UTAUT2 provides
interesting variables that could influence adoption behaviour intention or actual use of an
individual. Deeper understanding of the factors influencing behaviour assets on determined
factors that may play a significant role in the adoption of drone-delivery in the agriculture sector
in Qatar. Farmers and companies in Qatar find a significant value in adopting drone technology
in agriculture especially regarding the performance expectancy and social influence. Using
drones creates a greater possibility of acquiring and analysing vital data that can be used to make
consequent decisions. Farmers and farming companies find drone technology beneficial in
irrigation, crop monitoring, soil and field analysis and diseases control. The views that other
farmers and farming companies can develop in Qatari farmers’ minds concerning drone
technology adoption could influence their acceptance of it. Qatar’s strict regulation policy for
drone technology does not encourage its adoption. Therefore, this paper recommends that these
regulations could improve by making it less complex, especially regarding inquiries and
permissions. Moreover, since using drones needs specific skills, it is recommended for the
companies to put in consideration that they have to keep special financial support for training the
workers or choose the right people who are experts in collecting and processing data. In
conclusion, those factors could facilitate farming work in Qatar. Finally, as analysis of this paper

based on interviews with limited farmers and farming companies, it can certainly be expanded in
further research to be more logical.

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