Farmers’ Awareness of the Advantages of Using Smart Cards in the Agricultural Sector in Some Villages in El-Beheira Governorate

The current investigation aimed to determine the level of the respondents’ awareness of the advantages of using the smart card in the agricultural sector, as well as to determine the correlation between the degree of the respondents’ awareness of the advantages of using the smart card in the agricultural sector and the independent studied variables and to determine the contribution of each of the independent variables with a significant correlation in explaining the total variation occurring in the degree to which the respondents are aware of the advantages of using the smart card in the agricultural sector, as well as identifying the obstacles that the respondents face when using the smart card in the agricultural sector from their point of view.
This research was performed in El-Beheira Governorate, where three districts were randomly selected from among the districts of the governorate: Damanhour, Itay al-Baroud, and Rahmaniyah. By the same way of selection, a village from each district was selected. Al-Basateen village in the Damanhour district, Al-Naqras village in the Itay al-Baroud district, and the village of Al-Bakwat in the Al-Rahmaniyah district were selected. Then, a regular random sample of 149 respondents was selected from them, representing 10% of the total number of farmers in each of the three selected studied villages, numbering 1,490 farmers who obtained the smart card. Field data was collected using a questionnaire form through personal interviews with sample individuals. The research was carried out in December 2023 after conducting initial testing and then making the necessary modifications to it. Frequencies, percentages, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, weighted average score, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, the correlation analysis model, and multiple stepwise regressions (step-wise) were used for data analysis and interpretation.
The results showed that:
1- 51.7% of the respondents had a low level of awareness of the advantages of using the smart card in the agricultural sector, 40.3% of them had a medium level of awareness, and 8% of them had a high level of awareness.
2- Six independent variables explain together 46.1% of the total variance in the degree of respondents’ awareness of the advantages of using the smart card in the agricultural sector, 16.8% of which is attributed to the degree of extension communication, 10.7% of them was education degree of the respondent, and 9. 2%  of them were the agricultural land tenure, 4.7% of them were the degree of availability of agricultural and extension services provided by the smart card, 3.1% of them were the degree of mental flexibility, and 1.6% of them were the respondent’s age.
3- The most important obstacles facing the respondents when using the smart card in the agricultural sector, from their point of view, are the lack of experience of agricultural specialists in using the smart card machine, the frequent malfunctions of the smart card machine in the agricultural cooperative society, the weakness of the Internet network in the agricultural cooperative society, the lack of knowledge of farmers on how to use the smart card, the problems with issuing the smart card for the heirs.