Abstract

Bangladesh has been a pioneer in the microfinance movement since its inception in the early 1980s, and today this concept has been adopted by many countries including China, India, and Brazil. It is already proven as strong and useful poverty reduction tools by researchers worldwide. Conversely, Online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending, also known as online social lending is a new form of electronic commerce platform for the poor. Nowadays, the main concept has been exacerbated by MFIs towards achieving institutional benefits rather than alleviating poverty. The essence of ICT, which is widely used by middle and poor class farmer in Bangladesh, has not been incorporated with microfinance platform extensively. This paper describes farmers’ perceptions about P2P microfinance platform in terms of applying the Farmers Technology Acceptance Model (FTAM). This study also proposed an integrated theoretical framework of farmer acceptance and intention to use ICT enabled product and services based on technology acceptance model (TAM). Total Eighty (80) households from both countries were surveyed with structured questionnaire during the FGD, and In-depth Interview sessions to know the perception about technology, and the motivations to use ICT Based Microfinance Platform in resolving agriculture needs by the rural farmers. In this study, analysis of field study data provides evidence of the reliability and validity of the proposed Conceptual Model. Finally, a comparative analysis is drawn based on empirical evidence, collected from both countries. The findings contribute to future research on external variables of TAM.

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