Purpose: Agri-Fintech services, meaning digital credit, mobile payments platforms, crop insurance applications and even e-mandi systems, could have transformative potential for women farmers in developing agrarian economies. But adoption among rural women in India still remains pretty low, and this happens partly because socio economic conditions are complex; also, cognitive issues and structural barriers play a role. This study looks into what shapes women farmers attitudes toward Agri-Fintech services and their adoption intention, in rural Haryana India.
Design/Methodology/Approach: We carried out a cross-sectional survey with 384 women farmers, and the respondents were taken from districts that were purposively selected in Haryana. The sampling was multi stage, a mix of purposive cum random sampling, so it was not fully one simple approach. For the data analysis, we used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, meaning PLS-SEM, in order to examine nine hypothesized relationships. Later, we also worked with an extended Technology Acceptance Model TAM. We included parts from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), and Institutional Theory, mostly to understand those different supporting factors that shape agri fintech adoption intention.
Findings: Indeed, with nine variables, five came out being the real significant determinants on the Attitude toward Agri-Fintech (ATT)—namely, Perceived Financial Benefit (PFB), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Trust in Technology (TIT), Social Influence (SI), and Financial Literacy (FL). Meanwhile, Government Policy Support (GPS), Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), and Perceived Risk (PR) remained non-significant. Its strength was a fairly powerful model that could account for 74.1 % of VAR in both ATT and 62.6% in Adoption Intention (AI), and then there was also some form of mediation in a pretty good form of standard. On the boundary conditions, SHG Membership (M1) and Digital Infrastructure Access (M2) offered themselves as significant moderators on attitudinal corridors that matter, not in any one link but in numerous links.
Practical Implications: Findings underscore the primacy of showing real money returns, building institutional trust, and leaning on SHG peer networks as adoption catalysts. Policymakers should integrate Agri Fintech literacy into PM-KISAN and SHG training curricula and deploy gender sensitive digital financial literacy programmes, to bridge that adoption gap.
Originality/Value: This study gives the first gender-exclusive, state specific empirical validation of an extended TAM framework for Agri-Fintech services in India, integrating financial benefit, trust, literacy and institutional constructs within a PLS-SEM architecture. It offers contextually grounded evidence for gender inclusive Agriculture 4.0 policy design, in a way that feels evidence based and not just theoretical.