This study debates on the growing role of social media in contemporary agricultural communication and highlights the increasing pertinence of digital interaction among paddy farmers. Although social media platforms have become valuable tools for information and knowledge sharing, networking, and agricultural innovation dissemination, existing studies on farmers’ social media adoption remain largely subjugated by traditional technology adoption perspectives. Limited attention has been given to how technological affordances and intrinsic motivational factors jointly influence social media adoption behavior among farmers. Therefore, this paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework that combines Affordance Theory (TA) and Self-Determination Theory (SD-T) to explain social media adoption among paddy farmers. From the affordance perspective, social media platforms provide specific technological capabilities that enable interaction, visibility, information sharing, and community engagement. Meanwhile, intrinsic motivation explains how internal psychological drivers encourage voluntary engagement and continued social media usage. This paper argues that the integration of technological affordances and intrinsic motivation offers a more comprehensive explanation of farmers’ social media adoption behavior compared to traditional adoption models. The proposed framework contributes theoretically to agricultural communication and digital media literature while offering practical insights for policymakers and agricultural agencies in promoting digital agriculture initiatives among farming communities.
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