Adoption of digital technologies in agriculture—an inventory in a european small-scale farming region

• DOI: 10.1007/s11119-022-09931-1
• Publication Date: 2022-07-26T13:05:42Z
• Authors: Andreas Gabriel; Markus Gandorfer
• Keywords: Precision Agriculture; Emerging Technologies; Agricultural machinery

Abstract As digitalization in the agricultural sector has intensified, number of studies addressing adoption and use digital technologies crop production livestock farming also increased. However, trends context small-scale have mainly been excluded from such studies. The focus this paper is on investigating sequential precision agriculture (PA) other technologies, multiple a region southern Germany. An online survey farmers yielded total 2,390 observations, which 1,820 operate field farming, 1,376 were farmers. A heuristic approach was deployed to identify patterns. Probable uses 30 decision-support applications, as well potential technology analyzed for four points (entry technology, currently used planned short-term mid-term investments). Results show that Bavarian cannot be described exceedingly digitalized but rates 15–20% within next five years barn robotics, section control, variable-rate maps satellite data. Established entry (e.g., automatic milking systems, records, steering systems) increased probability additional technologies. Among most current user-friendly automation solutions reduce farmers’ workload. Identifying equipment essential strengthen policy efforts promote digitalization.