Title : Beyond the frontrunners: Understanding adoption of digital agricultural technologies
Abstract:
Despite the potential of digital agricultural technology solutions (DATSs) to increase farm viability, sustainability and farmer wellbeing, only a minority of frontrunners seems to structurally embed these on the farm. Average European adoption figures point to a rate of around 60% of European farms that are currently using or planning to use at least one DATSs within a few years. For precision DATSs, this is less than 50%. These figures represent the larger farms; for smaller-sized farms these figures are even lower. As the range of possibilities is wide, and the potential advantages encouraging, this gives rise to the question: why does adoption of DATSs amongst farmers lag? Most research on the motivations for adopting DATSs has been methodologically limited and narrowly focused. They have predominantly relied on questionnaires or structured interviews, curbing the scope of the research. Also, these studies tend to emphasize farmers' lack of knowledge and expertise in making informed decisions, while prioritising the essence of a rational cost-benefit calculation. We find that motivations are shaped by far more complex interdependencies, however, involving psychological, social, contextual and economic factors, knowledge, experience, and biases. Moreover, adoption is widely treated as a binary event, a “yes or no decision”, while it is in fact a process in which intricate interactions between farmers, advisors, DATSs providers and policy makers influence the farmer’s decision-making and the prominence and valence of the above-mentioned factors. In the Horizon Europe project QuantiFarm we analysed technology adoption, treating it as this multi-step process involving various actors. We have explored not only why new digital technologies are adopted on farms but also when, how, and who is involved in doing so. We did this by employing innovative human- centered research approaches, for different DATS across multiple countries and contexts, immersing in genuine daily farm practice to collect data. Our analysis reveals similar stories of adoption all over Europe, but also very distinctive features that are related to farmer type, culture, and gender differences. The results are brought together in a framework of DATSs adoption and subsequent guidelines for farm advisors, DATSs providers and policy makers.
