Farmer Perceptions of Precision Agriculture Technology Benefits

The objective of this research was to evaluate producers’ perspectives of four key precision agriculture technologies (variable rate fertilizer application, precision soil sampling, guidance and autosteer, and yield monitoring) in terms of the benefits they provide to their farms (increased yield, reduced production costs, and increased convenience) using a best-worst scaling choice experiment. Results indicate that farmers’ perceptions of the benefits derived from various precision agriculture technologies are heterogeneous. To better understand farmers’ adoption decisions, or lack thereof, it is important to first understand their perceptions of the benefits precision agriculture technologies provide.

Written by: Nathanael Thompson, Courtney Bir, David Widmar and James Mintert

Learn more about this research by visiting this article at the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Digital Agriculture Posts

Digital Horticultural Crop Activity Records

Field records (who, what, where, how) are those elements of records and data that are often...

Spring 2023 Data-Driven Seminar Series

Purdue College of Agriculture presents a seminar series featuring experts in data science,...

Fall 2022 Data-Driven Seminar Series

Purdue College of Agriculture presents a seminar series featuring experts in data science,...

Digital Marketing and Grain Delivery Records

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle sitting in cornfield

Extension UAV Initiative Update

The Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, aka drones)...

Long-range networks facilitate convenient producer data collection

Farming has forever and will always require efficiency and vigilance. Producers have long looked...