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Dutch growers show growing interest in precision farming

11-03-2021 | |
Photo: Ton Kastermans Fotografie
Photo: Ton Kastermans Fotografie

More than 50% of Dutch arable farmers currently use GPS. According to AgriDirect, a Dutch agricultural marketing agency, the ever-increasing technological developments in the mechanisation industry are making arable farmers in the Netherlands more and more willing to invest in precision agriculture technology.

More than 2,000 Dutch arable farmers took part in a survey about mechanisation and investment plans. More than 50% of the respondents currently use GPS on one or more of their machines. Half of the respondents say they have a GPS system on their tractor, and almost 29% of the respondents use GPS on their sprayer.

Size matters, according to the survey: For farms with 100 hectares or more, 90% say they use GPS. 7% say they plan to invest in GPS in the near future.

Other methods applied

Other precision farming technology applied include automatic disease or pest warning systems (7.3%), satellite maps (5.8%), autonomous farm machinery (3.7%) and drones (1.7%).

Investing in precision agriculture

Growers were also asked about their intentions to invest in precision farming technology in the future. Results show that 2.7% intend to invest in satellite maps, 1.7% in autonomous agricultural machinery, 0.6% in drones and 0.6% in automatic warning systems.

In addition, 4% indicate that they are willing to invest, but currently do not have the resources to do so. 67,3% of all respondents who currently do not use precision farming technology, say they are not interested in investing in agtech.

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Claver
Hugo Claver Web editor for Future Farming





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