Why a farmer adopts – or doesn’t adopt – precision technology?

Tong Wang, associate professor in South Dakota State University’s Ness School of Management and Economics, has been conducting research on precision ag technologies and their adoption rates over the past few years to understand why a farmer adopts — or doesn’t adopt — these practices. The full study was published in the academic journal Ecological Economics. Professor Wang said. “In this study, we compared precision ag adopters’ rated profit changes for a range of technologies, and we studied a variety of factors that potentially affect profit changes to understand the source of variance in precision ag profitability.”

Different PA technologies

In this study, researchers highlighted 8 widely adopted precision ag technologies, including auto-steering and guidance, automatic section control, satellite/aerial imagery, unmanned aerial vehicle/drone imagery, variable rate fertilizer application, variable rate seed and application, variable rate pesticide application and variable rate irrigation application.

To understand farmers’ viewpoints regarding profitability and adoption, the research team sent out surveys to 6,000 regional farmers in 2021. The surveys asked farmers in eastern South Dakota, eastern North Dakota, western Minnesota and eastern Nebraska to rate their profit change after adopting, or not adopting, each of the listed precision ag technologies.

Most adapted technology

The most widely adopted precision ag technologies include auto-steering and guidance, which fit under the ‘georeferencing technology’ category. This technology helps farmers navigate their fields and use resources more efficiently, a system that helps boost profitability.

Satellite imagery was the next most widely adopted technology, with nearly 60% of all farmers having used it. Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles fall under a similar category to satellite imagery; however, drones are much less prevalent, with an adoption rate at 26%. While 26% is low in comparison to other adoption rates, it is a substantial increase from previous research, indicating that drone usage is on the rise amongst farmers.

Viewpoints on profitability

To understand viewpoints on profitability, the research team had to know what the rated change of profits is according to adopters of precision ag technologies, and the perceived profit change by non-adopters. For each of the listed precision ag technologies, approximately 60% of non-adopters indicated they had “no idea” if adoption resulted in profitability change for the farm.

“This is not surprising since non-adopters have no direct hands-on knowledge on precision ag profitability. Most of them likely have not received such information,” Wang said. “This highlights the need for a better understanding of precision ag-generated profit change from adopters’ experience over regions with different farm, soil and weather characteristics.”

To further facilitate precision ag adoption, the research team noted that financial support during the first few years of adopting a new technology could be beneficial. The researchers also theorized that connecting long-term adopters with non-adopters so they could share experiences with the technology could also help increase adoption rates.