An Assessment of Microcomputer Software in the Farm Sector: Is It Meeting Users' Expectations?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study surveyed 605 agricultural-based microcomputer users throughout the United States. The goal of the survey was to gather information related to three important issues: (1) How familiar are farmers with available agricultural software, and what channels do they use to find out about what software is available? (2) How do farmers rate currently-available software, and what problems, if any, do they encounter in using it? (3) Are there reasonable ways for farmers to provide input during the software development process in order to avoid some of the problems that occur with currently available software? The results of the study indicated that a large percentage of respondents were unfamiliar with agricultural software products and that supplementing current information dissemination channels with more direct methods of information dispersion may prove beneficial. Also, respondents felt that agricultural software needs to be more flexible to address a diversity of agricultural computing needs, that it needs to be easier to use, and that developers should provide adequate technical support and feedback. Farmers indicated that they would be willing to become involved in the software development process by providing feedback to developers via questionnaires, testing pilot versions of software, or reacting to verbal or visual descriptions of the software. Lastly, respondents felt that the Extension System should play a major role in agricultural computing by developing and disseminating computer software and by providing hardware support to users. Based on these findings recommendations are made to facilitate software adoption and use in the farm sector.