Abstract
Many technologies have appeared in agriculture to reduce the harmful effects of chemical use. One of these technologies is precision farming technology. Precision farming technology should not be considered as only the latest plant production technology or only a new agro-management tool. It is achieved only when the results of electronics and IT equipment are realized in the variable rate treatments zone-by-zone. The advantages and disadvantages of this technology highly depend on the heterogeneity of soil, the knowledge and attitude of the manager and the staff. This is the reason why opinions about the technology effects are so wide. This paper shows the results of the investigation based on interviews about the adoption and knowledge of precision farming technology among Hungarian crop producers. This technology is mostly used by farms over 300 hectares with young farmers. The most characteristic elements were precision fertilization and tractor guidance. The survey examined three groups of farmers with respect to whether they apply precision farming elements or not. We refer to them as “users”, “planners” and “non-users”. According to the survey, the opinions of the “user” and the “non-user” groups of farmers are not significantly different regarding the impacts of precision farming technology (the main advantages were the change in yield quantity, chemical usage and income). Furthermore, the opinions of the farmers regarding the changes in variable costs resulting from the adoption of precision farming technology were also examined (measured in percent). Box-plot analysis was used for this examination. According to the opinion of the “user” group of farmers, the highest cost savings occurred in fertilizer and herbicide costs.
Highlights
In agricultural innovation, the ecological and economical sustainability of production play a very important role
They could use the Stapel scale to classify the changes resulting from the introduction of precision farming technology
The positive impacts of precision farming technology, which are well communicated to farmers, may be experienced in agricultural practice
Summary
The ecological and economical sustainability of production play a very important role. The radical changes of natural resources go along with the change of the structure of agricultural production and make it necessary to introduce alternative technologies, for example ecological farming, mid-tech farming and precision farming These processes should be supported by new types of allowances, including those elements that focus on the increase of efficiency [3,4,5,6,7]. Based on the scientific literature, the most impeding factors for the adoption of precision farming technology are high investment costs (which is sometimes true, but sometimes just supposed), the lack of managerial skills and knowledge and the farmers’ attitude toward IT-supported technologies. Farmers need a minimum of 1500 hectares for precision weed management or fertilization [40] The reason for these differences is that the economical threshold level highly depends on the correlation between savings and additional costs, which is strongly determined by the heterogeneity of the given plots. If the farmers can use precision farming technology on bigger fields, they could experience more advantages of the technology
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