Linking the diversity of ecologisation models to farmers' digital use profiles

Abstract

Digitalisation is promoted by both private and public actors as a way of contributing to the ecologisation of agriculture. However, this idea remains controversial. The debate is all the more crucial, as different ecologisation models exist, and as agriculture is experiencing new levels of industrialisation. In the literature, use of digital technology in agriculture has mainly been approached from a linear perspective of adoption but is rarely linked to ecologisation. In this paper, we aim to define digital use profiles of farmers and explain how they relate to ecologisation models. We distinguish production and information technologies. Based on 98 interviews with crop farmers in Occitanie (France), we show that there is a diversity of digital profiles. Through a mixed-method, we relate these profiles to a set of variables representing ecological and economic transformation in agriculture. It highlights links between some digital profiles and the further industrialisation of agriculture intertwined with weak or symbolic ecologisation. However, some digital uses associate with new forms of ecologisation that are based on input substitution. Digital use does not appear to support stronger ecologisation of farming. This study highlights the risk of a single model of digitalisation that only promotes one type of ecologisation pathway.