Browsing by Subject "Adoption"

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Soil-improving cropping systems for sustainable and profitable farming in Europe
(2022) Hessel, Rudi; Wyseure, Guido; Panagea, Ioanna ; Alaoui, Abdallah; Reed, Mark S.; van Delden, Hedwig; Muro, Melanie; Mills, Jane; Oenema, Oene; Areal, Francisco; van den Elsen, Erik; Verzandvoort, Simone; Assinck, Falentijn; Elsen, Annemie; Lipiec, Jerzy; Koutroulis, Aristeidis; O’Sullivan, Lilian; Bolinder, Martin A.; Fleskens, Luuk; Kandeler, Ellen; Montanarella, Luca; Heinen, Marius; Toth, Zoltan; Hallama, Moritz; Cuevas, Julián; Baartman, Jantiene E. M.; Piccoli, Ilaria; Dalgaard, Tommy; Stolte, Jannes; Black, Jasmine E.; Chivers, Charlotte-Anne
Soils form the basis for agricultural production and other ecosystem services, and soil management should aim at improving their quality and resilience. Within the SoilCare project, the concept of soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) was developed as a holistic approach to facilitate the adoption of soil management that is sustainable and profitable. SICS selected with stakeholders were monitored and evaluated for environmental, sociocultural, and economic effects to determine profitability and sustainability. Monitoring results were upscaled to European level using modelling and Europe-wide data, and a mapping tool was developed to assist in selection of appropriate SICS across Europe. Furthermore, biophysical, sociocultural, economic, and policy reasons for (non)adoption were studied. Results at the plot/farm scale showed a small positive impact of SICS on environment and soil, no effect on sustainability, and small negative impacts on economic and sociocultural dimensions. Modelling showed that different SICS had different impacts across Europe—indicating the importance of understanding local dynamics in Europe-wide assessments. Work on adoption of SICS confirmed the role economic considerations play in the uptake of SICS, but also highlighted social factors such as trust. The project’s results underlined the need for policies that support and enable a transition to more sustainable agricultural practices in a coherent way.
Stakeholder perspectives on the contribution of digital technologies to improve the sustainability of fruit production – a case study on the Lake Constance region in Germany
(2024) Gaber, Kirsten; Bieling, Claudia
Fruit cultivation is facing numerous sustainability challenges including climate change, weather extremes, and societal pressures surrounding the use of agricultural inputs. The value of fruit cultivation extends beyond the production of food, as the places of production are regionally important for ecology, recreation, tourism, and socio-cultural values; thus, sustainability issues threaten not only the future production of fruit, but also the cultural landscape as such. Digitalization in agriculture is progressing at a rapid pace and is frequently heralded as a solution to the current pressures surrounding modern food production. Increased productivity, efficiency gains, and improved transparency along the food value chain, enabled through the implementation of digital technologies, may lead to environmental and socio-economic benefits. Meanwhile, a divide is growing between supporters of digitalization and skeptics who are concerned with the technologies and their short- and long-term impacts. Digital solutions are not always suitable across agricultural sectors and regions due to differences in crop management activities, land-use types (e.g. perennial crop area like orchards versus arable land area for temporary crops), and physical barriers and infrastructure. At the face of these challenges and the rapid development of digitalization, stakeholder perceptions regarding the influence of digitalization on the sustainability of fruit cultivation must be understood in order to enable a sustainable further development of digital technologies. Particular to the case study region of this dissertation, the Lake Constance region in southern Germany, research on stakeholder perspectives at the interface of sustainability in fruit production and digitalization does not exist. There is a large knowledge gap regarding the attitudes and practical understandings of the stakeholders impacted by the digital transformation of fruit cultivation, as well as what measures are required to support a more user-oriented development. Technology development without the consideration of barriers, user abilities, and user expectations may lead to an imbalanced transformation that may favour certain agricultural sectors, farm sizes, or production systems over others, which may consequently create a regional, demographic, and/or sectoral digital divide. To this end, this cumulative doctoral work sought to explore the knowledge and views of stakeholders regarding the contribution of digital technologies to improve the sustainability of fruit production by using an empirical and qualitative case-study approach within the setting of sustainability research. The case-study region was the Lake Constance region in Germany, characterized by organic and integrated production (IP) fruit production on small- to medium-sized family farms. This region is the second-largest fruit growing area in the country and plays a critical role in the regional, national, and international food supply. The research questions that have guided this doctoral thesis are as follows: (1) What is the state of the art on digital technologies in fruit production? (2) How do stakeholders perceive digitalized fruit production, adoption and barriers to adoption of the technologies, and do these perceptions differ based on production system or farm size? (3) Do farmers (and other stakeholders) believe that digital technologies can tackle the environmental and social/societal sustainability challenges of fruit production, in both conventional and organic production, and if yes, how? In order to answer these questions, the author comprehensively reviewed over 200 digital tools that can be used by farms in the context of fruit production and conducted a qualitative analysis of 34 interviews with stakeholders along the fruit value chain. The three research articles that form the basis of this cumulative dissertation synergistically answer these questions through the research findings and surrounding scientific literature-based discussions. Overall, the development of digital tools for this case study region appears to be unsuitable and knowledge on digitalization is uneven. Based on the findings, opportunities for technological development to overcome reported barriers and therefore support a user-oriented transformation include the development of tools that are cost-efficient, such as tools with multifunctionalities or that are hireable services, and that offer technical support in the local language. Marketing of technologies must be improved, as misguided marketing and inadequate information in the fruit sector may hinder implementation. Political frameworks should prioritize supporting the inclusion of small farms and equal efforts for development and implementation across production systems. The reduction of agricultural inputs and lack of societal acceptance of agriculture were the most frequently reported sustainability challenges for regional fruit production. Stakeholders believed both environmental and socio-economic challenges could be mitigated by digitalization in fruit production, particularly through increased efficiency and improved transparency. However, perceptions of digitalization’s chances and challenges varied among individuals, fruit production systems, and farm sizes. Furthermore, the majority of stakeholders believed that digitalization could change the public opinion about fruit production, either through on-farm use of the technologies or through improved transparency along the value chain. Both pathways were reported to potentially create positive or negative impacts; for instance, more transparency can lead to improved trust between farmers and consumers, but could also de-romanticize expectations or contradict the idea of naturalness in agriculture, especially in the case of organic farming. The discourse surrounding the use of digital technologies in fruit farming may be more influential on public opinion than their actual implementation. According to stakeholders in the Lake Constance region, digitalized technologies can be used as tools to mitigate urgent sustainability challenges in fruit cultivation, but are not a cure-all solution. These technologies must be considered with caution, as they also risk worsening sustainability issues, particularly related to power inequalities and the growth paradigm of greater productivity and efficiency. Therefore, a reprioritization of digitalization focusing on mitigating urgent sustainability issues is required. This should include the supported development and implementation of user-driven technological design, hybrid (human-technological) intelligence for fruit cultivation tasks, and tools that prioritize building trust towards farmers and maintaining their autonomy. Future transdisciplinary research approaches are encouraged in order to meet many of the provided recommendations from this dissertation, such as enabling collaborative technology- and research design, improving foundational knowledge of involved groups through capacity-building measures like trainings, and building trust between actor groups. The results of this work will inform policy makers, researchers, and technology developers to support the fruit production sector to overcome current and future sustainability issues and enable fair, informed participation in the digital transformation of agriculture.
Stimulating awareness of precision farming through gamification: The farming simulator case
(2024) Pavlenko, Tetiana; Argyropoulos, Dimitrios; Arnoult, Matthieu; Engel, Thomas; Gadanakis, Yiorgos; Griepentrog, Hans W.; Kambuta, Jacob; Latherow, Tamisan; Murdoch, Alistair J.; Tranter, Richard; Paraforos, Dimitrios S.
Precision Farming (PF) provides different solutions to assist the decision-making process on farms. Current PF technologies such as variable rate site-specific applications can bring financial benefits to farmers as well as environmental advantages. Increasing scientific research and an expanding number of PF products are supporting a growing interest in PF applications. However, the actual implementation of these technologies on farms in many cases remains low. Therefore, there is a need to disseminate and transfer knowledge about the positive aspects of PF. One of the ways to facilitate the adoption process of PF technologies is education and training among farmers and other interested stakeholders. This paper presents a case study using the computer game Farming Simulator as an educational tool for raising awareness about the topic in an engaging and enjoyable way. Two distinct downloadable content (DLC) versions were developed and implemented in the versions 2019 and 2022 of the game, respectively, each with a range of PF functionalities (automatic steering, variable rate applications, yield mapping among others). The PF DLCs have received positive feedback from students and scientists but also the general public. The growing number of downloads (3,661,069 in total for both DLC versions as of 15th November 2023) demonstrates the effectiveness of computer games as an educational tool to educate and inform stakeholders (farmers, scientists, students, and the general public) about agricultural challenges and the potential of PF as a solution.
The adoption of agricultural machinery and its economic impacts in China
(2023) Quan, Xiuhao; Doluschitz, Reiner
In modern agriculture, machinery plays an important role to substitute manual labor and to improve productivity and economic performance of farm households. Conventional agricultural machinery in crop production includes tractors, cultivators, tillers, combine harvesters, pumps, threshers, planters, fertilizer spreaders, seeders, etc. In recent years, as an innovative agricultural machinery, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been adopted in precision agriculture for crop monitoring and crop spraying. However, factors influencing Chinese farmers’ adoption of agricultural machinery and the economic impacts of the adoption have not been adequately studied, especially regarding farm machinery in maize production and UAVs in precision agriculture. In addition, there is limited literature that systematically summarizes the use of UAVs in maize production. The development of UAV-based pattern management in Chinese agriculture and the prerequisites for adopting and implementing this approach remain unclear. By utilizing farm household data, qualitative methods, and econometric quantitative methods, this dissertation aims to (i) identify the factors influencing the adoption of farm machinery and UAVs by Chinese farmers; (ii) estimate the economic impacts of adopting farm machinery and UAVs; (iii) provide an overview of UAV applications in maize production; (iv) study the prerequisites for adopting and implementing UAV-based pattern management in Chinese agriculture; (v) outline and recommend policy instruments to promote the use of farm machinery and UAVs in China. The empirical results indicate that the determinants of farm machinery adoption and UAV adoption can be attributed by three major aspects: farmer characteristics (e.g., age, education level, and perceptions about agricultural machinery), farm characteristics (e.g., farm size, land fragmentation, and cooperative membership), and other external socio-economic factors (e.g., subsidies, technical assistance, and labor shortages). The adoption of farm machinery and UAVs has shown significantly positive economic effects. However, the effects vary among farm household types due to the heterogeneous farm characteristics and socio-economic conditions. Farm machinery use significantly increased maize yield by 0.216 tons/ha and improved labor productivity by 18.65%. Young, male, and better-educated farmers benefit more from adopting farm machinery, and farms located in plain regions with cooperative membership and rented land can gain higher economic benefits from machinery use. In addition, the impacts of farm machinery adoption on maize yield and labor productivity slightly decrease with farm size. The adoption of UAVs in pesticide application significantly increased revenue and reduced the time spent on pesticide application by approximately 434-488 USD/ha and 14.4-15.8 hours/ha, respectively. In terms of marginal revenue and marginal time spent on pesticide application, the optimal area for using UAVs in pesticide spraying is estimated to be 20 hectares of arable land, suggesting that small and medium-scale farmers are the main beneficiaries of UAV adoption. For the wide application of UAV-based pattern management in precision agriculture, certain socio-economic and technical prerequisites are necessary. These include farmers possessing adequate UAV-related capabilities, relatively large farm sizes, availability of UAV-related subsidies, and superior UAV performance. Balancing the pros and cons, the effective promotion of farm machinery in maize production and UAVs in precision agriculture requires the establishment of a comprehensive socio-economic institution. This institution should integrate strategies from both the public and private sectors such as the implementation of land consolidation, the establishment of agricultural machinery cooperatives for benefit-risk sharing, the provision of practical training and education on agricultural machinery, and subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery. Due to the heterogeneous effects of farm machinery adoption and UAV adoption, it is necessary to develop customized extension services tailored to various types of farm households to prevent inequity among farmers.