Factors Influencing the Timing of Precision Farming Technology Adoption

Precision farming (PF) technology is defined as a single technology or a suite of technologies used to manage variability of soils, yields, pests, fertilizers and other factors affecting crop production within a field by collecting spatial data throughout the field. This information is then used to make decisions about applying inputs to reduce cost (e.g., fertilizer and seed costs), increase yield and profit, and improve environmental quality. The objective of this research was to identify factors influencing Southern cotton farmers’ decisions to adopt, yield monitoring (YMR), grid soil sampling (GSS), management zone soil sampling (MSS), remote sensing (RMS), and soil survey maps (SSM) at different points in time. Data for cotton farmers in 12 states were obtained from the Cotton Incorporated Southern Cotton Precision Farming Survey conducted in 2009 for the 2008 crop. Tobit and Multivariate Tobit models were used to evaluate the factors influencing Southern cotton farmers’ decisions to adopt the five site-specific information technologies. The numbers of years a farmer had used each of the PF technologies were used as dependent variables. Independent variables hypothesized to influence the number of years used include farm characteristics, such as the size of farm; farmer characteristics, such as age and education; farmer perceptions, such as beliefs that PF technologies would be profitable for him/her to use in the future; information sources, such as farm dealers and crop consultants; adoption of other PF technologies; and regional characteristics. The results will be useful for researchers and agricultural support personnel in helping farmers make decisions to improve input efficiency, increase profit and decrease negative environmental impacts. Additionally, the results can provide information to farmers for making technology adoption decisions now and in the future, and can help research scientists put PF technology adoption and diffusion into a historical perspective for future research.