Understanding the public attitudinal acceptance of digital farming technologies: a nationwide survey in Germany
- PDF / 1,207,994 Bytes
- 22 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 89 Downloads / 150 Views
Understanding the public attitudinal acceptance of digital farming technologies: a nationwide survey in Germany Johanna Pfeiffer1,2 · Andreas Gabriel1,3 · Markus Gandorfer1 Accepted: 21 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The magnitude of public concerns about agricultural innovations has often been underestimated, as past examples, such as pesticides, nanotechnology, and cloning, demonstrate. Indeed, studies have proven that the agricultural sector presents an area of tension and often attracts skepticism concerning new technologies. Digital technologies have become increasingly popular in agriculture. Yet there are almost no investigations on the public acceptance of digitalization in agriculture so far. Our online survey provides initial insights to reduce this knowledge gap. The sample (n = 2012) represents the German population in terms of gender, age (minimum 18 years), education and size of place of residence. Results showed that if the potential of digital farming technologies (DFT) regarding animal welfare and environmental protection was described, respondents reacted positively. Thus, the general attitudes of respondents toward the benefits of DFT were mostly positive. The approval to increasing adoption rates of particular DFT by providing subsidies was also high. Linear regression models showed that the dominant positive influences on respondents’ attitudes toward the benefits of DFT were a generally positive attitude toward farming and a strong trust in farmers in Germany. Confronting respondents with pictures showing DFT resulted in many spontaneous negative associations and general criticism of agricultural production. The latter holds true for DFT in animal husbandry in particular. However, as agriculture as a whole is criticized by many groups in Germany, it is unlikely that benefits from digitalization will significantly increase the public acceptance of agriculture as a whole. Keywords Spontaneous associations · Precision livestock farming · Precision crop farming · Dairy · Robot Abbreviations DFT Digital farming technology
* Johanna Pfeiffer [email protected] Andreas Gabriel [email protected] Markus Gandorfer [email protected] 1
Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Animal Husbandry, Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Voettinger Strasse 36, 85354 Freising, Germany
2
Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany
3
Chair of Economics of Horticulture and Landscaping, Technical University of Munich, Alte Akademie 16, 85354 Freising, Germany
Introduction Public acceptance of digital farming technologies In recent years, digitalization has found its way into agriculture and is now increasingly used in both animal husbandry and crop production. Digital farming technologies (DFT) include, for example, the application of sensors, automation, and robots in production systems (Banhazi et al. 2012; Shamshiri et al. 2018). Currently, stakeholders in the sector confirm that digitalization may increase public accep
Data Loading...
