Abstract
Even though a broad range of technologies for variable rate application of nitrogen ferti-liser is available, there are hardly any documented cases of their use in Austria. In this study, the drivers and barriers of adoption have been investigated. A survey of 242 farmers in Lower Austria was conducted. The survey covered the farmers’ economic situation, concerns, and expectations regarding the future of their farms and their interest in precision farming technologies. A choice experiment was included in the survey to elicit farmers’ preferences for different features of variable rate application technologies. A series of multinomial logit, mixed logit and latent class logit models were run to analyze the choice experiment. Most farmers were interested in variable rate applica-tion, whereas technology costs, yield and environmental improvements were found to be important drivers of adoption. Also, farm size, farming system, technological level and network activities seem to play an important role in the uptake of variable rate application technologies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1965 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Agronomy |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | 29 Sep 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
Funding Information:
programme under grant agreement No 633945.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Adoption
- Choice experiment
- Nitrogen
- Precision agriculture
- Satellite data
- Variable rate fertilisation
