Producers' perceptions and attitudes toward precision agriculture technologies

Demographic and economic research perspectives have given a great deal of attention in recent years to the adoption of precision agriculture. However, very little attention has been given to the perceptions and attitudinal reasons for farmers to adopt these technologies. While economic benefit is the primary reason given by producers to adopt precision agricultural technologies, other attitudes play roles in the adoption decision. This paper reports investigations into the perception and attitudinal characteristics of farmers who plan to adopt these technologies. A survey instrument is used to measure constructs of perception and attitudes. Structural equation modeling, a multivariate analysis, is used to analyze these constructs. Attitudes of confidence toward using the precision agriculture technologies, perceptions of net benefit, farm size and farmer educational levels positively influenced the intention to adopt precision agriculture technologies. The perception of usefulness positively influenced perception of net benefit. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All fights reserved.