Willingness to pay for smartphone apps facilitating sustainable crop protection

Abstract

By providing additional information and simulating results, decision support tools are one of the methods to enhance a farmer's decision-making process in order to achieve more sustainable practices. With the latest developments in smartphone technology, new possibilities to integrate decision support tools into the daily work process have been emerging and smartphone apps related to crop protection have been developed. However, little is known about the utilization of smartphones by farmers in general, and specifically with regard to crop protection. In order to gather first insights into the factors that could affect the decision of farmers to integrate smartphones and crop protection-related apps in particular, into their work process, we conducted an online survey with 174 technologically experienced German farmers in 2017. We gained insights about the current use of smartphones from the surveyed German farmers, explored which topics farmers perceive as useful in the form of an app for crop protection, and which factors influence the willingness to pay for these apps. Our results show that 93% of the respondents use smartphones for agricultural purposes. Weather forecasts, tools to identify pests, diseases and weeds, as well as related forecasts are perceived as useful by the majority of respondents. Eighty-two percent of the respondents are generally willing to pay for crop protection apps. Using a probit model, we found that the farmer's age, farm size, knowledge about specific crop protection apps, potential for cost reduction, and potential to reduce negative environmental effects have an influence on the general willingness to pay. Overall, this is the first study to explore factors influencing the willingness to pay for crop protection apps and assess which types of apps are perceived as useful by technologically experienced German farmers.

Understanding the adoption of smartphone apps in dairy herd management

“…For DST in general, Rose et al (2016) reason that farmers who are used to computers and smartphones will be more likely to use new software and apps, as these may not be as difficult to adopt considering their current use of technology. In line with that, Bonke et al (2018) show that farmers who are aware of the existence of crop protection apps are more likely to be willing to pay for these apps. Hence, it is plausible that a dairy farmer who is aware of and already informed about herd management smartphone apps perceives the use of such apps as easier than dairy farmers who have no knowledge about such apps, as expressed by the following hypothesis.…”

“…The PU refers to the extent to which an individual perceives that a technology enhances his or her job performance (Davis, 1989). A DST should provide information that is useful for the farmer's work, because otherwise, adoption will not occur (Rose et al, 2016;Bonke et al, 2018). To summarize, if a dairy farmer perceives herd management smartphone apps as useful to obtain information to make better production decisions or to observe animal behavior, he or she is more likely to have a higher intention to use herd management smartphone apps.…”

Global trends in apps for agriculture

“…However, these results should not be interpreted as a lack of market space for paid apps. For example, a survey conducted in Germany found that 82% of farmers were willing to pay for apps, provided that these apps actually contribute to the efficiency of agricultural activities (Bonke et al 2018).…”

“…For example, animal power gave way to machinery, growth of genetic knowledge has enhanced plant and animal breeding, and manufactured fertilizers have superseded or supplemented organic residues as fertility amendments. In more recent times, the advent of computers, digital cameras, electronic agendas/planners, and mobile phones has introduced new tools to aid the activities of farmers, agricultural technicians and researchers (Romani et al, 2015;Barbosa et al 2016;Bonke et al 2018;Meena et al 2018;Bezerra et al 2020). Therefore, the Digital Era clearly represents a new phase in the evolution of agriculture.…”

Use of information and communication technologies in small-scale dairy production systems in central Mexico

“…Therefore, the characterization is considered to be a useful tool that enables the design of strategies for the extension services, communication and dissemination of technologies, taking into account the key characteristics, and needs of each identified group (Martínez-García et al, 2012). The aforementioned studies considered variables that describe the farmers, family unit, farm, participation in governmental programs, and level of technology use; however, no studies have taken into account the use of ICTs, which play an important role in developed countries such as Germany in the adoption of smartphone apps in crop protection (Bonke et al, 2018) and the management of dairy farms (Michels et al, 2019). In developing countries such as India, the implementation of ICTs, mainly in rural areas, is barely emerging (Rathod et al, 2016).…”