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Conference paper2023

A survey of pig and poultry farmers' readiness and attitudes towards smart technologies

Tikásza, I.E.; Királya, G.; Bálint, C. ; et al.

Abstract

Digitalization in livestock farming can foster economic and environmental efficiency of production, as well as the improvement of animal health and welfare. Several newly developed information and communication technologies (ICTs) are available on the market; thus, a number of studies focus on exploring these solutions and assessing their impact on productivity and sustainability. At the same time, much less attention is paid to farmers’ (especially in the pig and poultry sector) willingness to adoption, expectations and experiences with advanced technologies and the barriers of technology uptake. This study investigates the readiness and attitudes of pig and poultry farmers towards smart technologies. The assessment relies on a survey conducted in January 2022 in five European and one Middle Eastern country. Standardized on-line questionnaires were completed by 121 pig farmers and 145 poultry farmers. Based on the responses it was found that various factors, such as the level of automatization of farms, average age of the buildings and production technology, internet connection opportunity and the existence of network within the livestock building (which is able to connect to the internet) were strongly influencing ICT-tool use, hence determine the ICT-readiness of the farms. Depending on whether respondents were users or non-users of smart technology, their perceptions differed significantly regarding the ease of access to these technologies on the market, their operational reliability, costs of maintenance and the ease of access to technical assistance to them. This study improved our current understanding of factors influencing technology adoption rates on commercial farms. 

Title: Proceedings of the XL CIOSTA & CIGR Section V International Conference
ISBN: 978-972-778-337-3
Publisher: Universidade de Évora

Conference

XL CIOSTA & CIGR Section V International Conference (COSTA 2023), Évora, Portugal September 10–13, 2023