Adoption of digital technologies in agriculture—an inventory in a european small-scale farming region

Abstract As digitalization in the agricultural sector has intensified, number of studies addressing adoption and use digital technologies crop production livestock farming also increased. However, trends context small-scale have mainly been excluded from such studies. The focus this paper is on investigating sequential precision agriculture (PA) other technologies, multiple a region southern Germany. An online survey farmers yielded total 2,390 observations, which 1,820 operate field farming, 1,376 were farmers. A heuristic approach was deployed to identify patterns. Probable uses 30 decision-support applications, as well potential technology analyzed for four points (entry technology, currently used planned short-term mid-term investments). Results show that Bavarian cannot be described exceedingly digitalized but rates 15–20% within next five years barn robotics, section control, variable-rate maps satellite data. Established entry (e.g., automatic milking systems, records, steering systems) increased probability additional technologies. Among most current user-friendly automation solutions reduce farmers’ workload. Identifying equipment essential strengthen policy efforts promote digitalization.