As the use of smartphone technology is becoming increasingly popular in the agricultural context, there is a need to consider how farmers have adapted to this form of technology. The current study examined the factors which influence Irish farmers’ engagement with smartphone use and new smartphone apps and explored the supports required by farmers to successfully engage with smartphone apps for agriculture use. Seven focus groups were conducted with a total of 41 farmers from four regions in the Republic of Ireland. Findings revealed that factors such as poor broadband internet availability, coupled with a lack of comfort with emerging technologies, technology trust issues, and a perceived lack of sufficient benefits deterred farmers’ engagement with smartphone technology and agricultural apps. Perceived benefits of smartphone engagement also emerged including an enhanced sense of empowerment, a more flexible lifestyle, a reduction in stress, an improvement in time efficiency, an enhanced level of communication between farmers and their respective governing bodies and, an ability to make data-driven decisions on the farm. Perceived support networks to aid farmers in using agricultural apps included farm advisors, family members and peers. The findings outline the importance of understanding the barriers and enablers of farmers’ engagement with smartphones and agricultural apps in Ireland. The findings are of interest to researchers in the field of smart farming technology, as well as developers and providers of agricultural smartphone apps, since this research is one of the first studies to provide information about the underlying factors driving or preventing smartphone and app use among farmers.

中文翻译：

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与农民共同设计智能手机应用程序：同情最终用户的价值观和需求

随着智能手机技术在农业中的使用变得越来越流行，有必要考虑农民如何适应这种形式的技术。当前的研究调查了影响爱尔兰农民使用智能手机和新智能手机应用程序的因素，并探讨了农民成功使用智能手机应用程序进行农业所需的支持。来自爱尔兰共和国四个地区的 41 名农民参加了 7 个焦点小组。调查结果显示，宽带互联网可用性较差、对新兴技术缺乏信心、技术信任问题以及认为缺乏足够的好处等因素阻碍了农民对智能手机技术和农业应用程序的参与。智能手机参与的感知好处也出现了，包括增强赋权感、更灵活的生活方式、减轻压力、提高时间效率、增强农民与其各自管理机构之间的沟通水平以及使数据农场的驱动决策。帮助农民使用农业应用程序的感知支持网络包括农场顾问、家庭成员和同行。研究结果概述了了解爱尔兰农民使用智能手机和农业应用程序的障碍和推动因素的重要性。这些发现引起了智能农业技术领域的研究人员以及农业智能手机应用程序的开发商和提供商的兴趣，因为这项研究是第一个提供有关驱动或阻止智能手机和应用程序使用的潜在因素的信息的研究之一。农民。