We explore the relationship between precision agriculture (PA) technology adoption and technical efficiency using the 2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). Efficiency gains from PA are likely cumulative, that is, the true impact of precision farming depends on the integration of complementary tools. To examine the efficiency benefits of different PA bundles, we perform a two-step analysis. First, we use cluster analysis to identify distinct producer groups based on patterns in PA technology adoption. These producer groups map naturally onto the classic technology adoption curve (laggards, late majority, early majority, innovators). Second, we use stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and stochastic meta-frontier analysis (SMFA) to estimate differences in technical efficiency between PA adoption groups. We find that farms with advanced PA technology bundles are significantly more technically efficient than non-adopters. Differences in technical efficiency are not found to be driven by heterogeneous production technologies, but rather inefficiencies in input usage at the farm level. Our results have strong implications for farm consolidation in US agriculture.

中文翻译：

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精准农业技术采用和技术效率

我们使用 2016 年美国农业部农业资源管理调查 (ARMS) 探索精准农业 (PA) 技术采用与技术效率之间的关系。PA 的效率提升可能是累积的，也就是说，精准农业的真正影响取决于互补工具的整合。为了检查不同 PA 捆绑包的效率优势，我们进行了两步分析。首先，我们使用聚类分析来根据 PA 技术采用的模式识别不同的生产者群体。这些生产者群体自然地映射到经典的技术采用曲线（落后者、晚期大众、早期大众、创新者）。其次，我们使用随机前沿分析 (SFA) 和随机元前沿分析 (SMFA) 来估计 PA 采用组之间的技术效率差异。我们发现，拥有先进 PA 技术包的农场在技术上比未采用者要高得多。技术效率的差异不是由异质的生产技术驱动的，而是由农场层面的投入使用效率低下造成的。我们的结果对美国农业中的农场整合具有重要意义。