CONTEXT

Precision farming (PF) is a term that is now widespread throughout agricultural systems worldwide. It is studied in many ways, from its strictly technical connotation of a farm management strategy that uses information technology to support decision-making processes to the steppingstones and the dissection of the factors involved in the complex scenario of adopting related tools. Starting from the statement "In my opinion, precision farming is…", the present work investigates the perspective of the agricultural entrepreneur in conceptualising PF. Some researchers have highlighted the role of the sphere of the self in adoption, but few efforts have been made to better understand the role played by farmers’ perceptions in the formation of their thinking about innovative tools.

OBJECTIVE

This work aims to deepen the sphere of the self and, in particular, the role played by farmers’ perceptions when faced with the innovation adoption choice. The study presents a new conceptual framework identifying key stages for analysing adoption processes, focusing on the relationships between behaviour, structural dimensions and adoption, interpreted from the farmer perspective.

METHODS

The Q methodology (QM) was used with a targeted sample of 23 farmers to identify prevailing discourses. In the first step, the socio-structural dimensions were analysed through descriptive analysis, and in the second step, the discourses were extracted by an intercorrelation matrix through the centroid procedure, translating the solution using varimax rotation.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

This paper highlights that the QM is an appropriate technique for exploring and studying farmers’ attitudes when challenged with innovation. The results reveal discourses that summarise three macro perspectives: the “proactive approach”, which represents farmers who perceive PF as having a key role for agricultural enterprises; the “conservative approach”, which characterises those who distrust innovations; and the “doubtful approach”, which is the more sceptical vision.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study demonstrates the importance of moving beyond simply quantitative studies that methodically analyse adoption processes and overcoming the constraints of qualitative research by employing a mixed approach to identify the common perspectives of farmers. This analysis can be used by policy makers as a new survey tool to make stakeholder consultations more effective, as the 3 approaches may help to enrich the discourse on PF. The results provide new perspectives to promote responsible policies to support the effectiveness of PF.

中文翻译：

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精准农业：意大利农民的真实想法是什么？Q方法的应用

语境

精准农业 (PF) 是一个现在在全球农业系统中广泛使用的术语。从其严格的技术内涵（使用信息技术支持决策过程的农场管理策略）到垫脚石以及采用相关工具的复杂场景中涉及的因素的剖析，它从多个方面进行了研究。从“在我看来，精准农业是…… ”这句话开始，本工作探讨了农业企业家在概念化 PF 方面的观点。一些研究人员强调了自我领域在采用中的作用，但很少有人努力更好地理解农民的观念在形成他们对创新工具的思考中所起的作用。

客观的

这项工作旨在深化自我领域，特别是农民在面对创新采用选择时的感知所起的作用。该研究提出了一个新的概念框架，确定了分析收养过程的关键阶段，重点关注行为、结构维度和收养之间的关系，从农民的角度进行解释。

方法

Q 方法 (QM) 与 23 名农民的目标样本一起使用，以确定流行的话语。第一步，通过描述性分析分析社会结构维度，第二步，通过质心程序通过互相关矩阵提取话语，使用最大方差旋转转换解。

结果和结论

本文强调，当面临创新挑战时，QM 是一种探索和研究农民态度的适当技术。结果揭示了总结三个宏观视角的话语：“主动方法”，代表农民认为PF对农业企业具有关键作用；“保守的方法”，这是那些不信任创新的人的特征；和“怀疑的方法”，这是更怀疑的愿景。

意义

这项研究证明了超越简单的定量研究的重要性，这些研究有条不紊地分析收养过程，并通过采用混合方法来确定农民的共同观点来克服定性研究的限制。这种分析可以被政策制定者用作一种新的调查工具，以使利益相关者协商更有效，因为这 3 种方法可能有助于丰富关于 PF 的讨论。结果为促进负责任的政策以支持 PF 的有效性提供了新的视角。