THE ATTITUDE OF AGRONOMISTS AND FAMILY FARMERS ON THE USE OF SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES IN AGRICULTURE

• Main Authors: Loncaric, Ruzica, Stapic, Vedran, Bozic, Vinko, Uzelac, Ivona, Relatic, Mario, Milkovic, Sanja Jelic, Loncaric, Zdenko
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Agricultural education; Agricultural production; Agricultural technology; Agriculture; Agronomy; Attitudes; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Decision making; Digital agriculture; Digital technology; Digitization; Education; Family farms; Farmers; Farms; Food safety; Gender; Green economy; Literacy; Questionnaires; Rural areas; Social factors; Sociodemographics; Statistical analysis; Surveys; Sustainability
• ISSN: 1849-6903; 1849-6903

The challenges of food safety, green economy, circular bioeconomy and climate change mitigation have become additional challenges of agricultural production. Overcoming the above mentioned challenges inevitably involves technological, technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of agricultural production. At the same time, the integration of technologies into digital agriculture represents a considerable potential for improving the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of agricultural production at the farm and global level. However, due to large differences in the capacities of applying digital technologies between small and medium-sized farmers and large agricultural producers, the scenario of digitalization of agriculture in rural areas is very uncertain and questionable. Services using satellite systems have a special place in the precise and smart agriculture. For stakeholders in Croatia, several different services are available. The possibility of using satellite services, as well as stakeholders' attitudes about them, are expected to be related to the price, the type and amount of data within the service, the type of production, the size of production areas and the IT literacy of service users. Therefore, a survey was conducted on the possibility of using satellite services and technologies in agricultural production in Croatia. The target group of respondents were agronomists and/or owners of family farms, irrespective of age and agricultural education. In the survey, a series of questions determined their opinion on the possibility and willingness to use the services of satellite technologies in agricultural production, with special emphasis on the potential advisory role of agronomists and the reasons for possible non-use of satellite technologies. In total, the answers of 229 respondents were collected, of which 56 are agronomists. The conclusion is that there are great opportunities in increasing the use of satellite services, that stakeholders are interested in education, especially in courses and seminars and advisory education, both with an agronomist and with an internet advisory service. In this, the role of agronomists is very important, but there are significant differences in the views of agronomists and other stakeholders, which should definitely be taken into account when creating a strategy and realizing the digitalization of agriculture.