Analysis of expectations and level of awareness of farmers on the application of IoT technologies in agriculture

Abstract

A quantitative assessment of the expectations of farmers regarding the increase in the profitability of production as a result of the introduction of these technologies is given. For this, a survey was conducted of managers and specialists of 47 agricultural organizations in the Middle Urals. According to the results of the survey, it was found that only 6.7% of respondents stated that they received more than 10% of information using digital devices. At the same time, 54.3% of respondents are concerned about the leakage of data on the activities of an organization connected to the Internet when using IoT technologies. The areas of application of IoT technologies, in accordance with the answers of respondents, are related to the use of IoT technologies to control the consumption of resources (water, electricity, fuel, etc.) (23.4% of answers), remote control of machines and equipment (20.6%), forecasting crop yields and animal productivity (14.0%), monitoring conditions on farms (13.1%) and others. The main problems in the application of IoT technologies are the lack of free funds (25.0% of all answers) and the high cost of implementing IoT technologies (17.7%). A significant proportion of respondents (20.2%) indicated a low level of state support, which slows down the pace of implementation of IoT technologies. In general, one can note the low level of awareness of farmers about IoT technologies. The results of the study make it possible to identify barriers and limitations of the use of IoT in agriculture, to outline ways to overcome them.