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Economic analysis of precision farming technologies in Switzerland
This thesis addresses the drivers of profitability of precision farming technologies in small-scale Swiss agricultural systems. The thesis bridges between technological and agronomic foundations of precision farming and economic analysis.
Keywords: Precision farming
Agriculture is the most important form of land use in the world and will remain so in the future. Meeting the increasing global food demand while minimizing environmental impacts will be a major challenge. The application of precision farming technologies and the related association of information have the potential to revolutionize agriculture and contribute to a sustainable development of agriculture (Walter et al., 2017). Although, precision farming technologies have been available on the market since the early 1990s, their adoption rates are lower than expected (Finger et al., 2019). For more complex but highly promising technologies, like variable rate inputs application, adoption is lowest.
The adoption of new technologies like precision farming requires that farmers expect utility gains from this adoption. Thus, increasing profitability, reducing risks and freeing labor resources are among the main motivations for farmers to adopt. Therefore, understanding the determinants of economic benefits is a key challenge in promoting new technologies and developing appropriate policies. The aim of this work is to identify different precision farming technologies suitable for the Swiss agricultural system and then to evaluate their potential by conducting an economic analysis (e.g. investment analysis, break even analysis (Godwin et al. 2003; Gandonou et al. 2001)).
This thesis is co-supervised by the Crop Science Group that provides backgrounds on technologies, agronomic details as well as possibly data. Pitfalls and limitations of existing technologies will be discussed.
References
Gandonou, J, Carl R Dillon, Timothy S Stombaugh, and Scott A Shearer. 2001. "Precision agriculture: A break-even acreage analysis." In Southern Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA) meeting, Fort Worth, Texas, 627.
Finger, R., Swinton, S., El Benni, N., Walter, A. (2019). Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and the Environment. Annual Review of Resource Economics. In Press
Godwin, RJ, TE Richards, GA Wood, JP Welsh, and SM Knight. 2003. 'An economic analysis of the potential for precision farming in UK cereal production', Biosystems Engineering, 84: 533-45.
Walter, A., Finger, R., Huber, R., Buchmann, N. (2017). Smart farming is key to developing sustainable agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114 (24) 6148-6150
Agriculture is the most important form of land use in the world and will remain so in the future. Meeting the increasing global food demand while minimizing environmental impacts will be a major challenge. The application of precision farming technologies and the related association of information have the potential to revolutionize agriculture and contribute to a sustainable development of agriculture (Walter et al., 2017). Although, precision farming technologies have been available on the market since the early 1990s, their adoption rates are lower than expected (Finger et al., 2019). For more complex but highly promising technologies, like variable rate inputs application, adoption is lowest. The adoption of new technologies like precision farming requires that farmers expect utility gains from this adoption. Thus, increasing profitability, reducing risks and freeing labor resources are among the main motivations for farmers to adopt. Therefore, understanding the determinants of economic benefits is a key challenge in promoting new technologies and developing appropriate policies. The aim of this work is to identify different precision farming technologies suitable for the Swiss agricultural system and then to evaluate their potential by conducting an economic analysis (e.g. investment analysis, break even analysis (Godwin et al. 2003; Gandonou et al. 2001)). This thesis is co-supervised by the Crop Science Group that provides backgrounds on technologies, agronomic details as well as possibly data. Pitfalls and limitations of existing technologies will be discussed.
References
Gandonou, J, Carl R Dillon, Timothy S Stombaugh, and Scott A Shearer. 2001. "Precision agriculture: A break-even acreage analysis." In Southern Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA) meeting, Fort Worth, Texas, 627.
Finger, R., Swinton, S., El Benni, N., Walter, A. (2019). Precision Farming at the Nexus of Agricultural Production and the Environment. Annual Review of Resource Economics. In Press
Godwin, RJ, TE Richards, GA Wood, JP Welsh, and SM Knight. 2003. 'An economic analysis of the potential for precision farming in UK cereal production', Biosystems Engineering, 84: 533-45.
Walter, A., Finger, R., Huber, R., Buchmann, N. (2017). Smart farming is key to developing sustainable agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114 (24) 6148-6150
Identification of different precision farming technologies suitable for the Swiss agricultural system and evaluation of their potential through an economic analysis (e.g. investment analysis, break-even analysis).
Identification of different precision farming technologies suitable for the Swiss agricultural system and evaluation of their potential through an economic analysis (e.g. investment analysis, break-even analysis).
Robert Finger: rofinger@ethz.ch
Karin Späti: kspaeti@ethz.ch
Robert Finger: rofinger@ethz.ch Karin Späti: kspaeti@ethz.ch