Drivers for robot use in field crop farming: farmers’ perspectives from four case areas in Europe

Abstract

Due to increasing challenges of labour scarcity and cost, autonomous field machines have recently gained attention and some application in agriculture. Field crop robots are considered to address economic, environmental and social sustainability. Based on a survey of farmers from four case areas in Europe, this study identifies major drivers of demand for robotic solutions from farmers’ point of view. The main drivers are found to be: to save labour cost, intention to reduce soil compaction and improve efficiency in input use. Expectations about likely impact of robots (e.g. to reduce amount of chemical input use including fuel and pesticide, increase worker safety, profit, etc.) could also be important drivers of interest in robotic applications. Therefore, labour-saving, lighter, and affordable robots need to be made available and accessible to farmers. Further study on the relative importance of the identified drivers, possibly disaggregated by operation type, crop and other geographical factors is needed.