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The main drivers of the precision farming market around the world are cost optimization and increased yields. It is these two factors that induce farmers to introduce precision farming into their farms and rebuild their work for new technologies. Some of the most used solutions around the world include yield mapping, thrusters and parallel driving, satellite monitoring of crop health, differential seeding and fertilization and plant protection products. Among the countries where precision farming technologies are at their peak, the USA, Argentina, Brazil and some European countries should be highlighted.
A striking fact: today in Brazil there are several colonies in which Russian Old Believers live, who moved to South America for permanent settlement in the last century.
They jealously guard and honor their traditions: to this day they wear the clothes of peasants of the late 19th – early 20th centuries and speak pre-revolutionary Russian. Their main activity is agriculture, the level of which is truly amazing. This is where the old traditions end: all “phasenders” (as they call themselves) use parallel driving, telematics, differentiated application and seeding in the fields. Russia, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, ranks only 15th in the world in terms of the digitalization of agriculture. This article will consider how familiar Russian farmers are with precision farming systems, what factors motivate or hinder the implementation of such systems, and what functions of precision farming are most in demand among Russian farmers.
The Kleffmann Group company conducted a large-scale study throughout Russia (1756 people in total) on the awareness of farmers and their use of integrated solutions for precision farming. As a result of the study, it turned out that only 43% of the respondents have experience in using such solutions (Fig. 1). The rest stated that they had never used such systems in their farms.
For those farmers who answered negatively, an additional question was asked about the limiting factors that stand in the way of introducing new technologies (Fig. 2).
As can be seen from the graph, the main problem of introducing precision farming technologies in Russia, as well as throughout the world, is the problem of investment in innovation.
On the other hand, in the study of the past wave, the Kleffmann Group, in particular, studied the main factors of purchasing new technologies for precision farming. 1163 respondents were interviewed who were users of these solutions (Fig. 3).
As in the limiting factors, the price of the proposed solution leads. After it, farmers pay the most attention to the opportunity to receive high-quality and timely technical support, as well as to an accessible and understandable operation of the product. In large crop farms (more than 40,000 hectares), the price does not matter (only 41% of the surveyed farmers), in the first place is ease of use (69% of the respondents).
