Smart Farming Machinery Adoption in Community-Based Agricultural Corporations

A Statistical Analysis Based on a questionnaire survey in Fukui and Comparison with Individual-Managed Agricultural Corporations

Abstract

Smart Farming is becoming increasingly significant to sustainable agriculture, attracting academic interest. Numerous studies have explored smart farming, but most did not distinguish between community-based agricultural corporations (CACs) and individual-managed agricultural corporations (IMACs). This study analyzes CACs and IMACs separately, aiming to statistically identify (1) expectations for smart farming, (2) determinants of smart farming adoption, and (3) functions and types of smart farming machinery. In conclusion, (1) IMAC have higher expectations for smart farming in terms of management leading to higher income, while CACs focus on labor savings to sustain the farmland; (2) “successors,” “expectations for labor saving,” “requests for subsidies,” and “income” are significant variables that affect the adoption of smart farming; and (3) IMACs adopt a broader range of smart farming machinery, whereas CACs primarily use smart rice transplanters, favoring the least expensive, user-friendly assist-function models.