Dutch growers show growing interest in precision farming

More than 2,000 Dutch arable farmers took part in a survey about mechanisation and investment plans. More than 50% of the respondents currently use GPS on one or more of their machines. Half of the respondents say they have a GPS system on their tractor, and almost 29% of the respondents use GPS on their sprayer.

Size matters, according to the survey: For farms with 100 hectares or more, 90% say they use GPS. 7% say they plan to invest in GPS in the near future.

Other methods applied

Other precision farming technology applied include automatic disease or pest warning systems (7.3%), satellite maps (5.8%), autonomous farm machinery (3.7%) and drones (1.7%).

Investing in precision agriculture

Growers were also asked about their intentions to invest in precision farming technology in the future. Results show that 2.7% intend to invest in satellite maps, 1.7% in autonomous agricultural machinery, 0.6% in drones and 0.6% in automatic warning systems.

In addition, 4% indicate that they are willing to invest, but currently do not have the resources to do so. 67,3% of all respondents who currently do not use precision farming technology, say they are not interested in investing in agtech.