Short abstract:

We provide first insights into how farmers might integrate weeding robots into their farming practices and identify socio-cultural and material challenges going along with these decision-making processes. The paper puts a focus on changes in habits evoked by the novel weeding technology.

Long abstract:

This contribution zooms in on farmer´s practices and, in particular, their potential adoption of a weeding robot. The robot, called Uckerbot, is developed explicitly as a response to current challenges of weed control in (organic) sugar beet cultivation in north-eastern Germany (Steinherr et al., 2023). However, the question remains whether and in how far farmers will decide to use the robot.

We argue that the adoption of technological innovation always requires parallel social or organizational change, as actors may need new competencies and strategies to integrate the technology into their practices (Rammert, 1998). Specifically, studies of innovation in agriculture are criticized for neglecting how farmers respond to novel technologies, and apply them in practice, potentially forming new habits and adjusting the technology to their needs (Arora and Glover, 2017, p. 1; Higgins et al., 2017).

Accordingly, we focus on farmers’ practices in relation to the potential adoption of the Uckerbot. Drawing on transactional pragmatism, we examine farmers’ current habits and their processes of decision-making regarding the adoption of the weeding robot (privileging) (De Roeck and Van Poeck, 2023; Dewey, 1938; Van Poeck et al., 2020). These include not only the manageability of the new technology, but also the compatibility of new practices of monitoring the robot with other farming habits. For the latter, the business model (sale, rental and support of the robot) plays a crucial role. Our paper provides first insights into the use of robots beyond dairy agriculture that are currently still rare (Spykman et al., 2021).

Literature

Arora, S., Glover, D., 2017. Power in Practice: Insights from Technography and Actor-Network Theory for Agricultural Sustainability (STEPS Working Paper No. 100). STEPS, Brighton.

De Roeck, F., Van Poeck, K., 2023. Agency in action: Towards a transactional approach for analyzing agency in sustainability transitions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 48, 100757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100757

Dewey, J., 1938. Experience and Education. Free Press, New York/ London/ Toronto / Sydney New Delhi.

Higgins, V., Bryant, M., Howell, A., Battersby, J., 2017. Ordering adoption: Materiality, knowledge and farmer engagement with precision agriculture technologies. Journal of Rural Studies 55, 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.08.011

Rammert, W., 1998. Technik und Sozialtheorie. Campus, Frankfurt a.M.

Spykman, O., Gabriel, A., Ptacek, M., Gandorfer, M., 2021. Farmers’ perspectives on field crop robots – Evidence from Bavaria, Germany. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 186, 106176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106176

Steinherr, L., Birkmann, A., Bloch, R., 2023. Roboterschwärme auf dem Feld. Lumbrico 15, 14–18.

Van Poeck, K., Östman, L., Block, T., 2020. Opening up the black box of learning-by-doing in sustainability transitions. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 298–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2018.12.006

Short abstract:

This paper examines the recent policy turn in digital agriculture in South Korea towards an ‘open-field smart farm.’ By contextualizing the ‘imagined’ paths to achieve this turn, this paper highlights tensions embedded in different imaginaries of agriculture, farmers, and rural areas.

Long abstract:

South Korea’s digital agriculture policy has been centered on building and spreading smart-farm facilities since the early 2010s. Recently, it has been expanding beyond greenhouses to transform open-field farming into a digital one. The number of smart farms and best practices seems like a blessing on the path forward. Still, a recent feasibility study on a large-scale national R&D project aimed at ‘open-field smart farms’ received overwhelming opposition concerning its policy and economic feasibility. The critical point was that its goals and strategies failed to align with the real issues of farmers and rural areas.

To understand this discrepancy and provide a reflexive understanding of digital agriculture policy, this paper aims to contextualize the ‘imagined’ paths to achieve digital transformation in agriculture. Through critically analyzing policy documents, best practices, and interviews, I examine how the current policy issues and strategies have emerged, interpreted, and represented and what alternatives have been excluded. In particular, the government-led ‘Smart Agriculture AI Competition,’ ‘Best Practices,’ and ‘Pilot Projects’ show multiple paths to digital transformation and mobilize different imaginaries of agriculture, farmers, and rural areas. Compared with the lived experience of farmers, farm consultants, and officers at the Data Center for Soy Smart Farm, this paper highlights the untold imaginaries of sustainability, organic, and rural communities.

This paper argues that the digital transformation of agriculture cannot be realized through replicating Best Practices but requires a complex set of additional conditions and the crystallization of contending imaginaries surrounding it.

Short abstract:

In aquaculture platforms, data becomes key in connecting a variety of farming practices, from growing to selling fish. While data objects steer practices in a particular direction, fish farmers also calibrate the technologies to their own situation and benefit from collective digital representation

Long abstract:

Digital platforms are seen as promising tools to empower smallholder farmers and improve the sustainability of their production practices. However, realizing this promise will depend on the ways in which platforms get integrated into, reconfigure, and steer smallholder farming practices. In this paper we analyse the case of a digital platform for small-scale aquaculture in Indonesia. We build on social practice theory to understand the platformisation of fish farming practices as a process in which data becomes the key organising object in connecting a variety of farming practices. Through interviews with fish farmers, input suppliers and buyers, as well as the platform providers and user interface developers we trace how fish farmers get enrolled in the platform ecosystem. We show that with the introduction of an automated, internet-connected feeder machine at the pond, fish farming practices become datafied. The resulting data object of a ‘feed conversion rate’ then starts to prefigure other practices of the fish farmers, such as buying inputs, getting access to finance, harvesting, and selling the fish. Next, aggregation these datafied farming practices at the platform provider’s regional hubs and head quarter enables new forms of steering (sustainable) markets. Instead of a platform logic being imposed on small-scale producers, we show that platformisation requires various forms of work from both platform users and providers. While the data objects steer practices in the direction of economic efficiency, fish farmers can also calibrate the technologies to their own situation and needs and benefit from collective digital representation.

Short abstract:

This paper explores DigitAg's role in enhancing digital agriculture for small-scale farming through interdisciplinary research. It discusses the challenges and successes in creating accessible technologies, fostering collaboration across disciplines, and co-creating knowledge with partners.

Long abstract:

In this paper, using DigitAg as a case study, we explore the opportunities and challenges associated with interdisciplinary research on the creation of knowledge and technologies for niche, small-scale agriculture, thereby enhancing their adoptability by farmers.

DigitAg is one of the Convergence Institutes, supported by the French National Research Agency to tackle major societal challenges by creating a critical mass through a multidisciplinary network across public and private partners. Founded in 2016 with a lifespan of 8 years, DigitAg's objective is to establish the scientific foundations necessary for the harmonious deployment of digital agriculture. The project stands out for its emphasis on interdisciplinarity and low-cost technologies for small-scale exploitation. To achieve this, it brings together more than 570 experts from agronomic sciences, engineering sciences, and social and management sciences and has produced approximately 70 interdisciplinary PhD theses, in addition to research collaboration and two Flagship projects.

Against this backdrop, we explore how DigitAg's imperative of interdisciplinarity has unfolded through research collaboration and technological developments at the practical level. With its emphasis on interdisciplinarity, DigitAg has made efforts to enable the co-creation of knowledge, which includes industrial and agricultural partners. How has this endeavor, both interdisciplinary and intersectoral, occurred during the formulation of new research questions and the conception of technologies? What specific challenges have emerged in initiating conversations between diverging actors? We discuss these questions based on interviews with project members and direct observations.