Open access publications in the SLU publication database

Abstract

In the 1980s the author was responsible for the development and marketing of on-farm computer systems in Sweden. Despite the efforts to use the best available knowledge and technology, the adoption rate was lower than expected. The aim of this review is to explain the slow adoption rate and suggest how computerized management tools should be designed to meet the needs of farmers. Many studies have been made trying to understand this problem, among others by the author. These studies are referred to in this review together with mainly reference to psychological literature. One main explanation of the slow adoption of on-farm computer systems is that computerized management tools produce analytic information, while farmers are using to a great extent intuitive thinking and intuition for decision making. According to one study, even the farmers using analytic thinking, in addition to their intuition, prefer “intuitive” information. Analytic methods have to be used in computerized management tools, of course, but the adoption experience suggests that the output information from on-farm computer systems should be further processed to fit intuitive thinking.