The aim of Work Package 3 (WP3) is to identify how Digital Advisory Tools and Services (DATS) have become an effective and embedded extension tool in the farmer/advisor professional interface.
Previous WPs are dedicated to the DATS PNF (Permanent Networking Facility; DATS inventory) and the Good Practices collection. The DATS inventory has demonstrated the huge diversity of applications available today to help and support farmer’s activities. Digital tools using innovation such as GPS guidance or herd monitoring sensors are designed to enhance farmer’s life and to optimise everyday farming practices. Data from such tools provide farmers and advisors with useful and more accurate measurements which are able to provide constant evaluation and benchmarking of activities while delivering efficiency metrics.
However, several studies from European countries and various sectors have identified the digital divide that slows down the implementation of DATS usage and impairs access. This deliverable focuses on the different factors that can affect or improve the engagement of novel digital technologies by farmers and advisors especially in the interface between the advisor and farmer. This includes knowledge exchange, cooperation and mutual influence.
D3.1 is a scoping exercise. Whilst farmer engagement with digital tools has been widely researched the same cannot be said about research concerning advisors engagement with DATS. Nevertheless, there has been increased focus in the advisory field recently and this trend is expected to continue, and hopefully intensify, over the lifetime of the FAIRshare project. This document will consequently remain open in an effort to capture relevant content as the project progresses.
Click here to read more!