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30% OF LARGEST FARMERS IN U.S. HAVE POOR OR NO INTERNET
Nov. 7, 2022
by Chuck Abbot, Successful Farming magazine
A sizable portion of America's largest farmers "are unable to take advantage of many applications and services" on the internet because they don't have a connection or it is of poor quality, said a Purdue University survey released on Tuesday. The gap in access exists at the same time the sector is embracing precision agriculture technology such as GPS guidance of tractors and combines.
Twelve percent of farmers surveyed for the monthly Ag Economy Barometer said they had no internet access and 16% reported a poor-quality connection. The survey is directed at the top tier of U.S. agriculture-farmers and ranchers with production worth at least $500,000 a year.
The infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last fall included $65 billion to improve internet services for rural areas, low-income families and tribal communities. Most of the money would be distributed in grants to states. The White House says the USDA will issue a funding opportunity notice this year for nearly $2 billion through its ReConnect program for deployment of rural high-speed internet.
"Just three out of ten respondents said they had 'high quality' internet access followed by 41% who chose 'moderate quality,' wrote Purdue economists James Mintert and Michael Langemeier, who oversee the barometer.
"Twelve percent of respondents said they did not have internet access at all with another 16% choosing 'poor quality,' suggesting that nearly three out of 10 farms in the February survey are unable to take advantage of many applications and services which require reasonable quality internet access."
Half of the farmers in the biggest corn, soybean and wheat states and a quarter of farmers nationwide have embraced precision agriculture, said a USDA report on farm computer usage last summer. "This would include the use of global positioning (GPS) guidance systems, GPS yield monitoring and soil mapping, variable rate input applications, use of drones for scouting fields or monitoring livestock, electronic tagging, precision feeding, robotic milking, etc."
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