Identifying obstacles and facilitators of digital Agriculture development in Kermanshah Province:Application of Force Field Analysis

Extended Abstract

1. Introduction

With the forecast of world population growth until 2050, which will reach more than nine billion people, if the food production situation does not worsen, one and a half billion people will suffer from food shortage and hunger. Meanwhile, the number of workers in the agricultural sector is decreasing every year in almost all parts of the world, and since the world's agricultural system relies on a number of non-renewable resources, it is increasingly exposed to various limitations. Therefore, it is necessary to quickly implement strategies to improve production techniques and ways of organizing agricultural systems to increase their flexibility for sustainable agricultural development meanwhile, digital agricultural technologies have been proposed as a way to achieve increased productivity, sustainable agricultural development and reduce food insecurity. Based on this, in the leading research, the barriers and facilitators of digital agriculture development in Kermanshah province have been identified using force field analysis



2. Methodology

The approach of the current research was mixed (qualitative-quantitative) and in terms of Sequential research design, it was exploratory. The research community in the qualitative section of experts and experts in the field of digital agriculture technology in knowledge-based companies and agricultural jihad centers of Kermanshah province were 18 people who were selected in a purposeful and snowball manner. The statistical population of the quantitative part of the research was the experts of the coordination management headquarters of the province in the number of 22 people, according to their number, a complete count was made. Data analysis in the qualitative part was done using two stages of open and central coding, grounded theory using Maxqdawin18 software, which led to the identification of barriers and facilitators of digital agriculture development. In the next step, the identified barriers and facilitators were prepared in the form of a questionnaire and their current status was examined. After completing the questionnaires, the obtained data were coded and described and analyzed based on the force field analysis method using SPSSWin20 and Path makerwin5.5 software.



3. Results

In order to identify the obstacles and facilitators of digital agriculture development, in the first stage, interviews were conducted with 18 experts in Jihad Agriculture Organization and knowledge based companies. The result of this step was the identification of 35 key concepts in the field of obstacles and 21 concepts in the field of facilitators of digital agriculture development. The categories created for the development of digital agriculture include educational, institutional, infrastructural, and managerial factors, and the categories related to the obstacles to the development of digital agriculture include managerial, infrastructural, educational, psychological, institutional, and economic factors. After identifying the barriers and facilitators, in the next step, the current status of each of the related items and factors was examined. In the educational, institutional and managerial factor, the score of facilitators was higher, and in the infrastructure, psychological and economic factor, the score of obstacles was higher. After identifying the facilitators and barriers to the development of digital agriculture and examining the impact of each on the development or non-development of digital agriculture, the next step was to identify effective enforcement measures on the facilitating forces and barriers. By identifying executive actions and their hypothetical actions, the power of obstacles was reduced and the power of facilitators was increased. It is possible to plan based on the proposed executive measures to remove the obstacles

4. Discussion

The result of the first part of the research led to the identification of 35 key concepts in the form of six categories of educational, institutional, infrastructural, managerial, psychological and economic barriers and 21 concepts in the form of four categories of educational, institutional, infrastructural and managerial facilitating factors, In order to weaken the obstacles, executive measures were identified in this field, six important executive measures, namely, the use of the capacity of domestic knowledge-based companies to build and develop cheap and suitable modern digital technologies for small agricultural production units, investment by the government to prepare and produce tools Native digital suitable for Iran's agricultural conditions and their training to farmers, suitable planning for empowering universities and organizations in charge of agricultural education in order to train and improve the digital agriculture literacy of managers, agricultural experts and students, introducing digital technologies, institutionalizing the culture of using them and providing training on how to use them through popular media such as television, development of mechanization of agriculture, improvement of digital agriculture infrastructure such as internet and wireless networks for rural areas and providing practical training and results on the effects of digital technologies on agriculture in order to gain their views on These technologies were identified.

5. Conclusion fourth revolution of agriculture" which is called "digital Agriculture" and in its form is the peak of scientific agriculture, as a solution to the future challenges of agricultural and food systems, a promising means to sustainably strengthen food production, improve resource management and the environment is considered better, in this regard, in different countries such as America, Brazil and even some developing countries, by planning and providing infrastructure, the development and expansion of these technologies has been facilitated, but in Iran, as the results of the research showed in the direction of its development, there are obstacles and facilitators, also the result of the score of obstacles is more than the facilitators and it shows that there are many obstacles in the development of digital agriculture that it is necessary to get more acquainted with the activists of the agricultural sector and farmers by proper planning and removing the existing obstacles. With this technology and its development, it was expanded.



Acknowledgments

This work is based upon research funded by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) under project No, 4024719. Thanks to the efforts of all the responsible and persistent people in the fund, as well as all the friends and loved ones who they assisted the researchers in interviewing and completing the questionnaire. Conflict of Interest The authors declared no conflicts of interest.