Tag: trust

Increasing scholarly attention is being paid to understanding the roles of different actors involved in digital agriculture. This study contributes to this field of research by exploring farmers’ level of trust in digital agricultural actors. Based on a survey of 203 arable farmers from southern Germany, it investigates how adopters and non-adopters of digital technologies perceive the trustworthiness of different actors. The results suggest that farmers have varying levels of trust in innovation actors providing advice and information. Farmers express relatively more trust in other farmers, the agricultural press, and associations and less trust in research institutions, agricultural authorities, private advisory services, agricultural technology, and downstream actors. Significant differences between adopters and non-adopters are observed across the three types of digital technologies examined in the study (disembodied digital, embodied-knowledge and information-intensive technologies). The study highlights the importance of rethinking the roles and practices of innovation actors in the context of digital agriculture. Greater attention to trust can help to better align information and innovation processes between farmers and other innovation actors in the digital agriculture innovation system, enabling farmers to make informed decisions about adopting digital technologies. The results of this study may be of particular interest to those interested ...

Building on transaction cost economics theoretical framework, we examined the determinants of long-term business relationships between farmers and buyers in the Albanian dairy chain in a context characterised by weak institutions and lack of formal contract. Logistic regression analysis was employed to test the model on primary data collected from a sample of 315 Albanian farmers engaged in the production of sheep and goat milk. The study results support our hypotheses that trust, uncertainty and investment in specific assets are key determinants of long-term relationships. Implications at managerial and policy-making levels are discussed. At a managerial level, dairy owners and managers need to build trust with farmers and mitigate uncertainties as a precondition for long-term relationships. At the policy level, the government subsidy schemes need to be further refined in order to motivate farmers to increase flock size and strengthen vertical relationships in the dairy value chain, the latter being a precondition also to achieve traceability and improve standards.