Producers' view about digital agriculture: The case of Şanlıurfa province

The most basic need of humanity is food. Ensuring food security is not easy. For this reason, using digital agricultural tools to increase the efficiency of agricultural enterprises is at the forefront to obtain high yields from the land area. The main material of this study is the data obtained from surveys conducted in villages affiliated with the districts of Şanlıurfa province. Within the scope of the research, a survey was conducted with 200 farmers determined by a simple random sampling method for the 2023 production period. The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes and effective factors of producers in Şanlıurfa province regarding digitalization in agricultural production activities. In the research, it was determined that the average age of the operators was 44.7 years, they had 7.41 years of education and 21.71 years of agricultural experience. It was determined that the average household member was 6.51 people and 2.79 people worked in the enterprise. It was determined that a significant portion of the enterprises (94%) were engaged in plant production activities and had an average of 179 da of land. It was determined that the operators were significantly aware of the production activities in advance and that they continued the production activities where the crops were sold quickly and had many buyers. It was found that the presence of agricultural equipment and machinery in a significant portion of the enterprises was not sufficient. It was found that all of the producers used smart mobile phones; they used the internet to a significant extent to follow agricultural news, product prices and weather conditions. It was determined that a significant portion of the producers did not participate in training activities on agricultural production activities and digital agriculture. In the study, the reliability of the 14-item 10-point Likert-type scale regarding the thoughts of the producers on the effective factors on the transition to and use of digital agriculture was measured with Cronbach's Alpha value and it was determined that the scale was reliable with 88.7%. It was determined that the producers were interested in new technologies in agriculture and believed that they could improve the country's agriculture. It was determined that they believed that the use of the said technologies would increase labor, input efficiency, yield and therefore profitability. Producers stated that they could switch to digital agriculture only if the relevant infrastructure and equipment and machinery supply were included in the scope of support. In the research, it was determined that participation in the idea that digital agriculture would not have a place in practice was at the lowest level and that the producers did not experience fear of failure; It has been determined that when the producers lack of knowledge is eliminated, he/she participates in training activities, suitable conditions develop or the adoption process is completed, he/she is open to implementing digital agriculture and new support policy instruments related to digital agriculture should be created.