information on prices of horticultural products, information on yields of ..... âAdoption of computers, internet and accounting software at the glasshouse holdings of ...
Adoption of ICT in Flemish Horticulture Dirk F. Van Lierde1 and Nicole M. Taragola1 1
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Social Sciences Unit, Merelbeke, Belgium
The use of computers and internet on horticultural holdings in Flanders was studied. According to the agricultural census 2006 57% of the horticultural holdings have a personal computer for business purposes, and 54 % of them have internet. There is a positive relation between the use of a PC for business purposes and the business size, there is a negative relation between the use of a PC and the age of the manager. In a survey of 208 horticultural holdings with a farm accountancy it appeared that 83% of this holdings used a PC for business purposes. The PC is most popular for crop registration, administrative work, accountancy, administration business and home banking. Internet is used on 78% of the holdings of the sample. In the inquiry a list of 22 internet applications was proposed to the managers. From the answers it appeared that these applications were not frequently used on the horticultural holdings. The most popular application was home banking, then came info on prices of horticultural products produced on the firm. It was also clear that ecommerce is not yet very popular at horticultural holdings, horticultural growers rarely use this application. The managers that did not use a PC for business purposes were asked which were the limiting factors for the use of a computer. The most important reasons for not using a PC were a lack of training in using a PC and the inability of the managers to use the PC. Asked for the consequences of not using ICT the managers in the inquiry answered that the most important consequence would be that these holdings would become out of business, the second consequence would be that there would be a loss of efficiency and competitiveness. One can conclude that the use of ICT in Flemish horticulture is not very popular, there is a lack of training and a lack of knowledge. On most of the holdings with a computer the use is rather intensive, but not all the possibilities of internet are used for the moment. Index Terms—Flanders, internet, personal computers, training
I. INTRODUCTION According to the annual agricultural census of 2006, there are only 38% of the agricultural and horticultural holdings that have a computer for business purposes, and 35% with an internet connection [1]. This is much lower than the percentage for the use of computers and internet in households in Belgium. According to the Directory General Statistics Belgium 57% of the households own a computer and 54% have an internet connection [2]. So it was meaningful to analyse the computer use in agriculture, and more in particular in the Flemish horticultural sector. In general horticultural holdings are more innovative and will introduce new techniques earlier than agricultural holdings. More than 95% of the horticultural holdings are located in Flanders, which is the northern part of Belgium. In the first part of the paper the presence of computers in horticultural holdings will be studied. The data in this part are obtained in the annual agricultural census of 2006. In a second part the use of computers will be studied based on the data of an inquiry of 208 Flemish horticultural holdings. Also the use of internet on horticultural holdings will be discussed and this on the basis of the data of the inquiry. Finally the facts of limiting the use of computers and the consequences for horticultural growers not using ICT now and in the future are discussed.
II. METHODOLOGY In the annual agricultural census a number of questions deal with the use of computers, internet and structural data of the agricultural and horticultural holdings. These data were
analysed at the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries research (ILVO) and this for the census of 2006. In order to get more insight in the actual use of computers an internet also a survey was set up at 208 horticultural businesses of the Flemish farm accountancy data network (FADN), of which 64 were specialised in glasshouse vegetables, 31 in vegetables in the open air, 71 in ornamental plants and 42 in fruit production. The sample consists of professional businesses with a dimension of at least 4 Standard Gross Units (S.G.U.). 1 S.G.U. corresponding to a Standard Gross Margin (S.G.M.) of 5.755 Euro [3]. In the FADN the data are transferred to the accountant on paper, which means that the firm manager is not obliged to possess a personal computer for that purpose. An advantage of the FADN is that many data on business characteristics (structural data, economical data,…) and personal characteristics of the firm manager (age, education level) are already available. The firm managers were interviewed during the summer 2005 by means of face-to-face interviews, and a response rate of 100 % was obtained.
III. RESULTS A. The use of computers and internet in the population According to the census of 2006 there are 33.293 agricultural and horticultural holdings in Flanders. 27.679 of them are agricultural holdings and 5.614 are specialised horticultural holdings. For the whole agricultural and horticultural sector there are 38% holdings that have a computer for business purposes, and 35% that have an internet connection. There are only 34% of the agricultural
holdings that have a computer and 31% that have internet. In horticulture the use of internet for business purposes is much higher, 57% of the horticultural holdings have a computer and 54% have an internet connection. This means that the use of computers and internet on horticultural holdings is comparable with the use of computers and internet in Belgian households.
B. The use of computers on the holdings in the sample In the inquiry more detailed questions on the use of personal computers were asked than in the agricultural census. 189 from the 208 horticultural businesses in the sample, or 91 % own a personal computer. Only 173 businesses, or 83% are using this personal computer for business purposes.
The adoption of a computer for business purposes is strongly related to the dimension of the holding. On the basis of their economical dimension, expressed in standard business units (S.G.U.), the horticultural holdings were classified into four groups. At the smallest holdings (< 4 S.G.U.) only 18 % had a computer. This percentage increased to 56 % at the holdings between 4 and 25 S.G.U, 80 % at those between 25 and 50 S.G.U. and 88 % at those larger than 50 S.G.U.. These results are in accordance with the findings of other researchers [4]-[6]. In order to test the association between the adoption of personal computers, internet and e-mail on the one hand and the personal characteristics of the firm manager on the other hand, a χ²test (Pearson and linear-by-linear association) was performed. The Pearson χ² is a measure for the association between variables in a two-way contingency table, while the linear-by-linear association test gives an idea of the linear relation between these variables. A positive significant association was found between the class of dimension and the use of a computer for business purposes (χ²=1169,8; df= 3; p=0,000). The relation between the age of the manager and the use of a computer for business purposes was significantly negative (χ²=229,5; df=3; p=0,000). This result is in agreement with the findings of some other researchers [5], [6], whereas other researchers did not find any negative association with age [4], [7]. The results of the analysis also revealed a statistically significant influence of firm type (χ²=159,8; df=2; p=0,000). At the holdings specialised in fruit production only 43 % has a computer, while at the holdings specialised in vegetable production this percentage increases to 59 %. The percentage of computer owners for business purposes is the highest at the holdings specialised in the production of ornamental plants, where it increases to 66 %.
Analysis of the data of the census of May 15th 2005 reveals that less holdings are using a computer (and internet) than in the survey. The percentage amounts to only 53 %, compared to 83 % in the sample. On the other hand, the analysis reveals that the availability of a computer is also determined by the dimension of the business and the age of the firm manager. Characteristic for the holdings in the survey is their professional character (dimension of at least 4 SGU) and the fact that they are keeping an account. In the population there are 3.538 holdings, which are meeting these conditions. 2.677 of these holdings, or 76 % possess a personal computer for business purposes. This percentage is close to the 83 % observed in the survey. From the 2.677 holdings with a computer, 93 % are having an internet connection, which is very close to the percentage found in the survey. One can conclude that the data in the survey give a good image of the sub sample with the same characteristics in the total population of horticultural holdings. It seems plausible that also at the other holdings of the sub population the data in the census are reliable. From this analysis one can conclude that the results of the survey with regard to internet use can be projected to the whole population.
In the census of 2006 no data on the education level of the firm manager were available. For analysing the relation between the education level and the computer use the data of the census 2005 were used. There was a significantly positive (χ²= 407,8; df= 2; p=0,000) relation between the education level and the use of computers for business purposes. This finding confirmed the findings of several researchers [4]-[6]. At 39 % of the businesses where the firm manager has only practical experience a computer is available; this percentage increases to 57 % at the firm managers with only a basic agricultural training and to 70 % at the firm managers with a complete agricultural training.
In order to test the impact of the personal characteristics (age, education level) of the firm manager on ICT adoption, the holdings in the sample were classified into four age groups (
