In recent years, the concept of Agriculture 4.0 has emerged as an evolution of precision agriculture (PA) through the diffusion of the Internet of things (IoT). There is a perception that the PA adoption is occurring at a slower pace than expected. Little research has been carried out about Agriculture 4.0, as well as to farmer behavior and operations management. This work explores what drives the adoption of PA in the Agriculture 4.0 context, focusing on farmer behavior and operations management. As a result of a multimethod approach, the factors explaining the PA adoption in the Agriculture 4.0 context and a model of irrigation operations management are proposed. Six simulation scenarios are performed to study the relationships among the factors involved in irrigation planning. Empirical findings contribute to a better understanding of what Agriculture 4.0 is and to expand the possibilities of IoT in the PA domain. This work also contributes to the discussion on Agriculture 4.0, thanks to multidisciplinary research bringing together the different perspectives of PA, IoT and operations management. Moreover, this research highlights the key role of IoT, considering the farmer’s possible choice to adopt several IoT sensing technologies for data collection.

Agriculture is undergoing a profound change related to Agriculture 4.0 development and Precision Agriculture adoption, which is occurring at a slower pace than expected despite the abundant literature on the factors explaining this adoption. This work explores the factors related to agricultural Operations Management, farmer behavior, and the farmer mental model, topics little explored in the literature, by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior. Considering the exploratory nature of this work, an exploratory multi-method is applied, consisting of expert interviews, case studies, and modeling. This study’s contributions are a list of factors that can affect this adoption, which complements previous studies, theoretical propositions on the relationships between these factors and this adoption, and a model of irrigation Operations Management built based on these factors and these propositions. This model provides a theoretical framework to study the identified factors, the relationships between them, the theoretical propositions, and the adoption of Precision Agriculture. Furthermore, the results of case studies allow us to explore the relationships between adoption, educational level, and training. The identified factors and the model contribute to broadening the understanding of Precision Agriculture adoption, adding Operations Management and the farmer mental model to previous studies. A future research agenda is formulated to direct future studies.

Anais do 59º Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Economia, Administração e Sociologia Rural (SOBER) & 6º Encontro Brasileiro de Pesquisadores em Cooperativismo (EBPC) (978-65-5941-281-5) - Proposta De Um Modelo De Simulação Para Análise De Politicas De Difusão Da Agricultura Irrigada De Precisão No Contexto Da Agricultura 4.0