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The Kleffmann Group, partnered in the UK by Independent Business Resource Limited (IBR-Ltd), asked over 13,000 farmers across Europe about ownership and usage of Smartphone.  “Ten per cent of farmers across Europe said that they owned a Smartphone, but there was significant variation between countries. The countries with the highest ownership of such phones were Spain and Portugal where twice as many farmers (20%) owned a Smartphone. Other countries where this technology was more widely adopted was Slovakia (16% of farmers), Austria (16%), Croatia (15%), Ukraine (15%) and Great Britain (12%). In Germany and Poland 11% of farmers owned a Smartphone. At the other end of the scale in Turkey just 1% of farmers interviewed owned a Smartphone, followed by Belgium (4%), Italy (5%) and Bulgaria (6%),” says Karen Gralla, UK Project manager for the Kleffmann Group.

Karen explains that farmers who owned a Smartphone were also asked if they used its advanced functionality for professional purposes. “A creditable 41% of Smartphone owners in Europe reported that they did use its advanced functionality for their work. The most popular use was weather forecasts (cited by 37% as the main advanced use), followed by e-mails (18%), searching for agricultural information (18%), seeking information on crop protection treatments (9%), price and price comparison (8%), stock market prices (8%) and calendar management (5%).”

Once again there was significant variation between European countries on uptake of advanced functionality of the Smartphone. Great Britain was the top country for using Smartphones more broadly for work purposes, with 62% of farmers saying they did so.

Other countries where farmers used advanced technology provided by their phones were Romania where 61% of farmers used advanced functions, Germany 58% of farmers, Denmark 55% of farmers, Italy 55%, France 54%, Turkey 50%, Bulgaria 48% and Belgium 47%. Countries less inclined to use advanced technology on their phones were Poland where just 16% of phone owners used this technology, Portugal 19% and Slovakia 20%.

British farmers lead the way

Looking at Great Britain, Roger Pratchett of IBR-Ltd reports that, although 12% of GB farmers owned a Smartphone, a much higher percentage (62%) used it in an advanced way. “GB had the highest advanced usage of Smartphones, but was around mid-field in ownership rankings. Other countries had the opposite pattern – Spanish farmers had the highest ownership (20%) but were one of the lowest uptake of advanced use (19% of owners). Italy had low ownership (5%) but 55% of them used the phones in a more advanced way.”

He reports that the survey also asked farmers if they were on any social networking sites and, if a positive response, whether they took part in groups with an agricultural reference. “Asking over 10,000 farmers in Europe, 9% said that they were on a social networking site, with Denmark (15%), Slovakia (14%), Poland (14%), Ukraine (13%) and Croatia (13%) being more involved with social networking than the mean. Uptake of social networking was less popular in the Netherlands, with just 5% of farmers, Serbia (6%), Austria (6%) and Czech Republic (7%).”

“Two in five (20%) European farmers on social networks took part in groups with an agricultural reference. This was more frequent in Slovakia where 58% of farmers using social networks were involved with agricultural-based groups. Ukraine (34% of farmers), Czech Republic, Germany and Portugal (all 33%) took part in agricultural social networks. In Great Britain 20% of farmers used agricultural-based groups, the same level as in Italy and Spain, but in Turkey just 3% of farmers were involved in agricultural groups,” says Roger.

Roger concludes that this survey indicates a positive uptake of new technology by European farmers, but also shows that there is plenty of room for farmers to adopt Smartphones and social networking further and to make these new technologies essential part of their farming business.

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